A quasi-legendary figure in American indie-rock, Lou Barlow has released so much, and under multiple aliases (Folk Implosion, Sebadoh, Sentridoh), that there's an inevitable feeling, as Mike Yarwood used to say, of "and this is me" about his rare solo releases. Emoh (it's "home" backwards, of course, but also an ironic nod to the angsty hardcore off-shoot known as "emo") is a polished, perhaps self-consciously mature record.

Barlow happily confesses he wishes he'd had the studio technology now available when he was first making records, but while Emoh is hardly, say, 10cc, it lacks both the lurching DIY energy and emotional intimacy of his more rough and ready recordings. There is something disconcertingly AOR about these songs, which often only just avoid cliche as they tug on the heartstrings. Barlow is capable of grandiloquent melancholy - Emoh, however, is solid, unsurprising, and dangerously close to bland.