Sebadoh - The Freed Man

This reissue maps out Lou Barlow's initial bedroom recordings with Eric Gaffney. Started when Barlow was still playing bass with Dinosaur Jr in the late 80s, he teamed up with Gaffney as he lost confidence in his main band.

An expanded version of the original set, there are 52 tracks here - that's one for every US state, all brimming with lo-fi inventiveness. They're full of weird humour, folky musings and special moments of ambient strangeness, where Barlow and Gaffney edited-in field recordings of other tracks, tv adverts and supermarket happenings. With the longest track standing at a mere 2 minutes and 38 seconds, these short vignettes of young adulthood are at times hilariously twisted. As a result, it's not too difficult to chart the journey to Sebadoh's more celebrated (though their status has always remained as something of a cult) work from here, and then to Beck.

This album, important as one of the first releases of the US lo-fi movement, is a great reminder of times before the internet, when home-mixed tapes and fanzines ruled. It's enough to make you reach for the tape recorder and that battered acoustic. [Chris Bathgate]