Ensemble feat. Lou Barlow

Olivier Alary — a.k.a. Ensemble — cobbles a Rotoscoping four-poster bed for lover-boy schlub Lou to project from, all digitized trap-door clicks and shifts, acoustic guitar, creamy keyboards, and imaginary string sections shuddering into a thrilling crescendo. Barlow is usually on such unimpeachable solid ground in folksy-confessional and angry electric-rock modes that this collaboration really has no right to work as well as it does. Forget about resurrecting Dinosaur Jr., the Folk Implosion, or Sebadoh: Barlow's ideal indie-rawk elder-statesman career path is, suddenly, blindingly clear. — Ray Cummings