Lou Barlow's career has largely been defined by retreat. Before he left (or was pushed out of) Dinosaur Jr., he was already pursuing lo-fi doodling as a virtue unto itself in the side project Sebadoh. As Sebadoh became more polished, Barlow funneled his more offhand work into Sentridoh and The Folk Implosion. When the latter group became an alt-rock darling, Barlow was cornered anew. The Folk Implosion made a stab at mainstream hitmaking with One Part Lullaby, but it stiffed commercially, and Barlow's collaborators stepped away, irritated that he had abandoned the anyone-can-play spirit of the band. Barlow has now assembled a new version of The Folk Implosion, drafting ex-Sebadoh drummer Russ Pollard and guitarist Imaad Wasif as partners in jamming, if not songwriting. Given Barlow's pattern of behavior, he'd be expected to return to his living-room world of mumbles and tape hiss, but instead, The New Folk Implosion is relatively clean and open. Still, the key word is "relatively." The album's nine tracks are as dominated by minor-key murk as any in the singer-guitarist's catalog–he can't do much about his low, monotonal voice or obsessive self-pity–but while Barlow has been known to take perverse pleasure in half-finished musical sketches, the new record features richly plotted songs that all land between the four- and five-minute mark, and all internally balance wistful balladry, textured soundscaping, and charging hard rock. Barlow fuses the best of the old Folk Implosion and Sebadoh on "Fuse," which begins with the dreamy burble of the former band and ends with the modulated indie-punk of the latter. Most of The New Folk Implosion opens up from mopey folk to electrifying experimentation, as on the breakup confessional "Pearl," where piano, drums, and unidentifiable warbly noises accent the acoustic-guitar picking as the tone grows darker. The album itself stays in one basic "poor me" vein throughout, ending with the striking lamentations "Leaving It Up To Me," "Creature Of Salt," and "Easy," but though the mood is downcast and insular, the willingness to tinker with structure is heartening. For impassioned Barlow fans, The New Folk Implosion's minute forward progress means a lot.