Lou Barlow is set to release his new album Reason To Love (Joyful Noise Recordings) set for release on May 28, 2021. Barlow shares the video for the third single “In My Arms,” which quite literally pulls from Barlow’s teen years, utilizing a sample of a recording he made in 1982. The track feels stuffed with burnished layers, Barlow’s dueling guitar solos, and unique strumming patterns threading through the verses. “Lyrically, the song is about rediscovering the initial spark to make music,” he says. “I feel like I was finally able to re-embrace my fundamental inspirations to make music.” There are echoes of the four-track wizardry of Sebadoh III and the Sentridoh years, but lyrically Barlow cracks those layers apart to reflect on his newly layered life.

Of the song and video Lou Barlow offers:

The pandemic has kept me in one spot for the longest duration of my adult life. I’ve been touring every year since I was 19; I’m 54 now and have managed to outrun most of my ‘issues’, my life continually stopping and restarting. Well, no more Rocker, time to face the music! This song is about writing songs and how I’ve, admittedly, lost my way many times. But, in the depths of the quarantine, I came to realize, again, that entertaining myself with sound is my greatest defense against the non-stop chatter in my brain. The guitar that begins the song is a recording from 1982 and one of the first melodies that I captured on a portable cassette recorder. I’ve never forgotten it and took the opportunity of a lengthy stay at home, among my stuff, to exhume and expand it. The video documents how and where I augmented it: two drums on the floor of my attic and the room I record in. I also tried to get some psychedelic in-the-sun guitar shots because everyone keeps telling me the song sounds like the Grateful Dead and how much I look like Jerry Garcia. I have almost no knowledge of either but I’m happy to comply. I’m grateful for the time I had to record this song, finish my LP and hold my loved ones the way that music holds me.