"Natural One"

Folk Implosion
(London, 1995)

Given Lou Barlow's penchant for homebaked melodies, kitchen-sink production, and disinterest in mainstream stardom (this is a guy, after all, who once named a solo EP Losercore), this soundtrack single from Kids, Larry Clark's gritty film about adolescence in the age of AIDS, was a thoroughly unlikely Top 40 smash. It was also unlike anything Barlow or his Folk Implosion (or Sebadoh) had ever released before. Taking style points (consciously or not) from Beck and Luscious Jackson, Barlow and FI collaborator John Davis retro-fitted spy-fi guitars, fatback bass, and cheesy synth burbles onto a ridiculously propulsive hip-hop groove that was all but impossible to ignore. Add to that Barlow's coolly conversational speak-sing rhymes and pop had a new folk-hop hero.

-- Jonathan Perry