Lou Barlow is a prodigious songwriter, and has had many previous successful albums. Emoh is his first 'real' solo album. He blends indie-rock/folk-pop with a melodious voice and gentle acoustic guitar-work to create a comfortable album - not necessarily one to rock the charts, but quite capable of doing so.

The lyrics are not particularly insightful, or cynical, yet are reminiscent of early Simon & Garfunkel. The college-rock crowd should be quite enthused, and find resonance with the themes expressed. His twenty-year career has won him many admirers, from rock to pop fans. His frankness makes one almost believe this is a very personal album, like the Fleetwood Mac ones.

The album title itself, while evidently a reversal of 'Home' is more accurately a pun on the musical genre known colloquially as 'emo'. Practioners abound, none more skilled than Lou Barlow. Lou finds it ironic that this album was released in the US on the same day as the new Bright Eyes' albums. He considers Conor Oberst "the new poster boy of emo, let's say. He is so popular it drives my wife crazy."

"Holding Back The Year" blends a fear of old age, 'Kitten grown to cat and no more fight/How'd we ever stay together love...' to a wish that one could hold back time 'The year before the poison took its toll/Made you paper thin, me wrinkled old'. The guitar is delicate, with a few unexpected, pleasantly differently pitched chords.

"Home" is at one level about the uncertainty and indecision of young love, wondering if "I'm not strong/You don't believe/I may be wrong/That I can never bring you home". At another level, it reminds one of the conflict between pure love and sexual desire, as the John Boyle O'Reilly poem "The White Rose" has it,

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
Oh, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rose-bud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on its lips