By Killian Laher.
After pushing the boundaries of their very defined sound with their last 2 albums, The Great Destroyer and especially Drums and Guns, Low have returned after a 4 year absence. They’ve returned with something of a retreat, stepping back to a more classic ‘Low’ sound.
But this album is far from a disappointment. Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker and co have simply come back with a great collection of songs. Though opening lullaby Try To Sleep is a little Low-by-numbers, the Parker-sung You See Everything has a lazy, summery vibe which sounds almost impossibly beautiful, particularly when the strings glide in.
Sparhawk has been driving a harsher, noisier aesthetic on recent albums, well represented here by Witches, taking the raggedy Neil Young/Crazy Horse guitar style, accompanied by an incongruous banjo. They haven’t forgotten their Mormon roots lyrically, with religious overtones (“you played the part of the one who was taken down by gods”) along with a strange lyric about “all you guys out there trying to act like Al Green”, sung with a snarl.
Sweet duet Done adds slide guitar courtesy of Wilco’s Nels Cline and a snail-paced tempo, though the combination doesn’t quite work. Mimi’s contributions really shine, with a superb vocal on Especially Me over a foreboding electric and some beautiful violin playing while Majesty/Magic is a classic Low growler.
Many of the songs have minimal lyrics, consisting mainly of a phrase or two repeated ad nauseum. It works really well due to this band’s excellent grasp of dynamics, the repeated phrasing as the music rises and falls in intensity becomes kind of hypnotic. Nightingale is lighter in feel but hits equally hard on another level.
Nothing But Heart sees Sparhawk go all Crazy Horse again, with raucous guitar and attitude. The minimalism of the lyrics reaches its zenith here, with the phrase “I’m nothing but heart” repeated for eight minutes, yet it’s utterly addictive thanks to the musicianship. Better use of slide guitar this time, as the track builds into a rock anthem of sorts with a full scale guitar wigout at the end. Final track Something’s Turning Over is completely different, like an acoustic Neil Young track played at a campfire at an ashram.
Far from being a retrograde step, this album may come to represent a long-awaited breakthrough. In a great year for music, this may well be the best thing I’ve heard so far. Heavy words are so lightly thrown.
Track listing:
1. “Try to Sleep”– 4:20
2. “You See Everything”– 4:08
3. “Witches”– 4:03
4. “Done”– 2:55
5. “Especially Me”– 5:29
6. “$20″– 4:12
7. “Majesty/Magic”– 4:14
8. “Nightingale”– 4:59
9. “Nothing But Heart”– 8:12
10. “Something’s Turning Over”– 3:20
