Low: Classic or classic?

i imagine that like a lot of bands, the first one you hear (and play on repeat) is the one that sticks with you the longest. for me, that was Things We Lost in the Fire.

first LP I got and listened to extensively was Long Division, which is fantastic and contains my favorite Low song "Shame", but it was Secret Name that just pwned me and made them one of my very favorite acts

my parents bought me the curtain hits the cast for christmas when i was in high school. it blew my mind but i also found it kinda hard to listen to. what really sealed the deal was hearing the great destroyer when it came out

curtain was my first & still my favorite, it's such a good depression album

i had secret name early on but didn't really get it. saw an all-ages show they did at a tiny comedy club in provo, was electrified. fell in love with things we lost in the fire. lost track of them after that because my bf at the time did not like them. he thought they weren't ex-mormon enough or something. i think he was snooty about them because he had been part of a troupe of folk/indie/psych musicians and coil worshippers from provo who probably thought they were more interesting than low. anyway, now i'm like hey i like this band and they made a bunch of albums since 2001, cool.

my parents bought me the curtain hits the cast for christmas when i was in high school

wow your parents rule

Things We Lost.... was my gateway

they bought it bc it was on my christmas list! i was a hip, pfork-reading kid

I think seeing them live on the Trust tour really sold me on them. It was in a venue that held maybe 150. Their performance of In Metal from TWLITF was especially awe-inspiring. Mimi Parker, eight months pregnant, playing the drums and singing lead on that one: a song about their first child growing up and Mimi wishing she could keep her body in metal because she doesn’t want her to grow anymore...anyway Low is dark and awesome.

For me it was a small show at UC Irvine, about a month before their debut appeared. They were a last minute replacement and it was just a small dimly lit conference room without chairs or tables in mid-December. Aside from one or two people, nobody had ever heard of them or heard anything by them. And in front of forty people, they started playing “Words” and I was sold.

I like all their albums and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. If you want the albums most like this (in relative terms) try ‘Ones and Sixes’ or ‘Drums and Guns’. If you want an album that is more ‘representative’ of their overall approach across their career than probably ‘Things We Lost In the Fire’ or ‘Trust’ .

if you want a bunch of kickass melodies and guitar tones then try the great destroyer

sorry i really love that record even though it's kind of an anomaly (trust sets it up though)

Yeah The Great Destroyer is awesome! But it’s sort of at the far end of one of their aesthetic poles.

If you want an album that is more ‘representative’ of their overall approach across their career than probably ‘Things We Lost In the Fire’ or ‘Trust’ .

― Tim F, Thursday, September 13, 2018 7:34 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i also think c'mon might fit in here

Probably yes, it’s not as happy as it’s made out to be.

i made this mix for a some friends: https://i.imgur.com/AetN9eV.png
but really they're the greatest band on earth so you can't go wrong with anything

lol now i'm relistening to the curtain hits the cast this album breaks my heart

Wish they’d release ICLIH/Long Division/Curtain on proper vinyl and cancel out the Plain Recordings pressings, they’re basically a bootleg label.

I knew and loved the Kranky stuff, they were never as one-dimensional as they were made out to be, but I remember hearing the Great Destroyer and being blown away. That When I Go Deaf/Broadway pairing in particular.

we're gonna have to repoll the albums after the new one has been out a while

lmao, multiple xxxxxp with the brad's parents story (yr parents rule!). that would make a great thread about albums parents bought their children.

ufo, thinking "drums and guns" is a good followup based on this album, but it's the outlier. might recommend "things we lost..." and "the great destroyer" for flavors of the band with glossier production and then go back to "i could live in hope," but that's slightly because i think "lazy" is the greatest low song and gives you an idea of the slowcore label they got tagged with.

I've said it before but I didn't get hooked until Drums & Guns, and don't have much attachment to the earlier records. That and C'Mon are my favorites by a long shot.

If you're really loving 'Double Negative,' then 'Drums & Guns' and the 'Bombscare' EP are the place to go next (which are both in my top four all-time, along with 'Double Negative' and 'Secret Name').

In addition, my favorites are 'Trust,' 'In the Fishtank EP,' 'Curtain Hits the Cast,' 'Things We Lost In the Fire' and 'Long Division'. Honestly, though, the only ones I don't love (and merely like) are 'C'mon,' 'The Great Destroyer,' 'Ones and Sixes,' and 'The Invisible Way'. But there are winners on every album, and the b-sides/rarities box set has tons of winners. Been listening for 22 years, and they've far and away stick with me far more than any other "indie rock" band from my youth.

btw, there are dozens of great and early live recordings on archive.org - 12 minute long versions of Lullaby etc

lol now i'm relistening to the curtain hits the cast this album breaks my heart

The back to back of “mom says” and “coattails” is devastating.

Obviously made clear already in this thread but all of Low’s albums are great though some much better than others. No true duds in the bunch, and probably at least a third of their output is transcendant. That much I think most fans would agree on, though the disagreements come when you try to say which albums fall into which categories.

A good pathway into their discography is by braking it into the eras of the labels they’ve been on.

Vernon Yard years: I Could Live in Hope, Long Division, Transmission EP, Curtain Hits the Cast
These are the years when Kramer was their producer and everything had a beautiful, pristine sheen. Curtain is the the fullest and best realization of their sound in this era; if you like that then you’ll like all of these albums. They are all incredible.

Kranky years: Songs for a Dead Pilot, Secret Name, Things We Lost in the Fire, Trust
The band starts to sand off some of the prettiness. Alan and Mimi both show a little strain or imperfections in their vocals - less reverb, less multitracking. Songs for a Dwad Pilot is positively jarring following the previous albums. Multiple moments on that EP are, for Low, almost alienating (the muffled “Will the Night”, the ten minutes of a strummed chord on “Born by the Wires”. It sets the stage for the next series of albums that sees the band explore a rawer sound, not afraid to get louder, moodier, poppier. They just feel more free to explore what they really want to be. Secret Name is fantastic and that’s followed by Things We Lost in the Fire, which is easily one of their best and definitely the best of the Kranky era. (Obviously there are a lot of Trust fans out there but personally I think it falls off from TWLITF; too many long dirges that feel a little limp to me. It’s one of my least favorites by them.)

Sub Pop era, part 1: Great Destroyer and Drums & Guns
To my ears there is before Drums & Guns, and after Drums & Guns. Great Destroyer is another one that I like but don’t love. It seems a reaction to Trust - much more upbeat and shorter songs. But the overall mood, for me, isn’t there. Definitely has some great songs but a few clunkers too. In any case it doesn’t prepare you for Drums & Guns, which is their nerviest, most agitated album. It feels very connected to the anxiety of the 00s (post 9/11, Iraq war, etc). And it coincides with Alan’s breakdown—watch the documentary from this period. It’s not my favorite Low album but I totally get and appreciate those who feel it’s their best.

Sub Pop era, part 2: everything else
I feel like expectations for Low changed after Drums & Guns, like people did not think they’d ever top that album, and I think as a result a lot of people underrate the Low albums of the last 8 years. But they remain phenomenal. C’mon, in my mind, is like the morning after Drums & Guns. It’s a beautiful record and Mimi in particular has a bunch of stealer moments. The Invisible Way is solid but is probably the most rote Low record. And then Ones & Sixes comes alon and elevates their game again.

Which finally brings us to the new one, which, yeah, is the reason a bunch of people in this thread are wondering about past Low albums because it feels like the band hit on something new while still being “Low”—which is why they have one of the best discographies of any band of the last 25 years.

loving the low love-in

new record is amazing

we're gonna have to repoll the albums after the new one has been out a while

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, 14 September 2018 03:25

They're only a few away on the artists polls, which I know because I'm down to do it.

Because of this album I think it's worth deferring for a few months so it sinks in properly (despite me suggesting it three years ago or something).

Of course now it's come round I'm not actually sure I've got time to run it ...

re "getting into Low" I bought I Could Live In Hope second hand sometime around 99ish having never heard anything by them, liked it OK (esp Words) but wasn't blown away. Then I briefly went out with someone in 2000 who was a big fan and used to play Long Division when I was round hers, I downloaded Things We Lost In The Fire off Audiogalaxy then 2003 got together with my wife who was also a big Low fan and our first proper date was a Low gig in London. We've seen them a few times since then but tbh we kinda lost interest with C'mon. I only v recently listened to the albums after that. Ones and Sixes is really good so I told my wife we need to listen to the new one because everyone is raving about it.

Great post pgwp, thanks.

The Kranky era was when I first discovered them (I think I was led to them by Mogwai/Stuart Braithwaite championing them very heavily in interviews) and Things We Lost In The Fire is probably my long running personal favourite. I remember getting Alan to sign my CD of it after a gig a good few years ago and he was so gracious and lovely about my typically dorky exaltations.

I am a terminal dilettante and so only have a spotty knowledge of their catalogue. I do find a little Low goes a long way but, fwiw, Secret Name is 'the one' for me. I find it devastating. I've seen them live once - at Green Man on a humid, overcast afternoon with a massive storm brewing over the black hills, a storm that never quite arrived. They were mesmerising.

This album kills.

kind of annoyed that the P-fork review leans hard on the "timely" angle

^ kind of inevitable given the band's own rhetoric around the album?

I've been slowly seduced by the singles leading up to this and love the fragmented nature of it. Is there something vaguely unsettling about the 'feed this into the Burton studio and seeing what comes out' narrative (as spun in the P4K review, but they're hardly going to be the only ones)?

Always Trying to Work it Out is fantastic.

wasn't aware of the rhetoric, is there a relevant interview kicking around?

That recent Wire interview is pretty explicit in that regard (anti-Trump despair) - albeit, from memory, I don't know that the link is quite as direct as implied in the P4K review.

The Guardian review (which is a rave 5*****, "album of the year" one) heavily features the timeliness/state of the world angle as well.

At any rate, I'm pleased that it's being so well-received.

When I saw them live in Leeds over the summer Alan made clear his frustrations with the current political situation in the US.

Drums & Guns cycle was similarly “political,” insofar as Low gets political. Both albums do a good job of capturing a certain mental instability as a result of the awfulness perpetrated in the name of the US, without being strident or framed as protest songs.

good album, "tempest" and "always trying to work it out" are amazing; honestly though a lot of the "crazy production" sounds like kid a/amnesiac

if every track were "like spinning plates" sure

Well, anyway, got my ticket their show here in March, that'll do.

a propos of nothing, the only explicit reference to Low in popular music that I know of is still from the song Minneapolis by that dog.

How about getting covered multiple times by Robert Plant!

Not to get all Low-nerdy, but when did Alan switch to tuning (iirc) almost exclusively to open G? I could have sworn that was a thing, and that it affected the direction of his songs.

Listening to Ones and Sixes right now and yeah, don't know why I didn't listen to this one more the first time around!

Hmm, maybe he's been using open g all along? If that's true that's super cool.

I believe so

This felt timely to me more in the sense that the sonic approach felt like a brilliantly contemporary advancement on their characteristic themes and methods. Low have a long-standing interest in noise and quietness (not silence, quietness; more ambiguous, no neat gesture towards the abstract). Pgwp’s breakdown upthread describes those Kranky albums exactly (muffled edges, vocals veering off-harmony, that nagging feeling....). When they turned up the volume on Drums and Guns it had the same effect, still that same sense of straining to hear, voices on the edge of hearing. This album feels like a push forward and and brilliant resolution of that paradox. The way voices are obliterated by absent noises and drums; noise and silence are resolved into one thing. That first harmony you hear on Quorum, where the empty space of that characteristic snare instead gouges hollows out of their voice. Like that air-raid sheet of guitar that blares out over the vocals on Breaker it sets a similar precedent for how noise is now a strategy for effecting that same shellshocked ("giant Xs on yr eyes") shattered sense of their voices as human, vulnerable, receding, only this time the noise is strangely a kind of silence. They sound like they're gasping for air.

this album has REALLY resonated with me.

Their songwriting feels drone-based and minimal and sort of electronic or uncanny even when they're playing acoustic. Which I think is why my partner doesn't connect with them, when I was like "hey, here's an indie song-based band that I like!" and she's like "but they're not, really". And also why this new one doesn't feel like a radical re-invention to me, just another version of Low.