Low: Classic or classic?

are the "Lullaby" and "Cut" demos from the boxset taken from that demo tape?

Box set liner notes confirm that, yes.

From the liner notes:

-lullaby (demo) – Mimi’s first song
-cut (demo) – This song was possibly the first song we wrote. These first 2 demos were recorded in our apartment by a friend with a 4-track cassette machine after our first show in Duluth. We sent out a half dozen copies to some indie labels, got a nice note from Dischord, and an invitation to record with Kramer…

thanks! I can definitely imagine just being floored by these recordings.

For some reason, the album version of "Lullaby" is really popular in Turkey. Like, 15 million (yes, million) views on YouTube popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaSVkb_XLt4
Read the comments...half of them are in Turkish.

its their biggest song on spotify too

always been in my top 3 Low songs

I figured it must be a soundtrack appearance? but I don't see any placements for "Lullaby" on Tunefind or anything more recent than an obscure 1998 movie on IMDb. They have had more TV appearances than I'd expected, though.

https://www.tunefind.com/artist/low

i had assumed it mustve been on a soundtrack too.
Its as big a mystery as that Dinosaur Jr track that exploded

Maybe it's some fluke of the Youtube algorithm? I don't know if it gives different recommendations by country.

Also people (parents?) probably just search “lullaby” and streaming / video services count plays even if you don’t listen to the whole song.

but.....why Turkey?!

Simon you should ask them.

tried to put some of those Turkish comments through google translate and it's like this track has become some sort of anthem for the depressed/suicidal somehow (with a bit of 4llah sprinkled in amongst them as well)

found no clues as to how/why Turkey though

probably similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luM6oeCM7Yw

view count: 77 million

damn there's like a whole suicidal ideation support group formed in the comments on that one

Very excited to see the show in SF tomorrow

well that was something else

xpost, yeah, it was something else. awesome ambient noise & light show. crystalline vocals from mimi and beautiful harmonies as usual. and yet, i didn't love it as much as some of their other shows. it was a difficult list which may have been the point.

yeah almost everything from the last two albums and the state set up definitely put them at a remove from the audience where previously I've found Low shows to feel quite intimate. It got really late and we had to jet before the encore, to my dismay I'm guessing they did Over the Ocean and Sunflowers? No Murderer which is my favorite Low song of all time. But it was still pretty great. If you'd told me 20 years ago that Low would have a midset freakout that rivaled You Made Me Realize I'd have looked at you askance.

OTM. The show here back-when was more ... theatrical than I'd come to expect from them. OK, maybe not theatrical, maybe more transcendent? Something more ineffable, but that may just be projection on my part. I always liked that they were the sort of band to just casually walk on stage, set up their own stuff, plug in and start playing, like a punk band. Not that this was that different, and in fact Alan's banter (as such) was as chill and funny and approachable as ever. But watching them fill a packed gorgeous cathedral with perfect oppressively gorgeous and at times ugly sound was something else.

relistening to Double Negative today and I just need to say: ILM otm

ILM not wrong

afaik I've never listened to a Low song in my life before today but decided to try Double Negative since it won the yearly poll here. holy shit is it good. need to make my second listen a proper one, feel like there's so much detail in these tracks

If you like this one there is lots of Low you'll likely also like, though no other Low is quite like this.

heh, yeah i had a similar post in the works

Low: Recommended if you like: Low

they're a fun band to get into at this stage, i imagine, because they've been consistently good and their catalog is large

Actually, the number of albums they have was sort of preventing me from even starting, but after hearing this, I'll definitely dive into more

idk that I'd ever describe getting into Low as "fun" but there's really no bad points of entry, other than The Invisible Way (and even that one has some gems)

It''s a good question, though. If you are a fan of the most recent album, which is probably their most challenging album, which album do you go to next? Ones and Sixes? Drums and Guns? Things We Lost in the Fire?

D&G seems the most logical to me. I consider O&S mostly just a lesser, dry run for Double Negative now

I'll try Drums and Guns next, but I think I'll want to listen to Double Negative many more times first!

no ones and sixes is almost equally amazing!!!

It has some great songs but some filler too ("Kid in the Corner")

Considering Double Negative is a fairly big departure for the group, I recommend you go to "Things We Lost in the Fire" next - one of the best versions of more typical Low. Just prepare yourself that it's not going to be all distorted and fragmented the way DN is. But assuming you dig that too, then you know you can move freely about their discography and let them surprise you. They have albums that are softer, and albums that are edgier.

I think if your departure point is the new album and you dig into their discography in search of something similar, you're setting yourself up for disappointment--which would be very sad because there are very few disappointing moments in their 25 years' worth of albums! But even a more anxious/dark album like Drums & Guns is not like Double Negative.

Yeah I definitely want to check out Things We Lost, I know everyone loves that one. The distorted production on DN is definitely part of what's appealing to me, but I think the way the sounds are applied, the song construction, is also quite unique, so I'm interested to hear whatever people like from this band (which sounds like most of their work)

There's very, very little from this band that isn't that great, and what little there is that isn't that great is only not that great compared to all their great stuff. Which is most of it. I mean, honestly, you can probably start with the first album and see what you think, since I can't imagine someone disliking that album but liking the rest.

amazing how their sound went from minimalist to maximalist up to The Great Destroyer, and then expanded in other directions from there

Silver Rider is one of my favorite tracks of theirs

Longtime fan of Low, also a huge fan of the new record. My ranking of their records certainly finds one era of theirs at the bottom (don't have much use for TIW, Cmon, or TGD, though love D&G), but I love tracks from each other those records, too. Low are easily my favorite "band" of all time.

Re: records that folks new to them should check out if they like DN, I actually think that 'Trust' is the record from another era that is most similar to DN in terms of feel, its brilliant mixture of minimalism and threateningly ominous production (claustrophobic, almost) really making it and D&G the obvious predecessors to Double Negative.

The show in late November that I went to was pretty good, but nothing beats my first Low concert:

it was my 18th birthday and I saw them support 'Trust' (which might explain why it is my 2nd favorite Low record) in the basement of Oberlin College's student union. At one point, Alan asked the audience not to yell out curse words because their kids were with them on tour.

Mark Eitzel opened, supporting 'The Invisible Man.'

Both put on an incredible show, but I still can remember Alan and Mimi harmonizing on 'Sunflower' and just losing it. No 'popular' music had ever made me cry up until then.

They have so many great great covers, but I think about this one a lot, given how far it departs from the original, but also because of that nice warm drone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FHBxseoXvc

that sounds amazing

xp

xp. It really was. Eitzel was also in top form that night. He did a very wild acoustic guitar version of "The Boy With The Hammer in the Paper Bag" that was like 8 or 9 minutes long? Really great.

There aren't any bad Low records, really - some stand as front-to-back complete works that are genuinely hard to pick apart (Double Negative, Things We Lost in the Fire, Trust), and those (Invisible Way, Ones & Sixes, Secret Name) with some highs and some less-than-highs. The band seem to have a self-awareness of this too which makes their concerts never fail to deliver.

I always felt Invisible Way got its reputation unfairly at the time from not pushing too many boundaries - return to more often than I do C'mon.

Agree that IW is maybe too maligned but I really love C’mon.

If you listen to Drums & Guns, then watch the documentary, then listen to C’mon... the documentary is so raw and you see Alan at such a low point. In the wake of that, I feel like C’mon is this beautiful attempt to return to the light. Mimi’s songs are so strong, Alan’s still raw but more hopeful.

huh I've always considered Secret Name one of their classics

Throw a dart, really.