Do You Know How to POLLtz?: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low

I am the poll and I'm a dead man

Submitted. That was painful.

Their live show in Eindhoven from 2009 is stunning. They recorded it a cathedral with a small chorus + a couple extra musicians.
A full version of the show used to be out there. Now it seems only a few songs are available via a free EP they released in 2010. Anyway well worth seeking out.

Did a little digging into the few post-'A Lifetime of Temporary Hope' rarities that I didn't already know.

The jewel (along with the Japan-only 'Double Negative' track "It's All Been Done") seems to be "Not A Word," from a 2016 split 10". Very much verging on the 'Double Negative' sound and approach, pushing forward a lot from 'Ones & Sixes'. Worth seeking out. Don't know if it would make my top 30, but another piece of the puzzle for their immense creative resurgence over the last few years.

https://www.discogs.com/release/8393991-Low--S-Carey-Not-A-Word-I-Wont-Let-You-Fall

the story behind that split is low & s. carey both had an unfinished track each & bj burton brought them together to collaborate on finishing both of them for the split. it's pretty good

"Not A Word" is streamable here:

https://soundcloud.com/b-sse-265281877/sets/low-s-carey

Realise now I've left off Half-Light.

Finding I'm quite comfortable with my Albums list, but could probably keep rearranging +/- 75 tracks into a top 30 Tracks list endlessly...

So going to give up and send in the list tonight.

corrections/changes to ballots are easy to make if you want to

Is it giving too much away / vote tampering to discuss our ballots in terms of number of tracks per release, without giving away our albums or tracks lists?

If it's not too difficult then can I put Half Light in below Don't Understand and shift everything else down 1?

If it's a pain then I'm fine with it.

Is "Landslide" (Ones & Sixes) just a faster version of "Don't Understand" (Things We Lost in the Fire)?

I've just sent in my poll
I whittled my list down from 122 favourites and it got harder with every cut!

Nabozo, it's just clear to me that you and I have completely opposite sensibilities when it comes to this band, and admittedly, I feel protective of the early records because they've meant a lot to me over the years. I encourage you to listen to them more carefully and maybe one day you'll recognize why Secret Name or Trust are as powerful as Double Negative, if not more so

it's hard to know how an album or its songs will stand the test of time; turns out in Low's case ... pretty well!…
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, November 14, 2021

I liked that they had moved on, but didn’t really enjoy Ones and Sixes when it came out, I thought it was a not altogether successful foray into an electronic sound and it initially felt slightly impoverished to me like Drums and Guns did earlier

Now hearing it again after the two recent albums I can see where it was coming from and it sounds subtle and really good. The individual songs don’t necessarily stand out (except Landslide) and it is lighter than those, but in retrospect it is mysterious and self-effacing and is unlike anything else they’ve done

the adjustment in textural focuses between tracks is painstakingly tuned on o&s, and the songs feel like they're written to emphasize that? which helps make it feel bigger-than-the-sum, regardless of opinion about the individual songs
― ri, Friday, November 5, 2021 

makes complete sense to me

Deadline is technically up, can I still sneak mine in?

it's been extended for another week I think (at least I hope)

I actually think the songwriting on Ones and Sixes is really strong for the most part?

"No Comprende" in particular has some of my favourite Low lyrics, and the interplay of Alan and Mimi's vocals here is some of the most thoughtful of any song of theirs - in particular how Mimi clearly plays the part of the "you" in Alan's lyrics, such that almost paradoxically a song about a failure of communication becomes a dialogue (it's like a highly abstracted version of Taylor Swift and Justin Vernon's "Exile").

Relatedly, the shift from the first half to the second half of "Gentle" - it feels both inevitable and like a totally different song.

yes it's been extended for a week, plenty of time still

xpost Ones & Sixes, I first encountered Congregation as soundtrack to a brutal fight scene in Devs. I ended up listening to it on repeat and ultimately put it fairly high on my ballot.

No Comprende is a force

you can't just throw it in the trailer
you've got to stack so it's stable
got to wind up all the cables

and
You say it out loud
Our house is on fire
You better get out now

like a lot of their other songs, not sure what it means but it is very intriguing and the music is memorable

there's a little bit of a spaghetti western quality about some of their music

xpost Ones & Sixes, I first encountered Congregation as soundtrack to a brutal fight scene in Devs

Heh, I watched that episode about a week after I first heard the album. It certainly solidified it as a standout track on that album for me

While we're on the subject of Low songs in TV shows, I thought the show Rectify used "Silver Rider" to beautiful effect, in one of the pivotal moments of that show

did we talk about Robert Plant's cover of Silver Rider? it's ok but not a patch on the Low version. Really misses Mimi's high notes on the la-la-la in the chorus.

he seems to be a huge fan of the great destroyer, he's convered quite a few tracks off it

Now hearing it again after the two recent albums I can see where it was coming from and it sounds subtle and really good. The individual songs don’t necessarily stand out (except Landslide) and it is lighter than those, but in retrospect it is mysterious and self-effacing and is unlike anything else they’ve done

― Dan S, Monday, November 15, 2021 1:12 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

The songs are lighter but intense and captivating and the sound is fuller, so it feels like an emancipation, a balance. The electronic touches add a lot of cold-warm atmosphere, you can imagine landscapes and snow storms, which work excellently as a backdrop to the vulnerability. There is no song that approaches a "definitive Low statement", but each song is both intimate and expansive, and together they feel very comfortable, easy and natural. My #1 is from the album and I have neither Landslide nor What part of me on my ballot and I even reluctantly had to let go of DJ. I don't know if it's their best, but I find it's the album where all the different facets of their sound came together.

Another thing that poll has brought home is what an incredible voice / vocalist Alan is.

yes it's been extended for a week, plenty of time still

Thank you, ufo! You have one ballot that wouldn't have made it with the original deadline incoming, at least.

Really wish we'd gone with 50. I'm at 35 right now. Impossible choices.

Album and covers all done, but tracks are just impossible.

Did we not do 50? Because I did 50.

considering including no tracks from the Low album I’m putting at #1, there are too many songs to whittle down already

could vote for 50 easily

the main count is just going to take ballots of 30 tracks max

i'll tally up a version including the few extended ballots i have received as well, since they're there, but it's not going to be the main results or anything

Is it possible Low is just a band that is too consistently good for so long and (contrary to general assumption) too diverse in sound for a consensus to form?

That would be an interesting result... But I'd guess there will be one, and my tracks reflecting a preference for their darker, stranger, more textural work will probably not make a showing.

I feel like their prettier and rockier sides will probably win out?

some of their prettier songs are also dark and strange though. In their middle albums there are a lot of reference points to drug addiction and overcoming it - Trust definitely but also The Great Destroyer and Ones and Sixes

“When I go deaf” seems like it would be a devastating topic for a musician to write about. Alan says he won’t mind but the music says otherwise.

If I'm not a lion
And I'm not an island
If time is the diamond

Well all right

i'm not sure if the poll was extended, but i'm going to submit tonight regardless. i'm going with 30, even if 50 is better. fewer is better, more hard decisions. poll of one! poll of one! (i don't believe that. no wrong way to vote in this poll, imo)

yes, it was extended until sunday

you can't let me know that! i work on a deadline-motivation scheme!

*fades away in low motion*

i am having a really hard isolating songs from Double Negative and HEY WHAT. i'm doing it, anyway, but it's taken me so much longer to pick a few songs from them, compared to what it was like to listen through all the others leading up to it.

"poor sucker", for example.

what a beautiful piece of music

xp having the exact same issue - they’re both so fresh to me that separating “moments” compared to their previous material is proving difficult.

Double Negative in particular is so wonderfully sequenced, with all the transitions. I don't have a particular love for "Tempest" but it's essential connective tissue between two songs I do love

yeah, both otm!

it's new, and that's harder, but also the flow of it. very hard to isolate certain sections

Tempest is my favorite part of the album! That and “always trying to work it out”

i already predict that i'll have the most average/ilx ballot. i'm sorry i always vote for the most obvious things in all the polls. But 2-step is one of the greatest moments of all time when Mimi enters

There's maybe like 3 Low songs I think of as obvious favorites and beyond that, haven't got a clue. That's why I'm so excited for this poll! I had no idea "2-Step" is a favorite, if indeed it is one (I do also like the moment when Mimi comes in)

i have no idea. low is a weird band to talk about. some of the most <3 intimate moments of my life have had the low soundtrack. just these crazy, early 20s conversations, late 20s, mid 30s, there's always low there at these intense moments, the best and worst. for me, the entirety of 2-step is this thing that happens every single time to some degree, and sometimes and burning degrees