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

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

a lot of that is nostalgia talking too, of course. it's really hard for me to figure out what low songs are "better".

it's crazy, these songs are more proustian than most. i always think of myself as having a bad memory, but in certain songs i can see the room, the shades, the lighting, the door frame, these places i haven't thought of in years. no one likes to talk about the intimacy in some music, the soft warm volume, holding each other for the whole song, listening, open windows, cool breezes. but low is perfect couples music, for the heights of love, and then also, a few years later, for the absence of that, for listening by yourself, for remembering what happened, drinking yourself to sleep again. they smell like fresh sheets and pbr

(i don't expect 2-step to make top 20 but i have no idea)

all of double negative is great but "fly" through to "always trying to work it out" is one of their very best series of tracks

all among their most gorgeous songs with incredible textural work on top

some of the most beautiful distortion on record since loveless

The funny thing about Double Negative for me is that in my head it's this really distorted, shadowy album - which, well, it is is - but then when I play it again I'm always bowled over by all the pretty melodies I've forgotten - "Fly", "Always Up", "Dancing and Fire", "Poor Sucker" etc.

Hey What might be the opposite: in my head it's more tuneful / straightforward than it actually is.

this poll IS TEARING ME APART, LISA!

sorry

but getting ready to wrap up a 30-track ballot and then just flat out improv an albums ranking, totally skip the covers

*ducks, covers*

I AM SORRY LISA!

I’d been aware of Low for years but the first time I’d listen listened to them was pre “Drums and Guns” so none of the OG era VS current is in my line of view.

ballot sent!

*passes out*

My favourite obscurity, maybe my favourite song (although I couldn't bring myself to vote for it) was a song that Low played to my knowledge once, in a mid-afternoon show in a public park in 1999 (Loring Park MPLS) about a kid that's got lice. On the Low List it used to be called either The Lice Song or Be Nice To People With Lice.

I have no idea if anyone else posting these days has even heard it. I managed to get Alan to sing it during downtime in a show in Wolverhampton in 2000.

And now the internet tells me Alan recorded it for a kids album in 2006 so I'm off to find that.

can i have a voting extension? will get my ballot in today

I've gotten down to 34, cutting these last four is going to be so tough... but I think I know what's getting the axe.

but I think I know what's getting the hatchet.

sounds like a low lyric

'Double Negative' is their most album-as-a-singular work, so even though it's among my very favorites, it didn't immediately put as many individual songs in my first cull as others I don't love quite as much.

For their next album, I'm hoping they go toward the ambient and textural even deeper. Like the transitional parts of 'Double Negative,' or "Hey," but with some 'Bombscare'-like components, and string quartet. Maybe no guitar or drums at all--Mimi switches over to vibrophone and electric hammer dulcimer, Alan goes all concertina and harmonium and ondes martenot. Six tracks, each between 7 and 10 minutes.

Finally got it down to 30, last song to make the cut was..."Cut"

or shall i say, GET the cut...

Sent my ballot in.

I couldn't rank tracks, I tried to start and it was too difficult. I *did* rank albums and covers, though.

but I think I know what's getting the hatchet.
― licorice in the front, pizza in the rear (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, November 16, 2021 2:48 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

sounds like a low lyric

― a (waterface), Tuesday, November 16, 2021 3:03 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

is it “hatchet”?

they really figured out to recreate the sound of listening to music on a flight with their shitty headphones, but in a way that plays to their strengths.

Ones and Sixes definitely laying the foundation for the following albums. Makes me think there’s an interesting rework of getting that album into the mold of DN and HW.

I do think that some of the longer, more ambient tracks from earlier albums also indicated a direction that they could have gone in much earlier, but they took a longer path toward it.

btw if anyone hasn't gotten a reply to their ballot then i haven't received it & you should send it again

When is the final deadline pls?

11:59pm US EST on Sunday 22 November is about the absolute latest i can do

rollout will start tuesday morning my time which will be monday afternoon in the us

Thanks again for doing this, UFO. Results will be fascinating.

finally got my ballot sorted out and submitted

so many great lines from Low

“tonight you will be mine, tonight the monkey dies”
“you're facing windows, outside forever”
“she passes through you like a knife”
“and when you have finally submitted to embarrassing capture”
“especially me and probably you”

and many others

sometimes your voice is not enough

One of my favourites is:

"Sometimes there's nothing left to save / That's how you sing 'Amazing Grace'"

A ridiculous amount packed into such a simple couplet, and indicative of the wallop of that song in general (capturing so much with so few lyrics).

Also in "Mom Says" - everything mom says is followed by "but I don't know" except the final line, "Mom says / We ruined her body".

Low are pantheon-level for me when it comes to lyrics doing so much with so little.

agreed, that ended up being the difference maker with my album submissions

I was pressed for time so I compiled by ballot mostly on instinct. About half of my songs ballot are locks, the rest could slip in and out of my top 30 depending on my mood.

I kind of regret not going back and listening to more stuff but I have a feeling I'll be doing plenty of that after the results roll out.

I remember the first few times they played Laser Beam and, knowing the title, everyone was sure the lyric was "freeze me in the carbonite".

Ballot sent :)

Songs ballot made (slightly) easier by a strict limit of two per record, no Christmas music and nothing from my #1 album.

Sent! God, that was difficult. :)

S E N T

Getting hyped for the rollout

Also in "Mom Says" - everything mom says is followed by "but I don't know" except the final line, "Mom says / We ruined her body".

Lyrically, Mom Says is one of my favorite Low songs. Each verse is mom’s subtle shutting down of the child over the years—a lost balloon, a request to go out for some fun, a desire to leave for college. Followed by that unquestioned statement at the end. The song is so simple and so brutal.

IN METAL
IN METAL
IN METAL

Done. Fun, and what beautiful music.

Thanks again for doing this, UFO. Results will be fascinating.

― Soundslike, Friday, November 19, 2021 10:28 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The results seem so unpredictable, I'd really love it if ppl refrained from doing the whole "hmmm, OK 18 more votes lets see what hasn't placed" and then making a list of songs that haven't placed.

idk if this is an essential part of poll rollouts for anyone, but I personally find it annoying

Oh god yes, that's annoying

i have lost my shit about that a few times before, too. i find it annoying and it kind of ruins the surprise for people who aren't meticulously tracking and analyzing and predicting. but i get how that's fun too (i do that with baseball)

I think this thing is gonna be like 90% surprises, so it would be very fun to not have that and just enjoy the jams

that sounds good

Going in confident most of my faves won't place makes it more fun--just curious what others conmect with, how a "concensus" could exist, and being pleasantly surprised if my faves do place. But their whole oeuvre is so strong, I couldn't really be "disappointed" with any results.

Still hope there's *some* love for the 'Bombscare' EP, but not holding my breath : )

I also think Alan himself would probably check out the results--such a low-key and unselfconscious presence on Twitter.