Low: Classic or classic?

c'mon is great, a return to the rich arrangements of things we lost in the fire except bigger & more expansive, with the second half shifting towards their slower side

and ones and sixes isn't quite as consistent as their very best work but i really love the sound design on it, playing around with distorted synths & drum machines, it vaguely bridges drums and guns and double negative

I'll have to give that period another shot. After the thrill of 'Drums & Guns' they just felt like a regression to me, didn't make an impact at the time...

I think I’ve said this before but if you do this in order—listen to Drums & Guns, then watch the documentary, then listen to C’mon—I think that’s where the beauty of C’mon comes through. It’s Alan trying to come back, and Mimi not letting go. I think it’s an absolute stunner of a record if you think of it in context of the truly low point they were coming from (no pun intended).

I hated that their greatest work seemed to come from their time of most personal struggle... Makes me hapoy that Alan instrad seemed invigorated and happy and talkative, when touring 'Double Negative'...

Might as well share this here, in case anyone is interested:

https://www.twitter.com/musicophiliamix/status/1409177021876408320

Curtain
Trust
Lost in the Fire
Live in Hope
Secret Name
Double Negative
Long Division
Ones and Sixes

The only record rated highly by some fans that I just can't get into is 'Cmon,' which will always be second to last (before Invisible Way) for me.

play it on a morning as soon as you get up. its a perfect morning record

it sounds like new life after a long proverbial nightmare to me

Or just play Nothing But Heart and Witches

The first album I got at the time was "Long Division" and I found it quite dull. Then I heard their version of "Transmission" (on the Joy Division cover album "A Means to an End") and was stunned. Just by slowing it down, they added something to the song. Listening to their cover was like watching a flower open up to the sun in the morning in real-time. I also loved that making a song slower also usually makes it longer which is perfect if you love the song. Yesterday I listened to their first album "I Could Live in Hope" for the first time and was totally overwhelmed. A perfect album for last night when the storm and rain hit hard outside. So warm and cosy, like a warm blanket to cover yourself with and hide from the tough world around.

Low has done some beautiful covers with Transmission near or at the top of the list. Great description Alex. Starting with a very different song I also love their cover of the Bee Gee's I Started A Joke. Has some of Mimi's best vocals.

Agreed that their covers are often sublime, my favorite is this one, which just absolutely transforms a sort of frenetic, post-punk Soul Coughing track into something that sends shivers up my spine. They have a way of bringing out the most haunting and strange parts of a song's lyrics— even the way Alan sings "sluggin' down fruit juice" feels profoundly sad and desperate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZs1ruwPBQs

If Low ever hits a writer's block patch--thry *really* need to do a full-on covers record. Few modern acts make a cove their own like Low.

Another fall-back option that would surely pay dividends: an all-string-quartet or small chamber ensemble type album.

Or they could do like The Knife did and re-record older songs in their current style--hearing old songs filtered through the fuzz/glitching angels sound of 'Double Negative' was awesome on the 2019 tour.

Yeah, Low and Afghan Whigs are pretty much the best bands for covers.

That is a great cover, ttitt. I don't know the original but I am sure that it will disappoint me. Maybe that is the lackmus test for a great cover. That song really sounds so much like a Low original that it hurts. What Soundslike said.

Haha the original will certainly disappoint you but you ought to hear it just to see what Low did with it.

i didn't expect it but i really liked the original. post-punk a decade later. vibrant, melodic & a little dissonant at the same time, great stuff.

the album has l34ked but I'm waiting :-)

i'm less than 2 minutes in and it's sure lived up to bj saying it will be the first time you've heard a guitar

they sure did it again

awwww

Love it! Great backup singin’! https://t.co/4qhUEgOvQO

— LOW (@lowtheband) July 3, 2021

Holy shit at this album, like Depeche Mode meets Neil Young meets Autechre. I love it, my family will hate it!

Haven't given in to temptation yet--but very encouraged to hear it sounds like Low is staying at the weirder end of their spectrum. I love weird Low.

When the RIAA knock down my door and ask why I did it, I'll point them to Josh in Chicago's last post

it's the good sort of sequel, where they're continuing what they were doing on Double Negative but not just repeating themselves

Double Negative was really submerged in a sea of noise but this time they're sailing on top of it more

the opening track is everything I ever wanted from them

unsurprisingly this is good as hell. "more" is like their "velocity girl" or some shit, wonderful little nugget that adds a lot to the album in two minutes. I have a hard time imagining anyone who liked DN being disappointed with this.

I've gotten so much enjoyment out of this band for close to 30 years and rarely had to pay for a thing (legally), but goddammit I just bought a t-shirt.

i saw them as part of a festival so it was a one-off (i think) so there wasn't any merch

I bought a ticket for a Low show in May '22 - these crazy times, still

I followed Josh in Chicago's good example and bought a shirt. This album goes from "pretty dang good!" to "this is unreal" right after Days Like These.

I was like, "well I can hold out a few more weeks...." not realizing it's still two more months! Damn, this is going to be a rough wait.

double negative was a distant transmission from another planet and on this one it's actually happening there, if that makes any sense

A friend said "they went from disintegrating to evaporating" and I think that's on the same level, ufo. Makes sense to me.

Low definitely put out some of the weirdest merch in the past - the fridge magnet lyrics tin is special but why I have a Low pillowcase is anyone's guess...

is the artwork a 3d/hologram type thing? their site seems to suggest so: https://www.chairkickers.com/

The new one and the last one, without trying to be hyperbolic, they sound like someone waking up one morning and just somehow knowing a new language, and then immediately trying to do something with that new language. Or, I dunno, discovering a new tuning, or finding a new color. Totally in line with everything else they've done but done totally different than everything else they've made. I also love the idea of music (like these last two albums) that are literally impossible to replicate live. Perform, sure, and they were amazing on the last tour. But the music as recorded, however clearly fussed over ... I don't know, I think it's fascinating that they had to write these songs, with lyrics and melodies, then record them, blow them up, bend them out of shape, destroy them and rebuild them in the studio, and then, live, they have to do it all over again, finding their way back to each song's roots and melodies, because the sonic stuff of the recent is exclusively a product of studio experiments.

Low definitely put out some of the weirdest merch in the past - the fridge magnet lyrics tin is special but why I have a Low pillowcase is anyone's guess...

― Well *I* know who he is (aldo), Thursday, July 8, 2021 bookmarkflaglink

I love my Double Negative dishtowel.

Also one of my favorite band t-shirts ever was from a real early Low show - I think it was around the time of Curtain Hits the Cast. It was basically the Jaws movie poster - a blue t-shirt with the shark rising out of the water, teeth bared, and in big bold orange letters, LOW.

bj burton is a fucking genius and is the sound of RIGHT NOW.

the cover art thing is called spectral decoding. bright eyes did it with cassadaga

cool, thanks!

I don't really know much about Burton and was surprised how pop-oriented much of his production work is. But I did find this crazy accurate interview quote from a couple of years back:

... bands you’re highly motivated to work with because of their back catalogue?

“Have you heard of the band Low? They’ve never written a bad song. They put out an acoustic album and I had this vision of pushing them to make the most beautiful, distorted, post-apocalyptic record – the sort of thing you’d find 2,000 years ago if you dug the earth up. We made that record and it’s one of the favourite albums I’ve ever made.”

It looks like he posted a bunch to this thread about the making of Double Negative:

https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1261587-lows-double-negative-sound-awesome-production-info.html

This is a good summation:

I got a lot of **** from mastering engineers, so I ended up mastering it myself...those guys are so scared. but if it sounds good, and the soul is there, then it will translate. no rules

From that interview I learned that Alan uses a lot of Red Panda's Particle pedal, which, when you hear this ...yeah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXUfj6y4NO0

I don't really know much about Burton and was surprised how pop-oriented much of his production work is.

apart from his work with Low, he's probably best known for being part of Bon Iver's inner circle, co-writing & playing a ton of stuff on their last two albums & occasionally being a touring member

his work on last year's Charli album was fantastic & full of the noise he's known for with Low. the Japanese House album was also excellent

i wanna hear him work with Lambchop next, he'd be really well aligned with their direction the last few albums

This is pretty great, taking some of the strands of Double Negative and running with them. it has a distinctly different mood but with mostly the same toolbox. "Hey" is the big standout to me so far, it's beautiful

Also yeah, between Charli, Japanese House, and Low, I've loved every Burton production that I've heard

I'd forgotten all about Charli XCX, I'll have to check that out. Looks like Burton has produced a ton of stuff I've never even heard of. The Empress Of, Kacy Hill, Banks, Francis and the Lights ... I can only imagine that some of these things sound cool, too, but the problem is that they're not Low, so odds are they are nowhere near as good as Low.

(burton also produced the upcoming kacey musgraves record)

!! Now that gets my attention.

oooh

I hope the closer on this one portends the sound of the next one the way "disarray" sort of ended up doing. I am ready for an all-doomy-bangers Low album with Burton on board.

(burton also produced the upcoming kacey musgraves record)

whoa