Low: Classic or classic?

I know there are a lot of Trust champions out there. I like it... I listen to it every so often (as I do with everything in their catalog). I don't know, I just think it's the only Low album that I have to trudge through. I've never really figured out what unlocks it for other people.

'Nothing But Heart' is the big C'mon cut for me, my favorite of that particular genre of Low song (one line repeated over & over into infinity).

Nels Cline is a huge part of it but Alan has really done it justice when I've seen them do it live.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be a jerk earlier, pgwp, and I think you're right in your analogy to REM.

Re: Trust, this is saying something, but I think it's their most *menacing* record. "John Prine," "The Lamb," and "Shots & Ladders" are all kind of scary songs! There's something about its darkness that I find deeply relatable.

The "Nightingale" -> "Something's Turning Over" stretch at the end of C'mon is beautiful. Maybe the only album I can think of that ends with my three favorite tracks

Re: Trust, this is saying something, but I think it's their most *menacing* record. "John Prine," "The Lamb," and "Shots & Ladders" are all kind of scary songs! There's something about its darkness that I find deeply relatable.

― "Bi" Dong A Ban He Try (the table is the table), Monday, 14 December 2020 20:21 (yesterday) link

Yeah I think Trust really locks into the heavy murder ballads vibe (also has some of their best close harmonising IMO), which it seems people either find to be a kind of culmination of Low's attractions or verging on self-parody (or, possibly, a bit of both).

Whichever view you take (it's one of my favourites), it makes sense that every album thereafter has felt, to varying degrees, like the band were keen to establish some pre-articulated distance from any notion of an archetypal Low sound.

That Pitchfork review really got to them.

They're doing Christmas songs on Friday!

they've done Christmas shows at First Avenue, went to one was so beautiful, they had the stage filled with Christmas trees and had a church choir from a Lutheran church in Duluth with them.... finished with Merry Christmas (War is Over) by Lennon with the choir

one of my fav shows I've seen

the Double Negative tour was also amazing, best I've seen them and tbh almost diminished the album for me those songs sounded so great, also had great Pink Floyd style trippy video screen stuff which....ruled

last time I saw them was opening for the controversial Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, real chill fun vibe, friends hanging out, Low joined Wilco for Cinnamon Girl in the encore

I got to see them do a Christmas set here some years back, was pretty great (of course). Last two times I saw them was headlining in a chapel behind Double Negative, which was incredible, and opening for Slowdive, which was also incredible.

oh man Slowdive/Low what a bill

I've told the story elsewhere, but my first experience with Low was seeing them live on the Trust tour, and Mark Eitzel opened. It was pretty amazing, and blew my mind at 18. I'd also just seen GBV live for the first time a few months prior. What a world.

another dream bill

https://clcaudioclub.bandcamp.com/track/days-like-these-demo-by-low

Christmas songs were with the whole family! http://www.instagram.com/lowtheband <3

so good!

oh man Slowdive/Low what a bill

Remember having to miss that -- a damn shame, but at least I've seen them both numerous times.

It was fun, because I took a good buddy who I think had never heard either band (possible even never heard of Low), and left a lifer for both.

Beautiful show broadcast by John Peel in 2000.

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

^ great!

(btw, there's no "It's Friday I'm In Low" tonight, it's Christmas)

xpost that show includes a classic Low moment. The music was so quiet for so long they triggered the BBC's emergency tape to fill the air with upbeat pop music for 2 minutes in the middle of the live broadcast.

frustratingly, this emergency tape thing was never part of the peel sessions I had found online before (like on archive.org etc) so having missed this all this time is meh

Oh my yes. Saw them in Leeds, 1998/9 (?) Above the Firkin pub, supported by Vibracathedral or some other A Band thing. The sound of glasses being moved and cleaned throughout. Everyone was entranced.

Another session in 90 minutes (with their son and other guests, but without Mimi who has been away on family business)

https://www.twitter.com/lowtheband/status/1349988370001367040

https://www.stereogum.com/2113431/low-things-we-lost-in-the-fire/reviews/the-anniversary/

perhaps low's finest hour. it's my most played, now. other recordings feel more intimate and subdued, but the songwriting hit a peak, here. 'laser beam' there are some incredible bootlegs of performances from this era on archive.org... one including a cover of 'lord, can you hear me?'

I'm personally a much bigger fan of 'Curtain' and 'Trust,' but that was a lovely tribute. "White Tail" and "Laser Beam" are two of my favorite Low tracks.

Has Low been polled? Surely after 27+ years of good-to-amazing recording, they warrant it...

did a search, no polls. lots of threads going back to early days of ilm including a POO thread with no consensus. a poll would be very cool

There's almost no point, because it's all good. Maaaybe we could come to a genera; consensus on "least good album," but I bet that's about it.

I would love a Low poll now that I've heard more than half their albums. actually think the artist polls are way more interesting when there's so much good stuff. e.g. XTC is one of those bands with distinct periods, and not a lot of consensus about what's best, and I was very surprised by the winners during our artist poll

Wish I could volunteer to run a Low poll, but realistically I know I probably won't have time...

Maybe if someone who's run a previous poll could provide a spreadsheet template and we emulate rules established in other polls?

Things We Lost... was my gateway album (I was 13/14 when it came out and I'd never heard anything like it). It's not the one I listen to most often now, but the Albini production is sublime and it has 4 or 5 of their very best songs.

my gateway as well, and it seems like, for people around my age (upper 30s), theirs too.

i am listening now, and love it as much now (and maybe even more) than i did back then, which is hard to believe. it's just always there

I thought in one of these threads we came to consensus that The Invisible Way was the weakest, because it is.

Yeah, exactly, though it's not *bad* per se.

I've been a fan of the band since when the first album came out, and my only clue back then was "produced by Kramer," which immediately brought to mind Galaxie 500. Yet if you listen to that first album it's amazing how well it holds up as, well, a Low album, and a very good one at that. The last time I saw them live "Lazy" was a total highlight, as strong as the stuff from the most recent album. They really hit the ground running (however slowly).

I will honestly say that I just don't listen to TIW or C'mon very much. They're not bad, but the songs just don't grab me at all, a couple standouts aside.

C'mon has Nothing But Heart - so good live for Alan guitar freakout. Especially Me and Witches are excellent as well. Rest of C'mon maybe not so much by Low standards. I didn't buy The Invisible Way.

kind of amazed there hasn't been a low ballot poll yet!

i'm listening to "Don't Understand Now"...so many songs, not enough top 3 spaces

I'm listening to "Don't Understand" NOW, i mean. but by the time you read this, probably not. though maybe!

beautiful cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OqOxgb5uM

Wish I could volunteer to run a Low poll, but realistically I know I probably won't have time...
― Soundslike, Sunday, January 24, 2021

I'd happily collate the ballots if you wanted to take care of the rollout. I was totally off the wagon between Secret Name and Double Negative, so could do with an incentive to catch up!

Actually, aldo has been on the list to do a Low poll for many years!

As I said ^^^^ I started a new job two weeks ago and am super busy so more than happy for anybody else that wants to do it to do it

A-ha! Didn't scroll up *that* far! :) I'll mention it in the polls thread and see if it can be slotted in for coming months, regardless of whether I end up involved myself.

maybe wait for this year's album? vv curious about that one

There was a flurry of asking around the time Double Negative came out (when, weirdly, I had the time to do it) and I asked for a bit of time for that record to settle in so it didn't dominate nominations. Then the world went to shit.

xp is there supposed to be an album this year? I'm dying to know how they follow up Double Negative

Hopefully in the Fall. It still takes a long time to set up a release. I wish you could hear it NOW. Finishing a record and then having to wait 3-6 months before it is in stores is an unavoidable drag, but a good lesson in patience and reflection. Thank you for asking! https://t.co/FMs9sKwdCg

— LOW (@lowtheband) February 12, 2021

omg. they never let you down. seeing them on IG live every friday has been a modern miracle... feels like you're having a personal skype concert with them or something.