Low: Classic or classic?

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.

Wow.

I'm dying to know how they follow up Double Negative

my guess based on the relatively quick turnaround and heir career trajectory thus far: probably not another Double Negative level stylistic leap into newer/harsher sounds. but who knows!

Looks like BJ Burton is producing again so I'm guessing more of the same

new Low album will be first time you’ve heard a guitar

— BJ Burton (@beejburton) February 8, 2021

that's the kind of tweet i wanna see

That's a clever tweet that can be read several different ways.

In a cave under a river in NE Minneapolis. https://t.co/NTGeaZJXar

— LOW (@lowtheband) February 12, 2021

that's the kind of tweet i wanna see

yeah sign me up lol

oh shit

Gotta say I'm hoping for the 'actually sounds like a guitar' meaning rather than 'you've never heard a guitar sound like this meaning. My uncool conservative opinion is that his production obscures too much of their actual playing & touch, and it's not what I want from a Low album.

I'm into the idea of their records morphing into unrecognizable abstraction while their live band arrangement stays intact

"you've never heard a guitar before this" has me drooling over the concept that this could be like a bj burton'd-up take on a great destroyer style rawk record

I share Jordan's uncool conservative opinion.

I want a new Low album that doesn't sound like someone couldn't stop wondering what that button does.

I already have like 12 hours of studio recordings that sounds like the band low playing as three humans in a room. I'm perfectly happy with more records of an entity called "Low" seemingly transmitting sad nightmares from the void

saw them on the Double Negative tour, was amazing. they had some Pink Floyd style video/light panels behind them, staging really worked (ruled even)

I loved the show so much it somewhat diminished the album for me, they definitely weren't doing a straight live sound, there was some of the effect that's all over DN but it was different, a little less extreme but really melded the record's sound with the live sound in a (imo) better less intrusive way

Weirder Low >>>>>> Staid Low, especially at this point, for me. Came onboard in '96 and love nearly every record (still have little reaction to 'C'mon' and 'Ones and Sixes'). But give me the 'Bombscare,' the 'Trust,' the 'Drums & Guns,' the 'Double Negative'.

There are many, many people who can make lovely, plaintive, simple music. There are not many people who can make those records I mentioned. They seemed hugely rejuvinated by their expanding sound palette and experimentation on the last tour--searching seems to suit them better than "being home" at this point.

The exception: if they did an album of all chamber orchestra and found/made acoustic instruments, then they could do something amazing with a limited "production". Their own 'Mark Hollis' record...

I'm happy with any Low album, tbh, but lean more toward the Soundslike view— we've heard what Low can do with more "normal" instrumentation and production, and while I love those records, I'm also hoping it continues in the weird vein.

I will also just say, as I've said before, that "C'Mon" is just not a very good record.

I've said it before but Drums & Guns is my favorite, I wish Alan would get back to making beats or getting hands-on with the production like that (at least that's my understanding of how it was made). It just feels more personal.

I keep thinking someone like Vladislav Delay would be a good producer for them though, he can create elemental noise but also did an amazing job staying out of the way on that Mirel Wagner album.

double negative was so cool and singular, i'm really excited to hear where they push things next

my understanding from interviews is they were all very hands-on with the production on it though, it wasn't just they played the songs and then got bj burton to fuck around with them. it sounded like they came to the sessions with fragments of songs written, and then they spent a lot of time all experimenting with sounds along with bj to flesh those out.

Yeah, it sounds like they would give him some raw material, he would mess around with it and turn it into something, and then they would come back and write/record over that? From the unfortunately named board:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1261587-lows-double-negative-sound-awesome-production-info.html

"arrangement and structure of the songs shifted as I unlocked the musical elements...as far as words and the melodies, that’s Low. they are from another world."

It's the role of a producer, it's cool, but also more control shaping the records than anyone else has had on a Low record to my knowledge. Normally I'd be fine with it but Low is such an insular, intimate world that I find it distracting, idk. I certainly don't want them to just repeat what they've done before though.

@soundslike: ones and sixes is weirder low

Yeah--there are a couple tracks on 'Ones & Sixes' that sound like a trial run for 'Double Negative,' but overall it just never hit me (though more than 'C'mon').

In case there's anybody that didn't hear the 'Bombscare' EP (wasn't compiled in the rarities box)-- it's just astonishing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRoIbBbJx4U

'Secret Name' had been my favorite of theirs, but circa 2000 is when I feel like they started to really unlock the breadth of their potential (while still keeping the fundamental core of Low-ness). 'Bombscare' really is the precursor to 'Drums & Guns' and 'Double Negative,' hasn't aged a day.