Low: Classic or classic?

these days i just listen to drums & guns in mono when i'm listening with headphones (99% of the time)

oh man i always thought i was the only one who liked Trust the most but ofc Brad and Tim also like that one the most

MY PEOPLE!!!

love to see that some people rate Trust as high as I do. it always seemed under appreciated among the fan base.

Trust is also my favorite.

I think it has a lot to do with when it came out / where I was in my Low fandom, definitely egged on by the kinda meh/indifferent reception it got at the time

fine, you two are also my people

Trust is the first Low LP i bought so yeah, sentimental fave

The sequence from In The Drugs to La La Song is one of the strongest 5 song runs in pretty much any band's career.

^ the next one after La La Song is Point of Disgust - so I'd bump that run up to 6 songs.

Anyway, Christmas.

all of my people get paid up to $0.50 per post. i'm just throwing that out there

and i'll create the union for me so you can fire me and give a generous severance package

we are called the Secret Namers

the pitchfork sunday Flash from the Past review often trails sustained ilm thread revivals by a few weeks, so i'll just say this: Secret Namers can earn up to $0.50 per post

I spent the early part of the pandemic filling in some gaps in my Low collection, still need to get the debut, Christmas and A Lifetime of Temporary Relief as the main ones I'm missing.

revisited their first three records this morning

i could live in hope is really such a wonderful fully-formed debut, everything's there already. i love sparhawk's guitar, obviously very influenced by the cure at their best, but stripped down.
long division has a very similar sound to the debut of course, but it's even quieter and slower, and doesn't have the same atmosphere to it, solid but not quite as compelling overall.
the curtain hits the cast feels a little warmer than their first two? i've seen people say it's their darkest but it doesn't quite feel it to me. really good record, continues on from long division with its sparseness but successfully brings back the atmosphere & expansive track lengths of i could live in hope & adds a little more intensity? "do you know how to waltz" is so immense!

got into Low because Things We Lost in the Fire and Trust showed up on an ILM poll years and years ago. they are still my two favorites. I love mostly all of em though

Again it seems it's time to do a full Low albums/tracks poll... Again I'd love to run it but don't realistically have time : (

I could probably do tabulation if others could help with images and rollout. About time I pulled my weight on here

BUT

at this point, I think the poll should wait a few months after the new album

I'd feel weird about doing a Low poll before they actually pack it in

Is there any consensus about top 5 tracks so far? Feels like there might be as many #1 selections as there are poll voters.

there could be a series of low polls by decades, followed by low-showdowns, followed by sweet merciful death

xp and yeah that's not my post, i agree! on the non-consensus, i mean. :) i think a couple of them would probably be consensus faves (particularly Things We Lost in the Fire songs...I might be wrong and jinxing it now), but in general, it would be pretty unpredictable

Wow, I felt it would be hard to follow up Double Negative. This single hints that they are going to do so with gusto.

yeah wait for a few months after the new album before doing a poll but i'd love to see it & there's clearly plenty of interest. aldo is still listed as having dibs on running it iirc

As I've said various times ^^^ I don't have the time these days so happy for anyone that wants to do it to do it.

ah i didn't realise

i guess november would be the earliest time it'd make sense to run one after the new album, or first thing next year after EOY stuff is done?

Don't know if this will work formatting-wise, but nice use of the meme

When @lowtheband heads into the studio during a pandemic. pic.twitter.com/HjV48e7zKJ

— Tim Unsell (@devotiondoubt) June 24, 2021

after listening to their whole discography a lot this week i have a vague ranking of their major releases. would say those top 6 are all pretty essential & the rest are solid at the very least

Double Negative
The Curtain Hits the Cast
I Could Live In Hope
C'mon
Things We Lost in the Fire
Ones and Sixes
Drums and Guns
The Great Destroyer
Trust
Long Division
Secret Name
Songs for a Dead Pilot
The Invisible Way

Which direction do those go--lowest to highest? Highest to lowest?

highest to lowest

but it's not like any of them are bad & the only one i'd be surprised to see as someone's favourite is probably the invisible way

Top of my head (lowest to highest):

17. The Invisible Way
16. C'mon
15. Ones and Sixes
14. Transmission EP
13. The Great Destroyer
12. Long Division
11. Songs For A Dead Pilot
10. Christmas EP
09. In The Fishtank EP
08. Things We Lost In the Fire
07. Curtain Hits the Cast
06. I Could Live In Hope
05. Trust
04. Bombscare EP
03. Secret Name
02. Drums & Guns
01. Double Negative

Been a fan since 1996, and love everything except for what feels like a little fallow period right before they burned the fields for 'Double Negative'. I first loved them for their purity--but I loved their thawing and expanding (and in some ways, darkening) that they underwent, first culminating in 'Drums & Guns'.

I love that they easily could've semi-retired into safely profitable middle-aged folksy sweetness, putting out pretty, pleasant records and aging up their audience--but instead (while being clearly deeply kind and giving people) they've pushed into the chaos of the world and made work that is risky, starkly honest, beautiful but not "pretty".

1 things we lost in the fire
2 curtain hits the cast
3 i could live in hope
4 secret name
5 double negative
6 long division
7 trust
8 c'mon
9 christmas
10 ones and sixes

not fussed about the others...

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