Low: Classic or classic?

Nice review on p4k today, as if I wasn't already excited enough to hear this. I've avoided everything so far and my copy should be awaiting me when I get home from work today.

oh yeah long division is the other one i find really bleak, probably their most glacial apart from songs for a dead pilot, which is a real extreme of their sound.

the curtain hits the cast & i can live in hope aren't quite as bleak to me, there's a faint warmth to them, while at times on secret name that warmth goes out completely - "i remember", "don't understand" and "days of" especially.

i guess even on the darker parts of i could in hope, like "cut", there's still some sort of catharsis

maybe the more appropriate contrast how warm secret name seems to me is songs for a dead pilot, which is slowcore so pushed to its limit that it fragments and goes abstract

this is btw the best band of all time

there's definitely moments of real warmth on secret name but when it's bleak it's really bleak, which is what colours it that way for me. i get what you mean

i really can't think of any band with a better overall discography, it's really ridiculous how good they are

there's definitely moments of real warmth on ________ but when it's bleak it's really bleak

This is the description of pretty much every Low album. No album is entirely warm nor entirely bleak. What’s interesting to me is that they have been bleak in a dozen different ways, and their warmth is one of the most beautiful things in music.

Hell, there are some individual Low songs that are both warm and bleak. The verses of "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace" are spare and glacial-feeling, and the chorus is soaring and warm.

I resisted downloading before just now, eugh this record is so good.

Ok this rules.

I wanted to love the last two like I'm loving this.

Yes it does. The way White Horses starts is amazing, as is the way it segues into I Can Wait.

did not know:

Fun fact: the vinyl mix of C’mon is actually different than the digital, as we kept skipping the needle during vinyl mastering, so had to re approach the mix ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

— matt Beckley (@teneightEight) September 10, 2021

That's pretty common, right? Gotta be increasingly common given how loud records are often mixed/mastered these days.

Esp lots of deep electronic bass, the first record by the band Police is actually mono because they couldn't accommodate the bass in stereo

Nice review on p4k today

lol "8.4," I guess that's where the dart landed. It's shame the band just played the 'Fork fest in 2019, because if ever there were a weekend when Low should be on the bill it's this one.

they are playing a really cool outdoor festival called the square lake festival tonight and tomorrow night in mn, hoping to score a way in, but it should be lovely, i would imagine this is more their speed, hoping to get a way in even though it's sold out

https://www.squarelakefestival.com/

The album fucking rules

xposts warm and bleak go together naturally i think. depression/sadness is often like a warm blanket you wrap around yourself; it can become the most comfortable

Lol @your dn DJP

Andy Bell & co. singing "HEY WHAT the hell you think you've done" every time I think about this album

I thought about going to the Square Lake thing, bet it will be awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et6SgyP7zMU

tons of evidence on this very thread that the invisible way has a reputation of sounding typical and unadventurous for a low record and i think it's like... at least a little undeserved. for one thing, it's got its own sound (ums otm about tweedy's production, which is one of the best parts of it), sorta like they built a country-rock record out of flourishes only, and the result is the gentlest low album (which is still, at an audible depth below the surface, unbearably tense). idk i didn't spend a lot of time with it when it came out but during this run-through i discovered i really like it

i am a weirdo tho, i think the worst/least distinguished low record is the debut

OUT

(Sorry, I have feelings about that album, since I saw them for the first time right before its release a month later.)

that is amazing

the way i break it down is that low are less great to me when they're reminding me of other slowcore bands and are greater when they're reminding me of no one so much as themselves, and i could live in hope is more of the scene than they ever were again

it's a great record i'm not really knocking it

of course after saying all those nice things about the invisible way, i put on ones and sixes and thought “thank god they returned to exploding their sound from the inside out.” also appreciate that it’s way louder than either of fridmann records, a development i’m sure more than a few low fans hated lol

Speaking of (potentially) under-appreciated Low material I think one of my favorite songs of theirs overall (on the "catchy" end of their spectrum of songs) is "California." I often listen to it multiple times in a row!

Congregation from Ones & Sixes was playing during a brutal fight scene in Devs.

i was about to say that the great destroyer is an indie rock record that makes most indie rock sound redundant xp

xpost, agree about California. Same for me with Canada (plus it has a fun video)

"landslide," jesus christ, what a masterpiece

I'm not sure I ever slotted Low in with other slowcore bands, but I guess they fit well with the likes of Codeine, if not Bedhead or ... whomever else counts. I do know that when the band's first album appeared in the mail way back when the Kramer connection made me immediately consider Galaxie 500, but of course they only loosely share some sensibilities with them, too. Low, especially in the early days, always struck me as one of the most austere and confrontational of those loosely defined acts. No guitar solos, no real release, at least not until "Curtain" and "Waltz." There are infamous stories of the band reacting to audience chatter by just getting quieter and quieter, and slower and slower.

"Ones and Sixes," I think that came out when I was (stupidly) at my most Low ambivalent, where I somehow still hadn't quite processed their genius. Probably the album that came before it didn't help, honestly. But I was catching up one day and "No Comprende" came on, and I remember immediately lifting my head and thinking, jesus, how in the world did I miss this?! This is the heaviest, most awesome band of all time.

I had the same experience with “When I Go Deaf” and The Great Destroyer.

For me, the run of C'mon/Invisible Way/Ones and Sixes were the first time that they had put songs on their albums that felt really hard to love or, dare I say it, actively annoying, among their usual standout highs on the rest of the record - not naming names, but I'm thinking of their second sides. Since then they've course corrected back to albums where you could maybe lose one or two tracks, but definitely nothing that I'd ever thought brought the rest of the record down in comparison.

the low songs that remind me the most of galaxie 500 are "starfire" and "la la la song"

i could live in hope is still pretty distinctive among the slowcore scene at the time & one of the strongest records from the scene. the curtain hits the cast goes on to do nearly everything it did better but it's still a top 5 low album

At Square Lake, amazing setting, stage built on a small family farm, woods around the homestead

Native American singer Joe Rainey Sr. opening with a surprise guest appearance by Andrew Broder doing some heavy bass almost industrial stuff with heavily digitally altered samples of Ojibwe (assuming) chanting, really cool

^Jealous

if we ever do a low poll please make the ballots at least 40 places long

all comparisons are futile. low are almost completely individual. they might have their influences and share production values, but they've gone their own way since day one and stuck to it.

i was thinking of running a poll in november, or maybe it should be left until feb/march? how long do we need to let hey what settle in? if anyone else really wants to though i'm happy to leave it to them

Nov sounds good. Though they're on such a streak lately that part of me thinks they'll keep coming out with songs good enough to place in their top 40 (which isn't really a reason to not do the poll now!)

I'll have some pix and video to post later but this was one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen

there's a couple of live songs on the youtubes (low square lake, filters -> sort by upload date)

Days Like These pic.twitter.com/BOOESDZTEe

— kyle (@solace) September 11, 2021

some more in this thread

hey

what?

Now I have a mental image of Low covering “True Blue” in my head