Do You Know How to POLLtz?: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low

justice for ones and sixes, still the best of the last three low records

i like ones and sixes a lot but it's not top tier low & falls off in the middle - the first three & last three tracks are all pretty great but the rest isn't as strong. no way is it better than the two since.

could definitely make the case that ones and sixes/double negative/hey what is their best three-album run on the other hand

the adjustment in textural focuses between tracks is painstakingly tuned on o&s, and the songs feel like they're written to emphasize that? which helps make it feel bigger-than-the-sum, regardless of opinion about the individual songs

it doesn't quite have the same greater than the sum of its parts feeling as double negative and its individual parts aren't quite as strong either

still a lot to like about it just it's more of a transitional record than a real high point imo

for me its twin in the low catalog is trust, which a lot of ppl described similarly at the time

trust feels less of an indication of where they were going to go (there's "canada" and that's about it) and more of a refinement and expansion of the darker end of the two previous albums ("whitetail", "don't understand", etc.). there's more to it than that but it feels like the conclusion of that aspect of their sound more than anything else

but i do also think trust is strongest at its beginning and end

i'm pretty happy with the top 30 i made a month ago but i'm also like... am i? should i listen to everything again????

(there's "canada" and that's about it)

you know what reminds me of "canada"? "no end"

Ones and Sixes is pretty great. When I was relistening to it, I forgot how many great tracks it has. I do think of it as a transition album but only because what comes after is even better!

they might not occupy similar positions in the catalog but they just echo off of each other nicely xp

i'm planning on submitting a vote! will probably be near the deadline and a (typical for me) hasty, indefensible selection

could definitely make the case that ones and sixes/double negative/hey what is their best three-album run on the other hand

― ufo, Friday, November 5, 2021 5:39 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lunacy. need i remind you:

I Could Live in Hope – (Vernon Yard, 1994)
Long Division – (Vernon Yard, 1995)
The Curtain Hits the Cast – (Vernon Yard, 1996)
Secret Name – (Kranky, 1999)
Things We Lost in the Fire – (Kranky, 2001)
Trust – (Kranky, 2002)

any three of those beat the latest three out of the water imho.

you like their early stuff best you say

I know, I keep harping on it.

For me, this poll is hard enough given those six albums, is all, and it boggles my mind that anyone could think something from "Cmon" or "The Invisible Way" is better than a single track from any of these six.

I really like their latest records, too, fwiw.

"landslide" just ascended to the near-top of my list, next to a curtain track, it's really not unfathomable imo

"Nothing but Heart" is on C'mon, so believe it!

I might just not vote tbh.

Where should we go: Canada, California, Belarus, or Missouri? Or into a snowstorm, forest or the ocean?

my plan for voting in this poll is to do it on the last eligible day so i'm forced to rely on gut instinct

as for early vs. recent low: i couldn't possibly say i prefer one over the other - the earlier stuff has the advantage of time obv but i find what they're doing now really exciting in its own way. "do you know how to waltz?" and "dancing and blood" both fucked my entire world up, for different reasons

Invisible Way will not make my top ten ballot, and most likely nothing from it will make my tracks ballot either ("Plastic Cup" still technically in contention as I work to slim down my long-list). But I will say, the album did rise in my estimation after listening to everything this week. It's by far their most modest album. Feels like a purposeful lack of ambition - no grandiosity, no edgy darkness. Just some nice songs. But in that way it's unique in the catalog and if that was their intent then it's a nice little record.

might be ridiculous but i believe i'm voting for "so blue"

Where should we go: Canada, California, Belarus, or Missouri? Or into a snowstorm, forest or the ocean?

Where should we go: Canada, California, Belarus, or Missouri? Or into a snowstorm, forest or the ocean?

Forest > Ocean > Canada > snowstorm > California > Belarus >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Missouri

The Lifetime of Temporary Relief has way too many gems on it. More Low in the Misfits versions!

i haven't listened to the new one because of the press release photos topless in dungarees

My list will be likely as early-centric as Table's (maybe not quite as much) but there will certainly be a high placing for Nothing But Heart, and another from C'Mon.

I was late in hearing a lot of these 00's and 10's albums, more than once but know my favourite tunes, I think by keeping seeing them live.

I have two from Drums & Guns on my list of 36 tracks— "Murderer" and "Take Your Time," the latter because I think it's the Low song that disturbs me the most.

Think I've got my 30 tracks sorted, very heavy on the two records that were my introduction to the band but nearly all of the others are represented. On the other hand, doing an albums ballot is proving much harder than I expected - going through the catalogue has thrown up some surprises, e.g. The Great Destroyer is much better than I remembered.

weird, I had no idea “Don’t Carry It All” was a vinyl-only addition to Things We Lost in the Fire. One of my favorites on that release.

Low is one of those bands where, whichever was your first album, that's probably your favorite.

“Don’t Carry It All” is also on the Lifetime of Temporary Relief collection - didn't know it was supposed to be on Things We Lost. Great tune.

Ones & Sixes is better than the two previous obv, also better than The Great Destroyer, possibly even with Trust, what does that make it (checking) joint 9th best album of theirs? And still AMAZING? Yeah, no way I can make a ballot for this. IF I DID it would be Lullaby (yon version from the box) first, then Murderer (which I first heard on the 10" but basically I'm easy), then I'd have to delve deeper and that would accelerate my heart too much. was Venus really never on an album? That 7" and the Secret Name CD was my entry. The Best Family Christmas Ever (cus cmon Christmas with family is always terrible) was when I gifted 5 people in the same room the Christmas EP, I had to go to both record shops to acquire all that, worth it (I'm guessing max 2 of them ever played it)

Decided not to obsess too much and just sent in my ballot

Voted, finally. Really don't know what to expect from the rollout.

fuuuuuuck I'm vacationing and won't have time to give this a proper evaluation. Curses

Low is one of those bands where, whichever was your first album, that's probably your favorite.

― Hideous Lump, Friday, November 5, 2021 4:50 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

My entry was Trust, then I got Things We Lost, and then a friend gave me a burnt copy of Curtain, and it changed everything I felt about the band...Trust is still 2nd for me after Curtain, but I think Things We Lost is closer to five or six for me.

One thing that's weird here is that I don't have problems selecting favorite albums, but tracks is proving absolutely agonizing.

Any chance we can go to top 50 tracks?

I'm realizing, as much as there are dozens and dozens of tracks I love, I still tend to think of Low mainly in terms of albums--or maybe even, in terms of eras of albums... Which I guess really means I love nearly everything, except for the dip from 2008-2017...

In particular, I'm finding that the 'experimental' albums are in many ways my favorites--'Bombscare' EP, 'Drums & Guns,' 'Double Negative'--but I think of them as a piece and don't necessarily register individual songs as strongly as on their more "traditional" work...

I have a feeling the bulk of my tracks list is going to disappear into the ether of the unranked...

Xpost, top 50 tracks would be great if pollrunner has time.

i can allow 50 track ballots if there's real demand for it - i went with 30 as it seemed like the highest to go that most people would be likely to fill out in full. it's not any extra work for me to tabulate.

I'm for it. it's been painful to see some amazing songs fall under the top 30 line

Would absolutely change this poll for me.

I still have Long Division and Drums and Guns to listen to (and I haven't even started the EPs).
So far, the most pleasant surprises in terms of albums were The Great Destroyer and Ones and Sixes. The Curtain hits the cast, Things we lost in the fire and Trust lived up to their reputation.
Secret Name was a low point, and so was C'mon. I'm not necessarily planning to listen to The Invisible Way.

I can find 30 tracks to vote for, 50 would be too big a portion of their discography for a non-obsessive listener. I expect to vote about equally from their three (four ?) different periods.

"disarray" is maybe my least favourite on double negative, i'm not really a fan of how restrained it is with that constant staccato pattern & it's weird as the album closer, all tension reaching out for release that never arrives. but wow it's great live, so much better. they actually let loose & let the vocal melody soar like it wants to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-QXr41WFgA

"disarray" at 1:24:33

oh come on, ones and sixes is an amazing record

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 5 November 2021 12:31 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

justice for ones and sixes, still the best of the last three low records

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 5 November 2021 12:32 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like ones and sixes a lot but it's not top tier low & falls off in the middle - the first three & last three tracks are all pretty great but the rest isn't as strong. no way is it better than the two since.

could definitely make the case that ones and sixes/double negative/hey what is their best three-album run on the other hand

― ufo, Friday, 5 November 2021 12:39 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the adjustment in textural focuses between tracks is painstakingly tuned on o&s, and the songs feel like they're written to emphasize that? which helps make it feel bigger-than-the-sum, regardless of opinion about the individual songs

― ri, Friday, 5 November 2021 13:19 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglinko

Somehow I agree with all of these posts?

The thing about Ones and Sixes is that while it's true that the opening and closing stretches are stronger than the middle, I look at the tracklisting and everything jumps out at me as being distinct and different - and also very hooky: despite the great lengths they go to not present it as such, this is actually maybe their most pop album, yeah even more than C'mon.

Also I think people overstate the extent to which it's a palette cleanser for the most recent two albums, perhaps because of the presence of the same producer. Ones and Sixes's sonic experiments feel to me more like revisiting and expanding on various particular ideas they'd played with in the past, from Spector-ish touches to keyboards, but doing so in the context of a relatively 'normal' collection of songs (which, alongside its diversity, is what makes it distinct from Drums and Guns which it might otherwise resemble, but also from Bombscare, let alone the following two albums).

I was interested to go back to Double Negative after not listening to it for a while. I was wondering if its experiments would feel at once self-conscious and redundant after Hey What anchored the same overall sound within generally more coherent songs. But no, its bruised quality is still so powerful. Listening to it I switched to thinking "maybe Hey What will now sound lesser when I put it on". Of course I then tried that, and it really brought out the satisfying immediacy and present-ness of the sound on Hey What, which I now somewhat associate with The Great Destroyer.

Like, the band who just made "More" is definitely the band who made "Everybody's Song".

i'd put both the great destroyer & c'mon as more 'pop' than ones and sixes, but it's certainly up there yeah. then things we lost in the fire in at fourth.

my impression from interviews is that double negative was (fairly unusually for them) mostly written in the studio as they were experimenting with the new sound palette they'd discovered, while hey what was a return to the drums and guns methodology of having a lot of songs written beforehand with the intention of totally deconstructing them in the studio.

but even though double negative takes a different approach with its songwriting it's still very melodically direct. it's like a whole album based on the chorus of "over the ocean"

I'm not necessarily planning to listen to The Invisible Way.

Doesn't it have an amazing Yacht Rock track near the end?

(Like many others e.g. table I sort of got off the bus at C'mon so am less familiar with the later stuff)