Too LOW: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low - RESULTS

Looks like 120 Minutes played "Shame" once, as the final video on July 9, 1995

And "Over the Ocean" once, also as the final video, on December 15, 1996

secret name had a lot of videos, "weight of water", "don't understand", "home" and "immune" all got videos but they're not officially uploaded on youtube & some of them aren't there at all

& i was kinda amazed that the songs for a dead pilot "will the night" got a video

I’m not generally big on lyrics but those of In The Drugs completely get to me.

i'm not huge on long division but "shame" is one of the real gems from it

Same here - I first came to it via the video on the DVD that came with the box set (I haven't seen any of those clips in a long time though).

Weight of Water is one I'd overlooked until I went through the albums again. Shots and Ladders another great track - probably my favourite album closer of theirs?

“Shame” was the only Long Division track to make the ballot for me as well, though “Violence” came close.

I included 4 from Long Division in my top 30, but none in the top 10.

My ballot favored early Low.

y’all need to get right with your opinions about “stay” and “below & above”

long division > i could live in hope (sorry)

I ranked Long Division third on my albums list, it's awesome.

I keep saying this but it blows my mind that anyone could rank a song like "Broadway" over a song like "Whitetail."

I wouldn't even out "Broadway" in my top 80 or 100

I swear if the top ten are all from post-Trust albums I will absolutely lose it.

yeah "Shame" is in my Low top 5 trax

there's a r/indieheads low poll i can point you to that has most of its top 10 from ones and sixes

xp

I love Broadway

i also love broadway and almost suggested BROADWAY….SO MANY PEO-POLL as the name for this thread

Great album poll results, I think the only one I had that didn’t place was “In the Fishtank.” I’d be very curious about how the Burton produced albums are rated in ten years or so. They have this Berlin-era Bowie vibe for me right.

Unsurprisingly, I find “Double Negative” to be their “Low”!

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Monday, November 22, 2021 10:33 PM

I thought of this post tonight, and was thinking about a similar analogy with Eno's work with Talking Heads, where their first record together has more of a "traditional" producer/band dynamic, and then goes on to become more of a collaboration over the next few records, eventually down to similar setups where the band lays down tracks, leaves, and the producer does their thing.

"Shame" made my ballot and "Violence" would have if we could extend it a few more places. Long Division is not one of my favorites, but still a solid listen with those highs

I just realized that Pissing (on GD) has the same chord progression (I think) as John Prine and sees them taking that exercise to the opposite extreme

Yeah, I think "Majesty/Magic" also uses the same progression (and just sounds like a lesser version of John Prine in general). "Pissing" always sounded like their take on Slowdive's "Avalyn" to me.

"Broadway" clicked for me when someone in another thread here said it sounded like the answer to the yearning posed in "Lullaby."

The Lamb (only seven voters !), Shame, White Horses, Weight of Water, No Comprende and Shots & Ladder were on my ballot from yesterday. I can hardly complain about the songs that are not my idea of Low because I doubt my votes were perfectly coherent. I sound like a broken record already, but for me it's a testimony of their consistency. I'd have a hard time singling out a song that does not belong in the results.

Drums and Guns was one album where I only voted for one song, but Breaker with its minimal wave and claps is totally lovely.

"Violent Past" was my #1. The studio recording is a beast, cathartic noise over a churning, insistent, inevitable beat. Like a Nine Inch Nails experiment mixed with Zeppelin's "Kashmir". The lyrics are simple but horrifyingly grim. On the announcement thread somebody wrote that In Silence/Murderer/Violent Past is one of their best three song runs, which is completely OTM. It's their best closing stretch for sure, even if D&G as a whole isn't in their top tier of albums.

yeah, well put. the organ + its embrace of that sort of carthatic distortion are also obvious predecessors for double negative

i'd agree it's their best closer unless you ignore "dark" in favour of "do you know how to waltz"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq--nrquHIA

this is terrible quality but lmao

yeah, well put. the organ + its embrace of that sort of carthatic distortion are also obvious predecessors for double negative
i'd agree it's their best closer unless you ignore "dark" in favour of "do you know how to waltz"
― ufo, Thursday, November 25, 2021 11:18 AM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

For what it's worth, I'd take In Metal, Shots & Ladders, DJ and The Price you Pay over both. At the risk of sounding blasphemous, the 14 minutes of DYKHTW sound very cinematographic, quite like a GYBE track, but leave me cold emotionally.

i'd easily take "do you know how to waltz" over anything in gy!be's catalogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t_RcCOvhF0

there is this bootleg of them performing it together once though

several XP - I’d do one better and say “Take Your Time” through “Violent Past” is their best album run.

lol y'all are fucking insane

I mean at least I know now whose tastes I can trust, I guess.

I voted for ten pre-Trust songs, I think my ballot was fairly varied. I voted for five songs from "Things We Lost In The Fire", the most of any album. However, my two favourite albums are Double Negative and The Great Destroyer, which are about as different as it gets from the pre-Trust style.

My two favs are Ones and Sixes and Long Division, the latter of which seems to mark me as an outlier even among people who hold the early stuff in high regard. (s/o to Brad though!)

I put two songs from Long Division in my top 10, one of them at #1.

I'm impressed there's so little "I like the early stuff" bias in all these results, even if few of the tracks thus far were in my list (and probably most in my list won't place).

I've been a fan for 25 years, and loved "the early stuff". But I also loved the next phase thereafter, and the most recent phase. Seems like a shame to close the door after the first three records, just because those captured a certain crystaline sound and approach. The breadth and itch for experimentation was always there, even from the beginning. If they'd kept on retreading that ground faithfully, would we even be talking about them in the present tense?

Agree with that statement but I’m sure there will be more early stuff as go further in the poll.

i had to cut “lazy” from my ballot but i still hope the first low song i ever heard places

just catching up with the results! (spotify playlist is updated too)

so far...

61. Nightingale - 176 points, 5 voters
61. I Remember - 176 points, 5 voters
60. Gentle - 177 points, 6 voters
58. Spanish Translation - 186 points, 7 voters, 1 #1 vote
58. Like a Forest - 186 points, 6 voters
57. Days Like These - 202 points, 7 voters
55. John Prine - 206 points, 7 voters
55. Belarus - 206 points, 6 voters
54. Soon - 216 points, 8 voters, 1 #1 vote
53. Sleep at the Bottom - 233 points, 8 voters, 1 #1 vote
52. Dancing and Blood - 237 points, 7 voters
50. More - 238 points, 10 voters, 1 #1 vote
50. Especially Me - 238 points, 9 voters, 1 #1 vote
49. Immune - 250 points, 5 voters, 1 #1 vote
48. Anon - 257 points, 7 voters
47. Just Like Christmas - 266 points, 7 voters
46. Venus - 270 points, 11 voters
45. Always Up - 271 points, 6 voters
44. Lies - 273 points, 9 voters
43. July - 274 points, 10 voters
42. California - 276 points, 9 voters
41. The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off) - 277 points, 9 voters

40. Tempest - 278 points, 7 voters
39. Last Snowstorm of the Year - 279 points, 8 voters
37. Whitetail - 285 points, 8 voters
37. Landslide - 285 points, 11 voters
35. Weight of Water - 291 points, 9 voters, 1 #1 vote
35. No Comprende - 291 points, 11 voters
34. Broadway (So Many People) - 302 points, 7 voters
33. The Lamb - 303 points, 7 voters, 1 #1 vote
31. Will the Night - 310 points, 11 voters, 1 #1 vote
31. Violent Past - 310 points, 10 voters, 1 #1 vote
30. White Horses - 331 points, 10 voters
29. Shots & Ladders - 352 points, 14 voters
28. Breaker - 370 points, 13 voters
27. Shame - 394 points, 13 voters
26. In The Drugs - 397 points, 14 voters

https://i.imgur.com/m6JDG3r.png
25. Always Trying to Work It Out
Released on Double Negative (2018)
400 points, 12 voters
Music video
Live at NOX ORAE 2019

the bridge where it all dissolves into the most beautiful noise is incredible

it's one i expected that it could have made it to the top 10, since it seemed to be a favourite on double negative

https://i.imgur.com/SCThwpz.png
24. Monkey
Released on The Great Destroyer (2005)
405 points, 13 voters
Music video
Studio version

oh i didn't even consider that it's thanksgiving in the us lol that's why it's quiet on here today

"monkey" always reminds me of "bullet with butterfly wings" lol

I imagine there would be more early stuff bias if the band's later stuff weren't so awesome.

Late cut, undeniable album opener

yeah, it’s, how do you say, the mood

https://i.imgur.com/TxFtRDR.png
23. The Plan
Released on The Curtain Hits The Cast (1996)
417 points, 12 voters
Studio version
Demo

one of their prettiest moments

the best song ever

https://i.imgur.com/XZVL86H.png
22. Coattails
Released on The Curtain Hits The Cast (1996)
424 points, 13 voters
Studio version

first draft of my list, “coattails” was no. 1