1999’s Secret Name was where Low started to get a whole lot more accessible. Without compromising the quality of song. Having said that, it’s hard to imagine a less accessible opener than I Remember with an eerie synth pattern topped off by an almost inaudible vocal from Alan Sparhawk and some muted static. It’s a somewhat bewildering way to open the album.
Starfire is a whole lot more melodic despite Sparhawk’s again off-kilter vocals, with added heavenly harmonies and Mo Tucker style drumming from Mimi Parker, before the first real keeper on this album, Two-Step. It starts off quietly with a delicately strummed electric over Sparhawk’s whispered vocals before the melody kicks in after a minute and a half, ushering in celestial vocals from Parker. The subtle melody winds its way round your ears, making it a classic Low track.
The standard is maintained by the Parker-sung Weight of Water, featuring a soaring string section and a glacially paced melody. Don’t Understand is darker, with a sinister, tense opening before the somewhat angry track commences, like a dry run for later, noisier material.
Soon is a real epic, evolving from a muted strum to a brooding, string-led Velvet Underground style midsection. It’s almost unbearably grim, and unbearably great. The tension is punctured by Immune, which comes as something of a relief as it’s a relatively conventional song, very sweetly sung and played by Parker and Sparhawk in all its beautifully played glory.
Penultimate track Will The Night is something of a show-stopper. There’s no percussion this time until halfway through, only a gorgeous, almost hymn-like melody sung over soaring strings. It’s all over in less than two and a half minutes.
The album is almost like the quintessential Low album which reflects their entire discography, it’s opaque and off-putting to begin with, but when persevered with the rewards are immense and addictive.
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