This album has
been billed as Low’s ‘rock’ album, and certainly Sparhawk’s guitars on
California and Just Stand Back would bear this out, and all the while with
veiled threats in the lyrics (the latter’s “here comes the knife… I could turn
on you so fast”). California is an
almost classic style rocker, and the distortion is turned up to the max on
Everybody’s Song. Sparhawk channels his
inner Neil Young on When I Go Deaf and also the towering On The Edge Of, like
prime slices of 70s Crazy Horse.
It’s not all
in-your-face-rock. Silver
Rider is a more classic Low midtempo brooder, while Cue the Strings is
reminiscent of Will the Night (off Secret Name) with just a little added menace. The addition of children’s voices on Step
doesn’t entirely work and Broadway (So Many People) with its queries of “where
is the laughter?” is a little overlong.
But it’s the
final three tracks that really round off this album with a flourish. What can be said about Pissing other than
it’s almost as sinister as Monkey.
Starting quietly, with minimal instrumentation and lyrics, it explodes
with guitars halfway through as the insistent melody plays on. But this has nothing on Death of a Salesman,
a sparse acoustic strum with sneering menace from Alan Sparhawk as he sings “I
forgot all my songs, the words now are wrong and I burned my guitar in a rage”,
before the final track Walk Into the Sea which strays back towards traditional
Low territory, albeit with slightly more prominent guitars.
This album
upset some fans of Low’s more traditional, doomy sound but I find it refreshing
to see the band aim for new territory.
And most importantly the songs are extremely strong.
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