Low – Vicar Street – Live Review – 17/10/18

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/10/18/low-vicar-street-live-review-17-10-18/

Concert Review: Low at The Button Factory, 10th July 2012

Review for www.meg.ie http://www.meg.ie/low-at-the-button-factory/

Album Review: Low – Drums and Guns

With 2007’s Drums and Guns album, Low got really out there.  Gone were the rock guitars of The Great Destroyer, replaced by an emphasis on beats and eerie organ tones.  It’s a very jarring listen right from the first track Pretty People, which has little instrumentation to speak of barring Alan Sparhawk singing “all you pretty people, we’re all going to die”.  It's possibly one of the least inviting opening tracks ever.

There’s a kind of malevolence at the heart of the album with song titles like Sandinista, Hatchet, Murderer, Violent Past etc.  Belarus sees them in electronica territory, not too far away from Radiohead’s Kid A.  Breaker feels very minimalist, with handclaps and a one-fingered organ melody fleshing out a melody which on another Low album would probably be a warm guitar strum.

The album actually gets stronger as it progresses, Sandinista’s marching drums provide the background for Mimi Parker and Sparhawk’s wonderful harmonies.  Like many tracks on the album it’s brief, clocking in at under two and a half minutes, further into the album Your Poison is a mere 1 minute 13 seconds.  Even the sweeter moments like Parker’s Dust On The Window are covered in crashing drums and eerie noises, while church bells run throughout the odd-sounding Take Your Time.

Possibly the three strongest melodies are saved till the final three tracks.  In Silence features a piano and a rare appearance of guitar rounding out the sound and Murderer is fleshed out with glitchy electronica to gloriously sinister effect, accentuating lyrics like “don’t act so innocent, I’ve seen you pound your fist into the earth”.  Final track Violent Past manages to turn the chilly keyboards into something approaching (luke)warmth.

It’s never going to be my favourite Low album, and it certainly isn’t a good introduction to them, but it’s a fascinating and rewarding album nevertheless.

EP Review: Low - Murderer

Low put out this EP in 2003 as a limited release.  The title track sounds very basic and simple at first, a three-chord guitar strum with Alan Sparhawk singing about how “you may need a murderer… someone to do your dirty work” as Mimi Parker coos in the background.  The track builds and swells wonderfully as Parker harmonises with Sparhawk as the guitars pick up the pace, rising and falling in intensity as the track progresses.

Silver Rider, on the other hand, sounds unfinished.  A drum pattern and keyboard pick out the backing for this one, framing a ghostly melody.  The short EP finishes with the longest track here, From Your Place On Sunset.  This track is a classic, slow-as-hell, plodding, growling Low track.  Parker and Sparhawk’s vocals on this one really bring it to life and it works really well, with Sparhawk cranking out the guitars towards the end.