Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Alan Sparhawk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Sparhawk. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Monday, November 4, 2024
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Monday, November 7, 2022
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot
Low released this experimental EP in 1997. Here, they started to push the boundaries of what Low sounded like. It opens with a really strangely recorded version of Will the Night, with all the vocals and instrumentation relegated to the background, almost sounding like it came from a different room, and a kind of drone which follows the melody is given centre stage.
The dead slow trudge through Condescend comes next, a wintry yet warm tune sung by Mimi Parker. Speaking of trudges, the thirteen minute plus Born by the Wires is even slower and grimmer than Condescend. A fragile, high pitched Alan Sparhawk vocal crawls across dissonant guitar rumbles, the track is kind of hard work. The sinister, creeping Be There is quite minimal but works well, while Landlord is slow and foreboding. Parker and Sparhawk's signature harmonies make an appearance on the sweetest, briefest, and final track, Hey Chicago.
Definitely for committed fans rather than casual dabblers.
Friday, November 2, 2018
A Conversation with Alan Sparhawk (Low) – Part Two
Interview for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/02/a-conversation-with-alan-sparhawk-low-part-two/
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018
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/
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Low – Double Negative – Album Review
Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/09/04/low-double-negative-album-review/
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Album Review: Retribution Gospel Choir
The first album from Retribution Gospel Choir, released in 2008, sets the tone for this project - heavy, rocking out guitars, a sort of Alan Sparhawk midlife crisis escape from Low.
Basically if you like the heavier bits of The Great Destroyer, you'll love this. Opening with the heavy rock of They Knew You Well, the band reimagine two of Low's songs from Drums and Guns in this format - Take Your Time and Breaker, both of which succeed it has to be said.
The pounding, bone-shaking riffs of Somebody's Someone and What She Turned Into thrill and startle in equal measure. The bashful, subdued Holes In Our Heads is more typical Sparhawk territory, starting quietly before giving way to more guitar pyrotechnics. Kids betrays the hallmark of producer Mark Kozelek's heavier material with Sun Kil Moon, all heavy, yet hesitant guitar crunch, and is allowed a full four minutes before concluding with Sparhawk singing a gentle 'Amen'.
Frustratingly, many of the other songs last little over two minutes, it would have been nice to hear Sparhawk indulge his inner Crazy Horse. It's at times unsettling and never a comfortable listen, the ideal flipside to Low's Drums and Guns album.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
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.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
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