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.

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.