The devil may have the best tunes but the Mormons are doing a good job of fighting him for them. Minnesotan slowcore veterans Low (two-thirds of whom are members of the US religious sect) have, in the past, produced albums so painfully lumbering, low-key and humble as to have listeners crawling away on all fours in search of daylight. Here, however, under the instructions of producer Dave Fridmann (Delgados, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips), the three-piece have created a work so consistently stirring, stately, and pop-aware it makes most recent guitar-based art-rock albums look tawdry.
Their seventh full length album (and first for Sub Pop), opens with the stunningly efficient "Monkey" – a tough cookie baked with tribal beats, feedback, whammy bar throb and subsonic rumble, with Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s deadpan voices echoing and looping around each other, lines like “Tonight you will be mine/Tonight the monkey dies” rendered both surreal and sinister.
Next up, a complete tonal switch with "California", the tale of an ageing farmer selling up to move “where it’s warm” and a smooth, harmony-drenched ride into Byrds territory. Riding a similar sun-dappled, foamy crest are the REM-like "Silver Rider", with its epic “laaahhh-laaahhhh”'s, the swingy "Just Stand Back" and handclap-punctuated "Step", the latter two suggesting The Mamas & Papas if they were around today and familiar with the reverb pedal and the films of Gus Van Sant.
Two deliciously tender and wise front-porchers suggest a new-found levity. "When I Go Deaf" – a worst-case scenario-turned-celebration of life in a silent world (“We won’t have to fight/We won’t have to speak/We won’t have to lie”) – tiptoes quietly along in a desert blues style until three minutes in it suddenly bursts into euphoric, heavy rock flames. Any disheartened Sunday musician who once swapped songwriting for a salary will feel a friendly hand on the shoulder with its thematic twin "Death Of A Salesman" – “They said ‘Music’s for fools/You should go back to school’” - about seeing your own sacrificed musical aspirations live on in your kids.
Should these two songs be a hint towards Low’s own retirement, we’ll all need to start praying.
by Anna Britten