Low 'The Great Destroyer'
With a not entirely undeserved reputation for their devotion to the slo-core genre that they pioneered, Minnesota trio Low are going to surprise a few people with ‘The Great Destroyer’, an album that, although clearly the work of the same band, is drawn from a far broader palette than the whole of their back catalogue.
So while raw emotions, happiness, barely restrained anger, loss, melancholy and redemption are still the order of the day, now they are as likely to be expressed with distorted guitars as gentle strumming, metallic beats as waltzing rhythms, yet always with room for the sweetest harmonies.
From the opening high-pitched drone, pounding drums and synthesised bass of ‘Monkey’ it’s clear that Low have changed. Dark and menacing, it’s a huge contrast to ‘That’s How You Sing Amazing Grace’ the ethereal lullaby that opened 2002’s ‘Trust’.
To follow this with the jangly folk pop of ‘California’, driven by Zak Sally’s rumbling bassline, with it’s heart melting breakdown and gorgeous harmonies is one of the more surprising and best one-two openers of any recent album. As if that wasn’t enough, they then come in with the brutish ‘Everybody’s Song’, a signal lesson in how industrial music should sound in the 21st century - aggressive riffing, squealing feedback solos, dead stop beats that sound like they’re being banged out on missile silos…and, yes, again, those beautiful harmonies courtesy of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker.This is an album that just keeps the surprises coming: the otherworldly ‘Cue The Strings’ approaches distortion as synths wash drunken waves around your head while Alan and Mimi sing in heavenly tones “So what pray tell will save you now / here comes that cold sunrise”; while “I am the Walrus darling, no one ever knows my name” and some backwards guitar references the Beatles as plinking piano and strummed acoustic verses give way to a funky handclapped chorus on the positively jaunty ‘Step’.
Elsewhere the pensive ‘When I Go Deaf’ is a melancholy look at a silent future, stripped down to just Sparhawk’s vocals and acoustic guitar until another huge, distorted guitar solo three quarters of the way in, while ‘Broadway’’s travelogue of a hometown turns into a seven minute mini-epic of scratchy, circular riffing.
Closing with the beautiful, elegiac ‘Death Of A Salesman’ as the frontman once again accompanies himself on acoustic guitar on this tale of unrealised dreams and finding redemption in love. A suitably haunting but warm ending.
With last year’s superlative rarities box set ‘A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief’ Low tied up the loose ends on their first ten years together. If that makes you feel like you’ve missed the boat, don’t worry about it, you’ve arrived just in time for the main attraction.
Low 'The Great Destroyer' (Rough Trade) Released Januray 24 2005.
comments
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What a fantastic review.
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What a fantastic review.
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