I’ve had some more time to digest Low’s latest, The Great Destroyer. I posted my initial response the morning after it came out, and I still stick to those words. Having had some time in the car with it, and having heard it a fair amount on The Current, it’s hit me that while I like the album, sometimes when I’m listening to it I just miss the old Low.
When there’s a moment with great potential for quiet and they throw in what seems like an unncessary little guitar doodle-dee-doo. When the beauty of a particular song is in the way the lyrics erupt from Alan but there’s a constant level of “noise” in the background. When Mimi should just be allowed to belt out that pretty voice of hers but there’s heavy bass or something.
There’s already lots of band that have gotten good at melody and harmony, you know. Quite a few, really. But Low did some really amazing things in a lot of tunes with a single vulnerable singer and a plodding beat. A couple hits on the snare drum, a reverberating bass note… And silence.
Even the quiet songs on The Great Destroyer don’t have any silence on them. Not a moment. Silver Rider is the quiet song, but it has a constant level of sound.
I was thinking all these thoughts in the car recently and couldn’t get too down on the music or the band (c’mon, it’s Low!) because the beautiful thing is that those albums will always be out there, I just need to switch CDs in the player to get that ol’ timey Low sound.
I had gotten over myself so well on the drive in this morning that I threw on The Black Eyed Snakes. Had a harder time telling myself that I had any right to bitch about Low’s musical direction when I love the Snakes so much too.
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