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Rating: Despite Low being one of the most inspired bands of the last twenty years; and although the average quality of the Duluth trio’s discography was such as to put many of their peers to shame; despite some of those having signed up for unemployment after trying to touch the tension and drama that our band habitually evokes using the most classic and overused three instruments of rock music; despite all this, the Minnesota group was falling into the trap: remaining in the (albeit) golden shadow of the massive debut album, I Could Live In Hope, a slowcore manifesto published in 1994.
The band was therefore quick to refute the claims that pegged them as the leading band of such a genre. They didn't want to be confined to that word, and Sparhawk, as a composer, felt he could take another step forward. But years and albums passed, and those claims were no longer convincing. Probably not even to themselves.
The doubts would only be dispelled in 2001 with the release of Things We Lost In The Fire for Kranky.
The exasperated slowness—once an essential, indispensable characteristic of the band’s music—has now degraded to just one of many elements. The average length of the tracks decreases; there are several occasions where they go below three minutes. The melancholic, rarefied, and elegant atmospheres, the celestial vocal intertwinings of Mimi and Alan, the maelstrom emotional bursts that erupt suddenly—as delicate and reserved as the band’s way of playing is—must reckon with a freshness and immediacy unusual for the standards of previous Low. Depth and complexity are combined for the first time with a relative ease of listening. The arrangements, still minimal, are enriched with keyboards, strings, and wind instruments. The ashes of the collaboration with Dirty Three are still warm.
I feel, at this point, the need to say a few words about the man who immortalized the trio's notes on this occasion: Steve Albini. An unrivaled pioneer of a generation of sound photographers, Albini simply (?) captures the instruments at their finest with a neorealist flair. Your only chance to perceive the sounds in more realistic, vibrant forms and as ideally and physically close as possible is to attend a live concert of the group. Accepting the errors and imperfections of it; the murmuring, the talking, and the applause of the audience. Thus avoiding the risk of sounding sickly sweet in an almost perfect and undeniably heartbreaking album.
From here, a new, fruitful musical journey of the band begins, and the quality of future works stands to prove it. We no longer speak of slowcore. This is just a great rock/pop album written, arranged, and performed by Low as only Low could have done; and if this definition seems tautological to you, you’re probably right, but it’s the best I can think of.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Sunflower (04:39)
When they found your body
Giant X's on your eyes
With your half of the ransom
You bought some sweet, sweet, sweet
Sweet sunflowers
And gave them to the night
Underneath the star of david
A hundred years behind my eyes
And with my half of the ransom
I bought some sweet, sweet, sweet
Sweet sunflowers
And gave them to the night
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet sunflowers
aAnd gave them to the night
02 Whitetail (05:03)
stay up all night
waste time, waste light
closer, closer
ever closer
you win, you fail
exit whitetail
closer, closer
maybe closer
03 Dinosaur Act (04:13)
you were their daughter
and your father flew airplanes
you and your sister
could tell by the backs of their hands
it was a dinosaur act
dinosaur act
and after expenses and pulling up fences
no more airplanes --
and putting your foot down
the nail shot up like a bright red snowflake
just like a dinosaur act
dinosaur act
dinosaur
and all through the dust
you feel that you must
hear the strains of a dove
but it's a dinosaur act
dinosaur act
dinosaur
07 Embrace (05:37)
holding my head for the last of the race
pushing my body to get that embrace
it won't last -- hold on fast
it won't last -- hold on fast
breathing in time, so hard to trace
crushing your skull with my warming embrace
it won't last -- hold on fast
it won't last -- hold on fast
i fell down the stairs
i wished I were dead
you ran for the light
he handed me your head
it won't last --
it won't last -- hold on fast
it won't last -- hold on fast
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