Low
Things We Lost In The Fire
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Low
Things We Lost In The Fire
Kranky, 2001
RiYL: Codeine, Galaxie 500, Red House Painters, Ida, Sigur Ros |
The drawback is that Low's melodies belong to the tradition of old-time music. "Medicine Magazines," to name one, oozes with echoes of 1950s easy-listening, the damage limited by a braid of delicate piano figures. Other tunes hark back to folk songs and nursery rhymes. Still, the opening track, "Sunflower," is one of their most accessible songs ever, thanks to a simple two-voice melody, pounding drums and hypnotic strumming.
These "easier", normalized, relatively straightforward tracks are enriched by sudden turns of orchestration that are both tasty and illogical. Here, a cello melody against a violin drone that prepares the piano-based return. Similarly, "Dinosaur Act," a Neil Young-ish ballad backed by martial drumming, violent guitar distortion and acid organ drones, picks up a new dimension when a funereal trumpet shows up to sustain the dramatic ending.
The catchiest moment of Low's career may be in "July." The soaring vocal harmonies (quasi-Jefferson Airplane) rise and fall, propelled by solemn drumming and greeted by a procession of electronic keyboards (a sturdy Hammond organ, a King Crimson-ian mellotron, a jazzy vibraphone). Indeed, one of Low's strongest assets is this ability to color all paintings in a strange, metaphysical light. The other crucial aspect is Mimi Parker's voice. Parker has matured immensely as a vocalist. Her prolonged vocal gestures often recall the spaced-out style of the young Grace Slick, except that they are imbued with the austere restraint of a nun.
Her vocals lend themselves to an intriguing ambivalence, climbing the dizzy heights of acid-rock when they plunge into the gloomy depths of the Gregorian chant. At times, she sounds like a hybrid of Tim Buckley and Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies, particularly the country ode "Laser Beam," which she sings with the sole accompaniment of frugal guitar tones.
The other emotional blackhole, "Embrace," paced by an ominous drum worthy of an Ennio Morricone score, comes to life after the violin begins its romantic buzz, and suddenly charges with anthemic vigor. Add Alan Sparhawk's "Whitetail," a psychedelic, dilated mantra paced by frenetic cymbals and a loud, hammering guitar tone, and this triad of prayers gives the album an unquestionable spiritual quality.
The carefully sequenced song cycle glides down to earth with the folk-styled compositions towards the end, notably the violin-tinged, slowly waltzing duet "Closer." The music breathes again after suspending itself in a Zen-like apnea. And instead of the conceptual sonic architectures, tambourines and acoustic guitars underpin the epic crescendo of "In Metal."
The central section of the album is as intense as Low has ever been. It stretches beyond rock and roll, well into western and eastern classical music. There is something absolute about Parker's majestic voice floating over Sparhawk's sonic graveyards.
PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.