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Album Details
- Artist: Low
- Album: Things We Lost In The Fire
- Label: Kranky
- Year of Release: 2001
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-03-30
RecommendIf you have never experience the soft gentle sounds of Low then you are in for a treat with their latest Things We Lost In The Fire. If you are a fan of Low then it won’t surprise you when I tell you that this is their best album yet. The reason fans won’t be surprised is that Low has been making minor and incremental changes to their mope-core sounds since their inception in 1994. It is a good thing because they actually built something out of nothing. Originally Low was a little more than a whisper throughout their entire albums and although they haven’t gotten much louder, they have built a little more upon their already solid foundation. The harmonies on Things are really perfected and pristine in all their essence. The band really relies on the power of understating their music in order to captivate their listeners. This could be considered the perfection of the sound that Low was initially going after.
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on 2011-11-28 CharlesMartel Said:
Low are one of the most prominent outfits which comprise the genre known as slowcore. A sort of reaction to the speed and frenetic energy of grunge, the slowcorists settled back into comfy chairs and mellowed out some soothing, down-tempo songs which often were rather long but always beautifully put together. The intention was clear. No need to rush, take it easy, forget your anger. This is music for warm summer nights in the park at the end of a long day. If this is played at a festival, everybody really wants to sit down.
"Things We Lost in the Fire " is Low's most successful album. It exemplifies all that I have said about slowcore. Whether you like it or not will depend on whether you like your music delivered to you at this consistently slow, stripped-down pace. On some tracks its works. " Dinosaur Act" is quite a lovely song. But at other times, it becomes quite generic in its sound. There are times when I find it hard to distinguish between Low and the Red House Painters and that is a concern. I know the bands share the same musical philosophy, but the similarity gives me cause for concern.
In truth, it is probably all down to me. The first slowcore act I encountered was the Red House Painters. One album seems to satisfy my needs as far as the genre is concerned. So, when I listened to "Things We Lost in the Fire " it never lit that spark in me to the same degree. Of course, an exceptional song will always reach out to me, and "Dinosaur Act" did just that, but the remainder of the album did not set me alight, if you can think of such a metaphor in conjunction with an album like this.
Perhaps I don't have the patience to listen to this over an extended period of time and thereby get to know it. Occasionally I feel the need to delve into something a bit more mellow, but Low is too dark for me most of the time. Slow and dark is perhaps not the greatest combination if you want to relax. As a result, I tend to lose interest rather quickly whenever I play this and a result don't play it that often. Low may be a fine band, capable of making some fine music, but perhaps it is just not for me.
Rating: 5/10
