Drums & Guns

Low | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 20, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B000MV8CSO
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,569 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For The Great Destroyer, their 2005 Sub Pop debut (and 7th album overall), Low quickened their paces and rustled up a new sound. Producer Dave Fridmann helped out in '05 and is back for Drums and Guns, Low's 2007 follow up, a return to pre- Great Destroyer form. Slowing down again and training the musical lamps on Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's austere voices, the trio sets a decidedly somber tone (the album's opening line, delivered with pregnant pauses: "All soldiers, they're all gonna die/And all the little babies, they're all gonna die" and album-closing song titles: "Murderer" and "Violent Past"). Parker and Sparhawk's voices enchant eerily, a whiff of electonica here and a haunted handclap there melding with Matt Livingston's bass to give the music some dark, gorgeous machine undertones--stark, martial, and noise-brushed at once. Fridmann finds all kinds of places to add tone, color and sound, keeping the tempos slow and the mood hypnotic. This is the art that wartime breeds. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description

Formed in 1993, Low is from Duluth, Minnesota, and features Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, Mimi Parker on vocals and drums, and Matt Livingston on bass and vocals. Sparhawk and Parker are married with two children; they first met in fourth grade in rural Minnesota. Drums and Guns is the band's eighth full-length album and second for Sub Pop. It's also, after 2005's The Great Destroyer, the second album they've recorded with producer Dave Fridmann. Drums and Guns features a number of songs that ardent Low fans will recognize from the band's recent live shows. These songs appear here in substantially altered forms, as though they've been taken apart and reassembled in striking new ways, or seen with new eyes. Or, given the lyrical emphasis on murder and death, a more insightful interpretation might see the band killing these songs and bringing them back to life anew. There's no contrivance here, however. While these songs feature new elements (looped vocals, drum machines, etc.) and are thoroughly, radiantly contemporary, they remain undeniably Low's. Drums and Guns possesses the unique, subtle beauty and power we've come to expect from Low, but the record is also profoundly exciting in ways that it's easy to forget music can be.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best album of 2007, March 16, 2007

By 

MRSCRY (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drums & Guns (Audio CD)

Okay, I was a huge fan of Low turning up the tempo and rockin' out a bit on their last album, "The Great Destroyer", but these guys (and gal) have done so much better on their latest effort, which slows things down again. Ironically, this album needs to be turned on high volume more than the last one, because its haunting, modest background effects create a mood that won't be topped by any band this year. Alan Sparhawk's vocals, which are in top form, are complemented beautifully by a wide range of electronic "noises" (quiet ones, at that) ranging from eerie electric guitar to organ chords to electronic clapping. And, unlike most albums that come out these days, the record has a continuous feel to it... when done listening, it's harder to point a finger at a single track than it is the whole listening experience. However, if one is to highlight a song that stands out, it might very well be the final track, "Violent Past", which isn't a climax to "Drums and Guns" as much as it is a powerful arousing that leaves me wanting to go back and examine the past 45 minutes.

And for those "Great Destroyer" fans who are wanting some sort of rock song on this record, the only satisfaction you'll get in this department is a quiet, goregous guitar riff on "Hatchet", a song that uses the inter-band relationships of the Beatles and Rolling Stones as a metaphor for a personal relationship.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A slow-burn "grower", May 6, 2007

By 

Nonce (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drums & Guns (Audio CD)

Drums and Guns doesn't have the punch of 2005's underrated The Great Destroyer but it does have a lot of the tense immediacy of early, atmospheric Low records like Long Division and Songs for a Dead Pilot.

It won't immediately grab you but it rewards the patience of multiple listens, and while there's no standout track the album works as a whole.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stoner's Paradise, April 15, 2007

By 

B. G. Smooke "Bury Me In A Jukebox" (Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drums & Guns (Audio CD)

Disturbing and powerfully hypnotic. Guns and Drums finds Low with its notable harmonies intact but burdened by a troubled conscience. this is stark lyrical imagery married with music that is often sparse but never less than intensely captivating. While I enjoyed Low's music in the past, this is their first album that rises to the level of classic. One of the best releases of 2007.