Customer Reviews

Great Destroyer

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Hearing rumors of Low's change in tempo and sound before the release of The Great Destroyer made me a tad nervous. I love Low's music and, like most fans, I was hoping that it didn't change them so much that they didn't sound like Low anymore. Well, all of my fears have been allayed and I am happy to say that I am enamored with Destroyer. Alan, Mimi, and Travis have delivered what for them is an aggressive disc with solid, breathtaking songs. Of more interest is the fact that they have moved to the Subpop label and will be getting more circulation as far as distribution is concerned. This, coupled with some of their more accessible (and I don't mean that in a negative way) songs, there may be a new nation of Low fans soon.

The Great Destroyer begins with a track titled "Monkey." The tribal beat of this song wakes up the demons hiding under Low's bed. It seems that the noise has finally broken through and some angst has come through. "Monkey" begins with a fuzzy hum and breaks out into a tribal beat with fuzzed out bass. The lyrics center around a lie that has ruptured a relationship and the struggles with that lie. Destroying the monkey is the key and repairing the relationship is what Alan and Mimi croon for. What is great about this sort of song on the album is that Low has lost nothing in the translation. In spite of the speed being picked up and the louder version of themselves, they still sound like Low. They are still patient in their vocal phrases and really do draw out the notes in the context of a poppier song. Honestly, I think that is an amazing feat.

"California," their first single, is definitely the most accessible song on the disc. It is a straightforward indie-pop song that is full and beautiful. I don't mean to rant about this, but I think it's also amazing that they are able to sustain the sound they sustain using the same instrumentation they have always used. There is simply a 2-drum kit, bass, and a guitar with Mimi and Alan's angelic vocals. Low is certainly master of their art. I think my favorite moment in the song is the bridge where Mimi and Alan sing aucapela. "California" melts into "Everybody's Song," which is rough in its texture and strident in its rhythm. It is powerful and full. The album really gets represents the theme of the album, that of destruction. The use of feedback on this track is awesome and happens perfectly and momentarily.

"Silver Rider" follows on the heals of the noise and returns the listener to the Low they have come to know and love. Slow, beautiful, patient. This song appeared first on the Murderer 10" that came out last year. As far as I can tell, this is a new, re-recorded version of the song and it actually is one of my favorite Low songs. It tells the epic tale of an unsung, unknown super hero called the Silver Rider. Also, the title of the album appears in this song. Perhaps Silver Rider is the hero who will symbolically stop all that destroys: time, lies, hatred, etc. A dream, yes, but a dream many have sung about throughout the centuries and Low brings their voice and perfection to this cry. "Just Stand Back" brings another song that reminds us that Low have progressed. It is a straightforward pop song, but it has tons of angst in it. Alan Sparhawk has always stated that punk was an attitude and that Low has always been a punk band in that sense of the word. Perhaps they have moved to the realization that, and I quote Wayne Everett, "pop is the new punk."

"On the Edge Of" has much of that slow tempo Low with much of the new noise mixed in. This is probably more akin to "Sunflower" or "Dinosaur Act" in its feel. It is a solemn tune that spanks of someone on the brink. The song evokes both beauty and pain at the same time. "Cue the Stings" begins with stings and Alan's solo vox. Mimi's angelic voice joins in to croon a melancholy melody. Violin and cello float behind the vocals beautiful, painting a minimalist soundscape.

"Step" begins with violent acoustic guitar and rattled percussion with noisy bass. Alan's voice is fuzzed out and a child accompanies him. Clapping joins in and a more poppy tone comes into the song. The guitars are fuzzed and, once again, a sense of foreboding fills the track. "When I go Deaf" begins with acoustic guitar and has an alt-country feel to it. Again, we see the destruction of hearing here. Alan cogitates on what will happen when he is old and goes deaf. The pressure not to write music and slow down life is a dream at the edge of Alan's mind. Eventually the song explodes and become a lot fuller. Alan's guitar work on this song is tremendous and his tone huge.

"Broadway (So Many People)" has a slow, pop feel to it. As far as I can tell, the song is about the contrast between what happens on Broadway and the perceived understanding of that place as a place of dreams. The final moments of the song are beautiful, with Mimi singing "Aha, aha, ahaaaaa" repeatedly. Her voice is hypnotic and beautiful. "Pissing" has an ominous tone to it. It starts with the throbbing of guitar and some sampled noises. The bass comes and beats out a threatening beat. The lyrics are foreboding and the march to the end of the song, well, frightening. As far as building a mood goes, this song is probably the one that best communicates one on the disc. Eventually, the horror of what is to come flows into loud guitars and feedback.

"Death of a Salesman" really brings the noise down to a quieter level. It is an acoustic song with Alan singing about writing songs and going to college. It actually tells a great story and really gives insight into Alan's past. "Walk Into the Sea" closes out the album. It begins with muffled strumming and Mimi really hammering the drums. Time is the great destroyer in this song. It is loud, but patient and slow. The pop element really comes in the vocal melodies.

For those of you who were nervous about the "change" in Low, no longer be as such. Low's move to make the "pop" come out of them is a brilliant success. If "pop is the new punk" then Low has proven it to be so. In spite of the apparent loudness, Low has kept its signature sound and still brings the quiet, patient music to the table. Long live Low!

After 11 years of a slow motion rock that was the aural equivalent of decomposition, it seemed that Low would take their brand of "slowcore" to its logical end: brain death. But a strange thing happens on The Great Destroyer, Low's seventh studio release: they remove their heads from their collective ass, take a long hard look at the world and decide that they both love and hate what they see. Then they rock. Perhaps it's been the long slog of some truly lugubrious past releases, or the kind of brisk thaw after a cold harsh winter that makes you overrate the first nice day of spring, but The Great Destroyer is bracing, easily the best thing Low has done. From the suicide ride of opener "Monkey", to the compromised lure of sunny "California", to the happy death closer "Walk Into the Sea", singers Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, along with bassist John Nichols, feel both the sting and the warmth of the sun on their faces, and react accordingly. And just so they don't alienate their depressed fans, the best song here -"Silver Rider" - does the slowcore thing to perfection, condensing all their themes into one gorgeous, slow, sad song about the passing of time, the decaying of the body, and the final triumph of "the great destroyer".

On this album, Low rocks out. No, there's nothing you can air guitar to, but compared to earlier albums, The Great Destroyer is downright loud! I miss Mimi's wonderful voice (she's in the background on this album), but she hits the drums a lot harder. I love Low for the power of their quiet songs. I wouldn't make this your first Low album (my favorite is I Could Live In Hope), but there are some very good songs on The Great Destroyer -- I especially like the ballad, "Death of a Salesman."

Low is a band that I did not previously know, but whose work I fully intend to explore more fully in the future. We all have preferences in our music, and I have always been a total sucker for bands with a dense, layered sound with plenty of distortion on their guitars (think Eleventh Dream Day, Thin White Rope, or any Neil Young-inspired indie band). So the thick sound of Low really appeals to me on a primal level. What delights me, however, is the way that their heavy sound is balanced by an almost lyrical touch at times, like a rock pile bordered by daffodils. The result is a sound that seems grungy yet subdued at the same time. Low is also masterful at augmenting their sound with just the right additional instrument or percussion, an organ on this song, or a cowbell on this one (no Christopher Walken jokes, please). They don't pile on effects by any means, maintaining instead a persistently minimalist aesthetic, but they aren't afraid of proper adornment.

The subject matter is compatible with the sound, most of them songs about struggling with inner demons, but even more about the determination to meet and exorcise them, whether successful or not. The lyrics are mildly oblique, often poetic, and frequently scary. In "When I Go Deaf," for instance, the singer is bizarre in seeing all the advantages of not being able to hear, hinting at all the fights that he and his lover will not have to have. It is a profoundly unsettling sentiment. Likewise, in "Monkey," a broken or breaking relationship is acknowledged, only to have the chorus insist that: "Tonight you will be mine/Tonight the monkey dies." Exactly what is meant by the monkey dying (or even precisely what the monkey is) isn't spelled out nor whether it will die a natural death or will be murdered.

I discovered this album by hearing the members of the band interviewed on "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" on NPR a few weeks ago. I found the clips from THE GREAT DESTROYER to be so haunting that I instantly resolved to search the album out, and scribbled the name of the album down in a notebook. I urge anyone interested in this band (and anyone who likes alternative or indie rock should be interested in them) to go listen to that interview by following the links o the NPR.org website first to the Fresh Air site, and then searching "Low" on previous shows. They talk about a number of things in that interview, such as the Mormon background of Alan Sparshawk and Mimi Parker, as well as his ongoing struggle with mental illness, transfiguring it into the band's music. This is absolutely one of my favorite albums of 2005 and I fully expect that at year's end it will rank as one of the new albums I will have listened to the most. In fact, I have a pile of new albums that I haven't listened to yet because I can't get this one out of my CD tray. I strongly recommend this one.

While The Great Destroyer certainly shifts away from the meek and lowly station that this band has long been identified with, it is not necessarily an abrupt shift. True, this record is louder. True, this record is faster. But the essential elements remain the same: the long-winded vocal harmonies, the slow rising chord progressions and the "la-la-la's" are all still intact. But, despite the slow and steady hand that has raised Low to just-under-celebrity status, there has always been three sides to this band: the pop side, the dark side, and the just plain silly side. This record explores all three, which is why it may be the most honest Low release to date. Not that I buy into all of it. Tracks like "Everybody's Song" and "Just Stand Back" have an awkwardly conventional feel to them 151; almost as if Alan is proving to us that he can "rock out." While lines such as "It's a hit/It's got soul/Steal the show/With your rock-n-roll" have been getting a lot of press...it's simply not Low. At least, it's not the Low that I fell in love with. It's more New Order than Joy Division, if you get the drift. Then again, who am I to define them?

The truth is, if they had released a record that sounded anything like their first four, we writers would likely be bitching about that just as much. But for the love of Parley P. Pratt, don't we have enough rock music out there? And wasn't Low supposed to be our refuge from it all?

One thing glaringly obvious is that being hailed the "Kings of Slo-Core" was never a crown that rested comfortably upon their collective heads.

Read the entire review: http://www.threeimaginarygirls.com/low05apr.asp

source: www.alternativemalta.com

One band I have complete admiration for is Low. The day I heard `Thing we Lost in the Fire' I was baptized into the Church of Low ™ and I have been sticking faithfully with the band ever since. Their slowcore sound always mesmerized me and I love the melancholic pace of the songs. Having that Low always had a poppy side. `Dinosaur Act', `Sunflower', `Canada' and `Venus' (from the rarity boxset) fall into this category and without doubt are the signpost to the latest record: `The Great Destroy'.

So this is the album where Low (with help from Mercury Rev, Mogwai and Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann) shed all their `slowcore' tags, let their hair down and rock out. First track `Monkey' starts off with a squealing intro and rips into the first verse with Alan Sparhawk yelling (yes yelling!) `Tonight the Monkey's going to die'. Quite an opening and it does set the whole theme for the whole album. There is a lot of poppiness running about - the first single `California' (which is `Canada's' distant cousin - sounds confusing doesn't it?), the head-bobbing `Just Stand back' and the fuzzy-voiced `Step'

There are even more surprises on the way `On the Edge of' has a fretwanky and `Step' has a guitar solo and handclaps.

To counterbalance this there are songs which are typically `Low' as well. `Broadway' is seven minutes long and contains that fractured beauty that the band have perfected, same with `Cue the Strings' and `When I go Deaf', so there isn't a complete departure, just a change in tempo and lyrically there are the same Low traits as well.

When I first heard this album I admit I didn't like it. I thought energetic didn't suit Low but after many, many listens the album has begun to grow on me quite a bit. In fact I would even state that it is, in an odd way, better than their last studio album, `Trust'. Although it may alienate the hardened Low fan, it deserves a chance for it is a great record and proves that Low's pop side is just as interesting, and let's admit it, fun too!

This album is great! It DOES work when you speed up Low, especially when you add an occasional shoegaze aesthetic and thrashing guitar (as on The Great Destroyer). I was considerably bored with Low around the time Trust came out--not that it was bad, but it seemed like a hodge-podge of different sounds that didn't quite work, and I was tired of the slowcore formula. I was glad to have Canada, which was fresh-sounding and showed that they were trying new things. So, I'd say that was the transitional album, not this one.

This one works. Rush out and buy it. Maybe you'll be as pleased as I was!

As I'm sure groups like the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and even Phantom Planet could attest, Dave Fridmann seems to be the man to enlist for bands looking to reinvent their sound. However, unlike those just mentioned, Low has used Fridmann's technical prowess to simply bolster their established sound rather than drastically alter it. The inclusion of this sonic depth only strengthens the material on The Great Destroyer, adding solid amounts of backbone to this collection of concise indie pop nuggets propelled by beautiful Yo La Tengo-style boy/girl harmonies courtesy of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. The group still remains equally powerful in the quieter moments, however, such as on the acoustic mid-life crisis yarn "Death of a Salesman."

- Landon Moblad

Synthesis.net

I CAN live in hope. This record is absolutely gorgeous. It IS! Better than the previous record. It's becoming one of my fave LOW records. They took a lot of risks and it works. Pick this one up for sure.

Much of the hype surrounding the latest Low claimed the band's formula had changed considerably, namely the songs were faster and cheerier. Well, they tempo increased for some songs, but otherwise it didn't differ from previous releases, which is a good thing. And despite the presence of lighter fare such as California and Broadway (So Many People), the song I continually return to is the one that most closely adheres to the "old" Low, Cue the Strings. Basically, as long as Alan and Mimi are harmonizing over a heartbreaking melody, I'm happy. If anything, Destroyer feels transitional, as if the change is on the horizon. Whether or not the new Low will be as successful as the Low we all know and love remains to be seen, for now fans can rest easy.