Customer Reviews

Things We Lost In the Fire

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those of you anxiously awaiting another stunner from Low, here it is. Another beautiful release filled with soaring harmonies and pulsing basslines. This album is not so dreamy as some of the past, like Secret Name, nor as stripped down as Songs For a Dead Pilot. It travels up and down hills of musical introspection and celebration. Emotional tracks like Dinosaur Act pick up the pace, volume, and intensity, and the added strings and trumpet round out Low's amazing sound while still leaving it spare and clean. Other stand-out tracks, Sunflowers, Medicine Magazines, and In Metal inject Low trademark combinations of seamlessly meshed harmonies and inspired melodies with lyrics winding around the dark sides of life. The combination of Zak Sally's heartbeat bass, Mimi Parker's clean rhythms and crystal tones, and Alan Sparhawk's heart-breaking vocals and guitar lines never fails to move and inspire me. Whether you're a diehard or a new fan of Low, Things We Lost is sure to occupy a sweet spot in your soul for a long time to come. If you have any opportunity to see Low live, do yourself the favor and get there. Seeing and hearing them work their magic in person was worth their whole catalogue to me.

My first Low record. I fell in love in the first spin. I now well understand why they've earned such a rabid cult following. Almost impossibly delicate music that pads from one beautifully drawn moment to the next.

If you dug the quiet introspection of the last Yo la Tengo record, you'll fall for this like I did.

What a lovely album, from the beginning strains of cello to the very last hushed tones. Low has even begun to express a sense of wonder and, gasp, happiness. Rest assured that they will still keep you company on rainy days when it's all gone wrong and even the brighter moments are tinged with melancholy.

People who have difficulty with subtlety (Mogwai, whom I like, seems to have quiet moments only to make the loud moments louder...) or well-considered composition will be confused. This is not (bad) music intent on proving itself. This is not a post-rock ensemble of artistes intent on embodying "cool."

Those who want the dark, unrelenting tones of "Long Division" will likewise be disappointed, although I think a few listens may win them over. I would ask that anyone listening to a Low album give it a couple of listens over a length of time. I usually immediately dislike a new Low album ("This doesn't sound like Secret Name...") until it begins to sink in and I begin to grasp then crave the turns of phrase or lilt of voice or la la la.

Low is not a schtick and with every album they evolve, mature, try new things, and expand their expressive vocabulary. The new album, "Truth," is coming out in late September and when I heard the MP3's on the Kranky website, little one minute samples, I thought, "This is terrible, this isn't 'Things We Lost in the Fire' or 'Secret Name' or 'The Curtain Hits the Cast'" But now I find myself humming the samples, listening to them in anticipation.

Alright, look here: Low's music is slow. It always has been, and since they've put out 6 or so albums with little change, it always will be. People who do not have the attention span to listen to rock music at a non-radio-friendly pace need to QUIT REVIEWING IT AND COMPLAINING ABOUT IT BEING TOO SLOW. This is Low's most conventional album thus far, in that their sound has become fuller due to richer arrangements and increased instrumentation, and the compositions build and crescendo in ways they previously would have avoided. It is consistently beautiful; the darkness of "The Curtain Hits the Cast" and "Dead Pilot" have been tempered by more consistent (albeit still very muted) doses of sweetness and light. This is not as slow as Music for Airports, or as droning as Tony Conrad, or as dark as much of the Cure's earlier albums. If you like music like the aformentioned, or maybe a prettier Joy Division, then give this a try; otherwise, be warned, please.

I don't know, maybe it's narrow to say that `Things We Lost In The Fire` is the murky, the arcane, backwoodsian cousin to Yo La Tengo when the latter skip noise for sweet, harmonious acoustica. Maybe, but it's a pretty good frame to reference. "When they found your body/giant Xs on your eyes/with your half of the ransom/I bought some sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet sunflowers/and gave them to the night" responds the opening lyric, Parker and Sparhawks harmonising like a haunted Hubley and Kaplan. Maybe it's more upbeat than previous works but really even then it rarely rises above a hush, and `Dinosaur Act`, the most rockin' thing here, still manages to slope and saunter. The lyrics and the sometimes murky Albini mix might sound spooked and oblique but they're infused with subtle romanticism and moments of sublime beauty, "things we lost in the fire/how did we ever get by/words we'll never take back/hold me closer than that".

I don't know how Low manages to keep topping themselves, but they do. When "The Curtain Hits the Cast" came out, I thought it was the all-time best slow-core album I'd ever heard until they released "Secret Name", and then I thought for sure they'd hit their peak. With the exception of the monotonous, 7-min. song, "don't understand" on that one, it was near-perfect, impossible to beat. But, after my umpteenth listen to "Things We Lost in the Fire", I find that, once again, Low has exceeded my expectations. With a couple exceptions (the pulsing "dinosaur act" and the all-too-short, epic "like a forest") this cd is even more reserved and subtly hypnotic then their previous efforts, but, like most of their work, this subtlety in no way lacks power or depth. Low is such a great band, because they attack you on a peripheral level and force you to be an active listener, to concentrate on every significant change in the music from song to song--and when a new instrument starts up, or there's an unexpected chord change, it really grabs you. Mimi's songs are simply beautiful on this cd -- particularly "laser beam" and "embrace" -- her vocals are like a tremulous cry in a dark room. But the highlight of the cd is the joint singing b/w she and Alan Sparhawk on "closer" -- a beautiful, amazing song. Low is not for everyone, but if you're a slow-core fan, you should own this cd. Low will never top this one (I keep saying that so they'll continue to prove me wrong.)

At their best, Low puts out wonderful music to listen to while resting lazily in the backyard in a hazy heat. The songs tend to be slow, gentle and bittersweet, sometimes slightly folksy, sometimes early rock (evoking images of broken-hearted girls in pink poodle skirts), sometimes almost lullaby. Many of their tunes would be well at home on a Twin Peaks soundtrack beside Badalementi's compositions.

Unfortunately, while the quiet repetitiveness of some of their songs is effective at helping the listener feel calm, meditative and introspective and helps to drive home the mood, some songs (e.g. Whitetail) are so glaringly repetitive that they become little more than annoying after 1 minute. However, there are songs such as Like a Forest, with its beautiful swelling of string instruments, that are true emotional masterpieces.

Many of the songs leave this album deserving of a 5 star rating, but I do find it necessary to always program the cd player to skip a few of them leaving it slightly short of a perfect rating.

This is a stunning, compelling work. A number of standout tracks; beautiful 'Sunflower', the fairly upbeat (for Low) 'Dinosaur Act', the intriguing 'In Metal' wherein Mimi and Alan talk of their new baby (Hollis Mae) and how they'd like to keep her small, perhaps bronzing her along with her shoes.

I'd definitely recommend this for Low fans or anyone who has an interest in the so-called 'slowcore' movement or just beautiful music in general.

i've never really been a low fan; they always seemed too... boring.

but this album is veering dangerously on perfect. steve albini's productions is potentially the best i've ever heard him do (which is saying quite a bit) and the songs are tremendous examples of the tremendous power of minimalism.

AH! It's so hard to say. SECRET NAME and the recent TRUST also could argue for the honor of being called Low's 'best' album. THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE is a labyrinthian release. Every where you look there is another corner to turn, another door to open, another dark room to explore. This peculiarity makes the album a joy to delve into. It very well may be the trio's best work, but much like the pink album by Sunny Day Real Estate, TWLITF is not as immediately accessible as TRUST or SECRET NAME or the first half of LONG DIVISION. This release takes a *little* more patience on your part, but the pay-off (as I'm starting to see...er, hear) is worth it. Outstanding songs include "Whitetail", "Dinosaur Act", "Medicine Magazines", "Laser Beam", ...heck, everything I guess. The instrumental is more of an afterthought, but it is so short I don't consider it in my overall view of the album (kind of like "Fitter Happier" from Radioheads OK COMPUTER).

Essential.