Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Low, Sub Pop 2021.
Low are an indie pop/rock duo from Minnesota USA that I’ve recently come across and they stand out from the ordinary with their interesting mix of grunge guitars, unusual melodic progressions, and delightful harmonies.
Hey What is one of the most interesting albums that I’ve heard this year.
It opens with a solo heavily distorted guitar that crashes in and out before leading into the first track called White Horses.
The track has an extended ending of a single repeated note which in turn blends into the second track, I Can Wait.
This pattern continues throughout the ten tracks, each blending into the next creating one continuous work.
The musical textures that Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker produce are unique, a mixture of heavily distorted sound layered one upon the other with the ethereal harmonies of the two floating above like a boat on a stormy sea.
Sometimes the distortion is so great that the sound breaks up completely only to reform and lead into the next song.
Occasionally an abrupt conclusion is reached but it is only temporary as the silence is broken by a return to a textured existence.
Thus, we progress through the album moving from the restrained and delicate to moments of immense and overwhelming power.
It sometimes feels like a journey into oppressive darkness which leads to light of incredible intensity.
The music conjures so many images, from the vastness of space to the crushing and claustrophobic weight of blackness created by the blanket of sound.
No track is presented in a clean and undistorted fashion.
Even the final track, The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off), lulls you in for half of its seven-minute duration before gradually becoming distorted.
You’d expect that I would have been crushed before I’d worked my way halfway through the tracks but such is the variety and inventiveness that I remained engaged to the end.
I’m not sure the album is everyone’s cup of tea.
If you like your music to be clean and straight forward then I’d look elsewhere however, if you’re looking for something completely different then give Hey What a listen.
