When you are stuck in your house with falling snow piling up outside for weeks at a time you get a lot of time to write smart and simple lyrics. You refine your voices into a potent force that accompanies understated instrumentation and there you have Duluth Minnesota’s very own low-powered trio Low.
Low whose seventh album “The Great Destroyer” is a testament to unpretentious minimalist rock-n-roll. Much like the early vocal harmonies that made the Beach Boys a huge success during the early 1960s, Low’s collective voice make you feel all warm and fuzzy, despite what their lyrics might be saying to you.
There are truly very few songs that are as sexy as “Monkey.” Fueled by its primal percussion section Mimi Parker and Zak Sally, and intoxicating lyrics sung in harmony by Parker and lead singer Alan Sparhawk. After listening to this song over and over again, it has to be about two soon-to-be-lovers finally realizing their carnal desires and getting rid of the figurative monkey on their backs. Or it has to do with hunting monkeys, but I seriously doubt that.
There were some points on this album, which the band planted clichés laden lyrics, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt at keeping their indie street cred. One prime example is in “Broadway (so many people)” which is a cool and quirky song but all the things about being just “north of Houston, Broadway” seeing his favorite record store. But admittedly despite the images some of these lyrics conjured in my head, I found myself “smiling, tasting the irony”.
As an added bonus the CD art is absolutely beautiful. It is painted in watercolors by bass player Zak Sally. Sally along with Mick Turner of Dirty Three, Ida Pearle of Ida, Bill Callahan of Smog, and Rob Mazurek of Chicago Underground Ensembles, have an exhibit of their art showing at the Naked Duck Gallery in Brooklyn NY now through February 29th.
What is great about this album is it has a little something for everyone, redemption after giving up your dream, literary allusions, the Silver Surfer and potential veiled references to Godzilla.
The Great Destroyer comes into your town, and destroys everything you think you know about indie rock. |