Do You Know How to POLLtz?: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low

https://i.imgur.com/jljDAp0.jpg

1. Songs: Rank your top 30 songs by Low. Collaborations and covers are eligible. If you want to vote for a particular version of a song, make a note in your ballot, but different versions of songs will be combined.

2. Albums: Rank up to your top 10 albums by Low. EPs and live albums are eligible too, anything more than a single that would count as a 'release'.

3. Covers: Rank up to your top 10 covers by Low. Live covers and studio recordings are all eligible.

Send ballots to ilmlowpoll AT gmail dot com. Order ballots from highest (#1) to lowest, without numbers, and include your username.

Voting closes approx midnight GMT on 14 November 2021 (~2 weeks time)

going to be fun and difficult and also fun

I'm listening through the last few EPs/albums I haven't heard yet, and still finding great stuff. crazy how since first hearing them in 2019, this band has so rapidly vaulted into one of my all-time favorite bands. I have no idea what kind of consensus there will be at all, even for albums

i have a vague sense of which albums are more likely to be favourites here, and what some of the likely favourite tracks are, but it feels very very open.

sleep at the bottom. vote for it everyone. now.

Probably the only current artists I've consistently loved since I was 16 (now 41) besides Bjork. Except unlike Bjork, I possibly love their latest work even more than their earlier work.

Albums/EPs is going to be tough. Tracks, near impossible...

Thanks for doing this, UFO. Much needed.

A few covers sure to make my list: Transmission, Down By The River, I Started A Joke, Little Drummer Boy, and Nowhere Man. I know I must be missing some other great ones …

Just gave C’mon and their debut a respin- they really know how to make the most of their epics.

Lazy will definitely be high on my list.

"down by the river" is probably my favourite cover, and i really like "let's stay together" and "i'm on fire" too

I love their cover of Soul Coughing’s “Blue Eyed Devil.”

Their cover of "Fearless" is all-time

I'm still putting covers in the overall tracks list, right?

Covers are separate according to the OP

There's a separate covers poll but choices can be put in the songs poll too!

yeah you can vote for covers in the overall list if you want to, but there's a separate covers poll as well

2. Albums: Rank up to your top 10 albums by Low. EPs and live albums are eligible too, anything more than a single that would count as a 'release'.

Don't sleep on the Bombscare EP! Comfortably in my top 2

Really looking forward to total Low-immersion over the next week

"Surfer Girl" is a really sweet cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4xPj91GsGM

There's also the really beautiful cover of Rihanna's "Stay," which absolutely blows the original out of the water afaic

really need to spend some more time with their eps and the stuff on that boxset, but even without those this is gonna be hard as hell

I just made a playlist, it had 59 songs on it. Most of Curtain is on there— that's my desert island Low album. I quickly deleted six songs. Don't understand how people can do this.

just a note that you can take a gander at some former iterations of LOW polls below.

What is the best Low album/release?
What is the best Low album/release? (Encore version)

It's still Curtain for me, in terms of albums.

What are people's favourites from the boxset?

My initial list of 30 is no way in step with the most played on Spotify or Last FM. This is very unexpected.

People! Start pitching!

Can I urge everybody to take another listen to "If You Were Born Today". It is possibly the purest distillation of what Low is, at least to me tonight. Beautiful.

I wish ppl wouldn't pitch! I want those raw numbers

Also, I've wanted to start a band forever that does sludge metal versions of Low songs

If you ever wondered what Low would do with "Africa." From 10 yrs ago. Not voting for this one lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWPx5N3rCvU

Listening to the playlist I made earlier, it seems a lot of Low songs make me cry. Maybe I'm just emotional.

The songs are just so beautiful

They really are the only "indie rock" band I like

One the best things about them being essentially a stable husband and wife duo is that I feel like they'll just keep putting out music together as long as they're alive.

Listening to the debut in order to start whittling down my list and this is already feeling impossible.

the most essential track from the rarities boxset is "venus"

some of the curtain hits the cast outtakes on it are pretty good too, "turning over" and "walk you out"

"Venus" will def be on my ballot.

i’m fond of “tomorrow one” and “old man song” from the box

Don't sleep on the Bombscare EP!

You weren't kidding, this might be my favorite of the EPs! The Murderer EP is also up there

yeah the murderer ep is pretty essential, the alternate early versions of "murderer" and "silver rider" are great and "from your place on sunset" is up with their best epics. interestingly it's the only time they worked as a duo prior to hey what, it was recorded during the period zak sally had left the band for a bit after the trust tour - he rejoined because they got a sudden offer to open for radiohead after supergrass pulled out.

Man, "Silver Rider." That's one of the (many) Low tracks I for some reason occasionally forget (because there are a lot of them), and then I see the band live and they play it and I think, wow, this band ...

Turning my attention to the albums rankings, I just realized how many I will be forced to leave out. This is hard!

I'm going to admit that I don't think any tracks from the past two albums will make it onto my ballot, none from Cmon or The Invisible Way, either.

As for HEY WHAT and Double Negative, tho— I love the records but the first five or six albums feel like they're part of my DNA or something, and I'm finding it much more difficult to winnow down tracks from those albums because it feels like I'm denying something that's given me succor and solace for a decade-plus.

I admit tho that most of Curtain remains on the list. Why? Because it's their best album.

definitely one of them!

Voted

I am still discovering this band but I am excited to cast a newcomer's ballot with whatever I can cover in two weeks. I don't think I had heard anything by them when Double Negative came out (maybe the debut), and I listened to Curtain for the first time this morning.

I've been a fan for about 20 years and have always considered them to be a very good band, but I didn't think of them as One of the Best Bands in the World until the opening moments of "Quorum".

I will most likely have a song from HEY WHAT in my top 2.

Quorum is great

Their discography is huge. I submitted my ballot without relistening, just going by the tracklists of each album and picking the songs I remember I liked the most but I’m sure I left some great ones out and I may have overrated a few of them.

yeah the murderer ep is pretty essential, the alternate early versions of "murderer" and "silver rider" are great and "from your place on sunset" is up with their best epics. interestingly it's the only time they worked as a duo prior to hey what, it was recorded during the period zak sally had left the band for a bit after the trust tour - he rejoined because they got a sudden offer to open for radiohead after supergrass pulled out.

― ufo, Tuesday, November 2, 2021 5:34 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I was at those Radiohead shows at MSG and that crowd was definitely not there for Low. Sparhawk played night 2 with a new guitar purchase courtesy of the gig windfall iirc.

Listened to Drums and Guns again. Reminded me that it has so many great tracks and serves as a good transition to the more recent work.
Ugh, it’s going to be hard to get the list down to 30 tracks.

Will you accept unranked ballots?

It’s currently their most popular song on Spotify as well. “Words” from the same LP is #2. Nothing else comes close.

less than a day to get ballots in for anyone still wanting to submit

I'm going to predict Amazing Grace as the winner, I think it's the closest we come to consensus.

Did the early Breaker https://archive.org/details/Low2007-02-17.aud.flac/low2007-02-17t04.flac ever got released as a B-side or similar to vote for, or only on the Retribution Gospel Choir lp? As fun as the jaunty Fridmann version was, hearing the live version first was the one that stayed with me - after all those years their anger finally spilling out like that.

only on the retribution gospel choir album, but you can vote for "Breaker (live version)" or anything like that if you want. it'll be counted with the studio version but i'm keeping track of votes for alternate versions of tracks

the retribution gospel choir version is more aggressive than low's live version, it's interesting but ultimately my least favourite version. i really love the studio version, it makes sense that alan was obsessed with arular at the time.

Yeah, it gets a vote regardless. Subsequent performances didn't make as much of an impression as that first time seeing what would become drums and guns. Also the 'Ohio' version of Sandanista, but reckon I was misremembering as it looks like they only started playing that version after the album came out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_srr4l5xU

test

Oh cool I've been unbanned, I was worried I couldn't participate in the poll when it starts

gtfo tbh

Until we have nicer things to say to each other, I'd be very happy if you stopped addressing me and I will return the favor. I will not accept any more bullying / censorship / childish behavior from you or your team.

v rich to be accused of bullying and censorship(????) for thinking your ideas about coercion are retrograde and dangerous. seems like you learned a lot from being banned. if you're in the results thread, i won't be there!

sorry for ruining the thread like this y'all, i'm just still very mad

palate cleanser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3--uA82cLfg

fitting given that i can't stop listening to everything but the girl this week

just submitted my ballot. went with gut instincts and tried not to overthink it, but still, so hard. incredibly excited to see this rollout!

Voted!

1 thru 5 ranked precisely, the rest are in the right general vicinity.

Love that Ben Watt collaboration. Interesting to hear Mimi’s voice on what could easily be an ETBG track.

Sent a ballot, if it's still open

yes there's still a bit longer - still open for the next 8-9 hours if anyone has last minute ballots

how long of a rollout do people want? thinking top 60 tracks but i can make it a bit longer, we have more than enough ballots to get something meaningful out of going a bit beyond that.

& more terrible pun thread name suggestions welcome (i can't think of any more beyond the few that were suggested upthread)

Do it as long as the results are interesting...

There's a point where it just becomes stragglers and loosies: everything above that imo

it'll be somewhere from 60 to 80, any more than that and it's the real stragglers

I do like "too LOW" as a title.

If we're punning, then how about "sometimes your CHOICE is not enough".

But if it has to have poll in there, "On our way from Stockholm, it started to POLL"?

do you know how to poll

oh i see that's the name of this thread

let's bring it out for an encore though!

If you were polled today, we'd vote you in place eight

Cause there's nothing as sad as a man on his back counting polls

I verified the math and double checked the poll

Fear of polls and a disappointing father

A poll shot up like a bright red snowflake

"...But here we sit debating math"

filling polls with tiny sounds

And if I POLL the mighty and strong will be rejected

There'll be just enough votes / For one special poll

60-80 More Reasons to Forget

i’m fond of “tomorrow one” and “old man song” from the box

― donna rouge, Monday, November 1, 2021 6:45 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

hear hear

The video for Over the Ocean is nice

The track at my #1 was above everything else for me (I avoided mentioning it in this thread) and the next of the top 15 were somewhat easy, but it was hard to decide on most of them after that, except on feelings in the moment, because there were too many great tracks to fit in

In retrospect I wish I had place Little Argument with Myself higher

xp to brad only one of those ended up on my ballot ha

well i sure hope it was "old man song"!!!!

ballot sent

ok that's a wrap, voting closed

results are a little weird honestly, but that makes it exciting

All You Pretty PeoPOLL, You’re All Gonna Die

Too Low is an excellent poll name.

Can you reveal early--how many ballots received?

too low!

either that, or Low with a bunch of drudge sirens on both sides

🚨🚨LOW🚨🚨POLL🚨🚨RESULTS🚨🚨

very catchy

whelp, after a week of immense jet lag, I ended up DJing a party yesterday, got very wasted and was exhausted and missed the deadline. Fail. Well, my top 10 would have been 80% from the last 2 albums, so probably a good thing to avoid adding recency bias to the tally.

I'll be watching intently though. ufo, thanks for running this!

recency bias would have been fine though, there's a lot of different views of low among the ballots, but my apologies for not being able to wait further for you octobeard.

here's the results

Too LOW: ILM Artist Poll #111 - Low - RESULTS

whoa, awesome! for some reason i was expecting tomorrow, although now i realize it's because you're in my tomorrow now! :D

*HEADS THERE*