LOW - The Invisible Way (March 2013, produced by Jeff Tweedy)

March 22nd: http://www.auftouren.de/upcoming-releases/

Short interview bit: http://www.mndaily.com/2012/11/21/lowdown

Not sure a stripped-down Low album can be considered "risky" - but I'll take anything they give us. C'mon was brilliant - one of their best.

I do like the idea of them working with another songwriter as a producer. "C'Mon" was self-produced, right? Tweedy's building himself one weird resume. Mavis Staples, Kids These Days, Low ...

ha, i kinda thought 'stripped down'/'risky' meant that it was going to be like ... more straightforward, less aestheticised singer-songwritery songs, like the jam on the great destroyer that everyone hates & calls dawsons-creek-esque but which i think i actually eventually liked & which might be called death of a salesman, i forget. also i have not thought about this group in awhile but this trip down memory lane reminds me that i haven't heard when i go deaf in a couple of years & guess what i'm gonna do now.

At this point in their career I think the ratio of "aestheticized" songs and more straightforward fare is somewhat balanced. They've messed with tempo and production so much - as long as Alan and Mimi are singing together it's going to sound like Low.

Schlump, you should hear C'mon if you haven't before.

yeah i heard it a couple of times through. i don't know. this is just long vague thoughts that should stay in my head, but, i am not totally tuned in with low at the moment. i remember feeling sad when they played the town i was living in when the last record came out, not going, cause it was kinda expensive, but feeling like not going to see low when they were playing was a significant seachange, like you have clearly changed if you are not even going to see them play, whatever you think of the records. i felt like with the last one it was almost like they were tapping a low vein too hard. like i have psychoanalysed & thought that maybe because the guy has a bunch of side projects, it stratifies where his material goes, & so the low records end up being this specific strain of sparhawkana, with some of the dangers of being generic-low that i guess the post-rock scene had, in terms of just doing the same thing every time, hitting a formula, denied of some of the sprawl or stray twist that having one outlet offers you, necessitating a broth, compelling assimilation, insisting that you fuck with the formula to be able to integrate where you're at. i really liked witches & especially me, for being their own thing & hitting a weird vibe. & i think their bass player's really great. but i guess i just couldn't connect to it. i remember really liking that mogwai record that everyone hated, happy songs for happy people, with all the low-key orchestral stuff, & then feeling really disappointed that they kinda by-popular-demand went back & did their loud thing, came back all chestbumping like this is the loudest shit, this is o.g. mogwai. & it's funny to think of the great destroyer, because it's obviously really flawed & maximises the awkwardness of like bob marley t-shirt lines & terribly temporal dave friedman production & all. but at the same time it gets me as being a kinda purer expression of trying to do something different. i liked drums & guns, though didn't go back to it a whole lot. belarus. i think i was sad they'd kinda screwed the trust-esque sprawl of the way they played sandanista, live. trust is probably the record i go back to the most. it has such a great weight & sound, space & speed.

It's funny you say that about Trust. I was a die-hard Low fan from the first album through Things We Lost in the Fire, and at the time of Trust I hit a wall a lot like what you describe. Only two years ago did I finally go back and hear the last few albums. Now I'm fully back on the train and back to feeling like they've never done anything wrong.

yeah i mean trust has a bad rep, i think, i guess it's maybe slightly less glossy or palatable than the couple of records on either side of it. i think it really hits a mood though. so much of it is weird & singular in their catalogue, & some of the kinda generic stuff on there - candy girl, say - is so much more interesting than some of the similar slicks on their other records (medicine magazines, overhead, &c)

Of the album's 11 tracks, drummer/vocalist Mimi Parker sings lead on five.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swv0SQI_C4

free live record in exchange for yr e-mail, too:
http://pitchfork.com/news/48735-low-announce-new-album-the-invisible-way-produced-by-wilcos-jeff-tweedy/

don't quote me out of context but man i forgot about pissing

yeah that looks bad

not super excited about tweedy-ness but i'll take whatever new low album comes my way. drums & guns is still my favorite and i'd love to see them experiment with electronic textures again, but c'mon is great too. seeing them on tour last april was the best show i went to all year.

free live record in exchange for yr e-mail, too:
http://pitchfork.com/news/48735-low-announce-new-album-the-invisible-way-produced-by-wilcos-jeff-tweedy/

i feel like you should be legally obligated to mention that the EP features Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard

just on bass right?

free live record, in exchange for becoming ben gibbard's post-divorce penfriend

guest verse, tyler w

well ... i guess it is free.

I hit a wall after "Trust" and "The Great Destroyer" was exactly the kind of jolt they needed to sustain their career.

The last two albums have been patchy but the good songs are really really good and that's enough for me at this point.

I thought 'Trust' was great at the time, scattershot but still worthwhile. I haven't listened to it in a long time mind you.

'The Great Destroyer' never really clicked for me.I appreciated their slight change in direction and a few of the songs have grown on me over the years as a result of seeing them live but none the less it's my least favourite Low album.

I thought 'Drums & Guns' had some great songs on it but I hated the production; some of the most extreme and fatiguing panning I've heard. I'm funny with Fridmann anyway. I heard a radio session where they played most of the tracks on the album and it sounded great which just reaffirmed my feelings that the production let the album proper down. (Session is here; http://archive.org/details/Low2007-04-23.Black_Session.FM.flac16)

Thought 'C'mon' was great though so I'm all up for this new one.

Am I the only one who thought C'mon was Low-by-numbers and quite dull? I liked The Great Destroyer & Drums & Guns a lot though.

It's never clicked with me at all, although a lot of that might be through not listening to it enough. The live show touring it bored me too and led me to think I might be done with Low, but I'll undoubtedly get more excited about this as it starts to get closer.

Drums & Guns still hasn't really done it either, and The Great Destroyer took a while. At least some of it, for those, is that the redone versions of the songs from the Murderer EP just weren't as good.

Yeah I agree re Murderer EP

I wish they'd stop playing zero atmosphere places like the Barbican

'C'mon' was the first full-bore (pun intended) disappointment since Low began doing there best work (which I mark to around 'Songs for a Dead Pilot'/'Secret Name'/'Bombscare' onward).

I guess I'm a weirdo, though, because I liked 'Trust' a lot better than 'The Great Destroyer,' possibly better than 'Things We Lost in the Fire'; and 'Drums and Guns' remains by far my favorite Low album (production most definitely included). I like my Low darker and weirder, I guess.

i really loved c'mon - i like my low spiritual & warm - but in the background i always had that feeling that it was a little too simple and straightforward. but after dozens of listens i am still not tired of it. in any case i love my low live, they are just unfuckable with in concert. every time i saw them the audience was in total awe and completely silent. there was always this intense almost religious atmosphere.

i listened to c'mon last night and it holds up, but my favorite tracks are ones that are self-consciously minimal in terms of writing but lean on dynamics and texture, like 'nothing but heart' and 'majesty/magic'. i hope the new one isn't a whole record of stuff like 'something's turning over' (unadorned acoustic songs).

Last time live in Bristol was the complete opposite, sold out for the first time ever and full of 30 and 40 somethings who talked to each other nearly all way through - people I was seeing at a gig for the first time after a decade of going to see Low round here. It was like they'd had a local radio hit, or been on Jools Holland or had a feature in The Observer and suddenly exploded in popularity, totally bizarre.

the Robert Plant covers on his last LP had a big impact i think

I thought C'mon was their best in ten years - at least since Things We Lost in the Fire.

the album is out March 19 in the U.S. and March 18 in the UK via Sub Pop.

1 Plastic Cup
2 Amethyst
3 So Blue
4 Holy Ghost
5 Waiting
6 Clarence White
7 Four Score
8 Just Make It Stop
9 Mother
10 On My Own
11 To Our Knees

album has leaked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHR9o8J5cBg

Yikes, a leak nearly three months in advance? Why would promotional copies even be going out that early?

Low seems established enough at this point, I wonder if they wouldn't be better off self-releasing, so they could take a higher cut on what they create, and not need (apparently) a months-long promo period for new work.

Also really hope that's not the official cover. I'm sure it'll be a lovely album--but as much as I love these guys, 'Drums and Guns' may be the peak.

there is this real nice mimi song, holy ghost, that makes sense of the slight-country, upright-bass thing they've been circling for a while

First track out:

http://www.subpop.com/artists/low

ha, i kinda thought 'stripped down'/'risky' meant that it was going to be like ... more straightforward, less aestheticised singer-songwritery songs, like the jam on the great destroyer that everyone hates & calls dawsons-creek-esque but which i think i actually eventually liked & which might be called death of a salesman, i forget.

http://i50.tinypic.com/wmo8j5.jpg

whoa, guy on left

ahhye don't wahnt, your lahfe

real cover art (THANK GOD) http://i.imgur.com/7RCHW.jpg

Plastic Cup, another track from the new album. Nice, promising sounding duet.

Josh Hartnett is in the band now?

Lotsa piano on the new one, sounds like Low. Less experimental, perhaps, than recent Low, too. Like just Low live in a room, more or less.

i like this more than i expected, since texturally-speaking it's pretty boring compared to the last couple records but the songs are good. i hope they don't stick with tweedy as a producer for the next one though.

'on my own' is the outlier - starts out sounding as conventional as they ever have (folky 2-step!), drops into a huge doom riff, and then they start singing 'happy birthday'. it's kinda funny and i'm into it, but now i can imagine them doing a 'happy birthday' that's soul-crushing and tear-jerking and this isn't it.

"Holy Ghost" is a great song. Not sure if the rest is up to snuff or not just yet.

nice to hear Mimi singing lead so confidently throughout, though

Alan talking about the new disc...

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4146122-real-men-don%E2%80%99t-play-the-piano-dis-meets-alan-sparhawk-from-low

i'm glad he feels the same way about drums & guns as i do.

I came to love Low over the years from 'Songs from a Dead Pilot' onward, but 'Drums and Guns' was definitely by far my favorite. The last couple, just by being sort of mellow and "normal" have been a bit of a disappointment. Of course, I wouldn't wish the apparently related mental anguish on them--but he's right, it's great they got an amazing piece of art out of the time.

Has anyone used songs from D&G in a movie yet? Breaker, Dragonfly, Murderer, Violent Past.... They seem to cry out to be used in pivotal movie scenes. It's an amazing disc.

Some really strong songs on this (The Invisible Way, I mean). I reckon "Just Make It Stop" is in the Top 5 best things Low have ever done. Loving the piano too; it gives the whole record a bit of a Coldplay feel (only not annoying).

lots of mimi harmonizing with herself too, is this a new thing for low records?

cool vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAdzJ1U0RU

Haven't been able to get into this album at all yet - it's the first time this is happening :-/

i just saw them in concert in frankfurt. they played a mix of old and new songs. they often ended the old tunes with noise and guitar distortion. as if they wanted to massacre their own songs. that reminded me of dylan who changes the interpretation of his songs all the time that in the end you cannot recognise them anymore. nice concert altgether, we were about three meters from alan. when he plays the guitar he closes the eyes and makes strange faces and dances in a weird, introspective way.

Given this is their most household-name producer ever, there (anecdotally) is a shocking degree of disinterest surrounding this disc.

It has some great moments and is by no means a bad album. But in the context of their discography it falls somewhere in the middle.

anyone see the new documentary? it's showing here tomorrow, planning on hitting it.

Their 4th? How many docs can one band generate.

4th?! i only know of 'You May Need a Murderer', which i was into, and this new one.

'Low In Europe' also, could have sworn there was another one, maybe not.

Oh...'Closer Than That', which was included in the box set.

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

sounds like Low is doing all the heavy lifting here, but i'd be ok with a whole Low record that sounded like this (so Drums & Guns, basically).

The second half, where it opens up, is where you really hear Trentemoller's contribution. I like it a lot more than anything on The Invisible Way, which just slips past me every time I put it on.

Woah, that is gorgeous.

Very good. Reminds me a bit of the fantastic collaboration they did with Spring Heel Jack a decade or so ago--which remains amongst my favorite of their work, along with 'Drums & Guns' and the 'Songs for a Dead Pilot' EP. Weird Low that resists being only pretty is the best Low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Bx-d20ME8

i'm seeing them tonight in a small barn, very excited for this.

you won't regret, the smaller the place the better. they can create a special, intimate vibe like few bands.

I interviewed Alan last year, he was great. This is a fantastic album, and Just Make It Stop is one of the greatest things they've ever done. http://www.llss.tv/LOW.html

just make it stop is a showstopper.

(a lot of low's songs are breathtaking / showstoppers, to be honest)

it was a great show, i've seen them before but it definitely felt special to do so in such a small, quiet space.

covers of 'I'm On Fire' and Rihanna btw

low is a pretty great covers band. i've wanted them to put out a full album of late 70s and 80s covers, like toto and hall and oates and romeo's tune and other stuff.

There's a whole bunch of givers on the box set.

Covers obv

can't stop listening to their version of 'Stay'

Low - I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)

https://soundcloud.com/lightning-rod-records-1/06-im-on-fire-low/s-HAwCX