Low, The Curtain Hits the Cast [Vernon Yard / Caroline]
Rating: 8.5
Low. The name says it all. The slow, drifting melodies send you to a faraway place
of funeral tears. Low have been around the slowcore scene since the early 1990s when
Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker,
a married Mormon couple out of Duluth, Minnesota, started experimenting
with a kind of music that might be a bit 'easier to play.' (Which is not to say that
Low can't play their instruments. On the contrary, in fact.
Sparhawk is said to be an extremely talented guitarist.)
On the new record, Low have abandonded indie rock producer/god, Kramer
who "discovered" the band and produced all of their previous releases.
New producer, Steve Fisk (who has worked with Nirvana and Boss Hog)
gives the album an ever more stark feel, though the difference is not truly noticeable.
On the whole, The Curtain Hits the Cast is stunning, though I think they could use
a change of pace. Nothing dramatic, but perhaps trying to incorporate pianos or
keyboards. Even though Low is more about a minimalistic rather than an overblown,
overproduced approach, it may do them some good to try new things. I can't complain.
There's never been such a thing as a bad Low album, and I suspect there never will
be.
-Ryan Schreiber
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