Drums and Guns

Description

Formed in 1993, Low is from Duluth, Minnesota, and features Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, Mimi Parker on vocals and drums, and Matt Livingston on bass and vocals. Sparhawk and Parker are married with two children; they first met in fourth grade in rural Minnesota. Drums and Guns is the bands eighth full-length album and second for Sub Pop. Its also, after 2005s The Great Destroyer, the second album theyve recorded with producer Dave Fridmann. Drums and Guns features a number of songs that ardent Low fans will recognize from the bands recent live shows. These songs appear here in substantially altered forms, as though theyve been taken apart and reassembled in striking new ways, or seen with new eyes. Or, given the lyrical emphasis on murder and death, a more insightful interpretation might see the band killing these songs and bringing them back to life anew. Theres no contrivance here, however. While these songs feature new elements (looped vocals, drum machines, etc.) and are thoroughly, radiantly contemporary, they remain undeniably Lows. Drums and Guns possesses the unique, subtle beauty and power weve come to expect from Low, but the record is also profoundly exciting in ways that its easy to forget music can be.