Great Destroyer
On their seventh album, the Duluth, Minnesota-based trio Low have sped their songs up considerably so that now, they’re at normal pace. The album was cleverly produced by Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, the Flaming Lips, Wheat), and there are many fine songs here, like the upbeat anthem "California," the soundtrack-ish dirge "Pissing" and the gorgeous "Cue The Strings." Low has yet to make a bad album, but this is what you might call a "transitional" album. And speaking of transitions, there seems to be little glue to link these varied songs together. "Step" sounds like a song thePartridge Familythrew away, while "Everybody’s Song" shows that when you speed up repetitive dynamics that worked well at a glacial pace it’s not always such a good thing. Tempo isn’t everything by any means, but the self-imposed limitations of their former working methods, which produced such striking songs before, has yet to be replaced by an approach of equal value. At times, they don’t even sound like Low, but rather just another indie-pop band--not a bad one by any means, but not a sublime one either. It’ll be very interesting to see where they go next.--Mike McGonigal