For anybody unfamiliar with this band (and that will be many people), Low are a three piece from Duluth, Minnesota consisting of Mormon Christians Alan Sparhawk (vocals, guitar), Mimi Parker (drums, vocals) and Zak Sally (bass). Their music is a combination of clean guitar chords and mournful vocal harmonies spread over drawn out bass and reverbed drums, played at what seems like 6 beats per minute. The simplicity of the music allows the vocals and meaning of their songs to take center stage to great emotional effect.
This 8 track mini album, released back in 1999, serves as the band’s answer to the commercialisation of Christmas. The songs, in general, are downbeat unlike most Christmas music, and focus on the Christmas story in the Bible and the various emotions that people can feel at this time of the year. Stay with me, it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds!
Track by track:
1) Just Like Christmas: The album starts in an uncharacteristically jangly and upbeat way with this track. To put it into perspective, Low playing at this tempo would
be equivalent to somebody like U2 going through a speed garage phase after drinking too much coffee... The subject of this song is that things often associated with time of year, such as snow are not necessarily what it’s about, as Parker sings, ‘We felt so young, it was just like Christmas’, but that it’s the feelings that go with the holiday that truly make it.
2) Long Way Around The Sea: The second song reverts back to the band’s usual distinctive sound. The chorus, a tearful, drawn out male-female harmony that tells you to ‘Take the long way around the sea” is this song’s main selling point, with the groups trademark sparse instrumentation in evidence. The song itself is about the Christmas story, with references to King Herod and other parts of the Bible story.
3) Little Drummer Boy: The famous traditional song that everybody knows is transformed into something amazing, with a scratchy organ drone blending with breathy vocals resulting in one of the highlights of this album. This was featured on a Gap advert a few years ago if you can remember that far back.
4) If You Were Born Today: ‘If you were born today, we’d kill you by age eight...’ is the first line to this movingly bleak song about the killing of the first borns by Herod. The main vocal part is Sparhawk’s, but with Parker bringing in a quivering female element in some parts to great effect, especially in the climactic line ‘tonight, you’ll deny me thrice!’.
5) Blue Christmas: An alternative take on the Elvis song, beautifully sung by Mimi Parker. The upbeat rhythm of the original has gone to be replaced by the minimalist tone that Low are best known for. The band definitely bring an air of loneliness to this track which in my opinion, put it way above the original. You can feel just how alone it’s possible to be when you are on your own at Christmas time.
6) Silent Night: Sing along, you know the words! The band’s most traditional sounding cover is an folky, acoustic take on the well-known ‘hymn’ (is it a hymn or just a song? I’m not sure). Probably the weakest track on the album, but still a very good listen, even though there are no real surprises here.
7) Taking Down The Tree: This is where the band talk about the slightly sad feeling that you often get after it’s all finished, and how the seasons move on regardless. I don’t have the album with me at the moment so I can’t say too much about this one, but I’ll update it when I get back home!
8) One Special Gift: The shortest track on the album, and in some ways the most effecting. It has a very downbeat mood, with a sad sounding Mimi Parker singing how, after Christmas has finished, they can still get together just enough money to buy ‘One special gift, for one special guest’. Many people state this as their favourite track, the shortness of it somehow emphasises the emotion and, strangely, make it feel the most Christmassy of all the songs on this album.
Running time is around 30 minutes.
The album cover, drawn by bassist Zak Sally, is excellent. It consists of a maroon background, with snow and snowflakes and the title, handwritten, in the center. It perfectly suits the tone and mood of the music on the CD, which incidentally, has a giant snowflake drawn on it :-). The band tell you to consider the album as their gift to you and apologise for the commerce involved in getting it to you. In shops it is around £6 or £7 (great value) and though it can be hard to find during summer, it seems to get into the shops in higher numbers during December.
As long as you don’t mind listening to songs with religious lyrics, or hate sad music then this is a brilliant CD to own. You may even find yourself listening to it at other times of the year, and I’ve not found anybody yet who can honestly say they don’t like Low’s version of Blue Christmas! My honest advice is to try and buy this while you still can. I’m glad I did.
Thanks for reading my review; I think I’ll have to lie down now... I’ve tired myself out! Hope you enjoyed it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I wish I'd read about this before Christmas instead of just afterwards. It would've been a great Wizzard antidote. I've only just discovered this band, so was very pleased to find such an appreciative review on here. Paul
MissTopaz 07.06.2004 20:55
looks interesting,just never heard of them!
a-true-ben 22.05.2004 01:29
I've seen this around for a fiver and was tempted even though I didn't have much idea what it was like. Perhaps I'll have to give it a try for next Christmas.
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