Drums And Guns by Low
Sub Pop Records; 2007
8/10
"All soldiers/They're all gonna die/All the pretty people/They're all gonna die," yells Alan Sparhawk as a wall of blaring, reversed feedback and funeral march like tom smashing (courtesy of wife and drummer Mimi Parker) envelopes your left and right chanel speakers in opener "Pretty People." It's telling that the Dulluth, Minnessota trio's (there is also new bassist Matt Livingston replacing former bass player Zak Sally) eighth album would pick up right where their last one did, 2005's The Great Destroyer. That album marked new territory for the band and saw a shift into more rock oriented songwriting that differed greatly from their earlier, more minimal efforts. Here, again we see that Low has been experimenting with their formula, but rather than writing songs with big dissonant guitars and fuzz bass, the band has opted for a much colder, electronic sound, more akin to their earlier, quieter days perhaps in mood rather than aesthete. Drums and Guns is not a retread of Long Division's glacial percussion and chiming, insistent guitars nor does it seek to sound like their more recent, distorted efforts like Trust. Rather, this is completely new ground for Low and returning producer Dave Friddman allows them to more fully explore their sound.
On first single "Breaker", Low showcases their new found love for electronic music: the married two-some of the group harmonize against the cold backdrop of a simple organ melody and a skittery electronic beat complete with handclaps and more feedback. Elsewhere, things dip into even more experimental, perhaps stranger pastures. "Dust on the Window", with its lazy percussion and Mimi Parker's haunting vocal, invokes old Low as played by ambient music composer Brian Eno. Songs like "Violent Past" and "Belarus" are deeply hypnotic, ghostly gems, the former reprising "Breaker's" melancholic organ and the latter using odd reversed vocal samples and thumping bass. The rest of the album runs along those same lines without much loss of momentum. From beginning to end, one can't help but feel entranced by the almost kraut-rock like dedication here, more so than on any other Low release, to repetition and noise, sometimes loud, as on "Pretty People", and sometimes delicately fragile, as on the machine like clatter of "Dragonfly." Despite the sort of nondescript drone these songs may conjure up on first listen, its interesting to note that never does there seem to be a dull moment here. In fact, unlike previous Low albums, Drums and Guns' songs always feel varied and on repeated listen,
the songs start to open up and reveal new sounds hidden beneath.
Unfortunately, the same depth can't be divulged from the lyrics of Drums And Guns' songs. Its clear from the album and song titles ("Belarus", "Sandinista") that Low sees the need for more pointed commentary in their music. To that end, the anti-war themes expressed herein may seem interesting fodder for the band, but this only reveals itself to be a sorely missed opportunity. For what is supposed to be an anti-war record, the closest the group ever gets to addressing the matter directly comes in odd lyrical couplets as in "Murderer" ("You may need a murderer/ Someone to do your dirty work") or "In Silence" ("They put the treasure deep inside us/ They thought the desert would divide us"). Where Low has always gotten by on their music alone in the past, on an album where political discontent seems to play a prominent role, the intent lacks and, at times, kills some of the momentum in getting their lyrics to affect us. The production, as well, may turn some people away from listening. Most instruments including vocals and bass are sampled through only one channel and therefore, some songs tend to suffer
from an uneveness soundwise.
If anything, Drums and Guns will probably be heard as one of the most dividing albums among Low fans such as The Great Destroyer was two years ago. Still, this doesn't mean that long-time Low fans will be turned off from Drums and Guns. In fact, this is surely one of their best records yet in a streak of solid albums dating back all the way to 2001's Things We Lost in the Fire. Sure, some people could say that all this album is is Low and a drum machine, but there is a more interesting dynamic at play here than just simply that. Hopefully, they'll take the time to explore those dynamics more fully and I'll be here waiting for another Low record, guessing the next new radical reinvention of their sound.
