There are times, rare but glorious, when you hear an artist's music for the first time and you know that you will most likely listen to their music for the rest of your life. This happened to me with Tindersticks, when I first heard Innocence Mission's 'Befriended' and when I saw Low play live in London...now it has happened to me again after a mere few days of listening to The Low Anthem's second album 'Oh My God, Charlie Darwin'.
On opener 'Charlie Darwin', singer Ben Knox Miller uses a Bon Iver style falsetto to relate a tale of a drowning world.."oh my god, the water's all around us...oh my god, life is cold and formless" over a sparse, gentle melody. It is stunning and hymn-like, an incredible opener.
They follow with two more ballads, the best of which 'Ticket Taker' is a crushed love song from the perspective of the guy collecting tickets for entry onto a modern day ark which is saving people from the aforementioned floods. Knox Miller uses his natural voice here, a strong singer-songwriter voice and the added harmonica make this the first real Americana sounding track on the record. You will be enthralled by the lyrics at this stage though.
They change direction here and Knox Miller reveals the third different singing voice used on this record. This time, it is a throaty roar as the band move through two Stones-esque rockers with all the exhuberance of Dylan circa 'Highway 61 Revisted', rousing rootsy stompers both.
The pace changes again for perhaps the best track of all. '(Don't) Tremble' is a beautiful, stripped down ballad with acoustic guitar in one speaker and birdsong in the other. Knox Miller sings of staying strong, not giving up...human resilience ("...do not tremble, do not sweat/ for where then would you get?"). His voice is like a whisper in your ear, haunting but comforting.
It is hard to see how the record could have faltered after reaching such heights and thankfully it doesn't. What follows includes 'Champion Angel', the album's key rocker, a joyous Arcade Fire/Walkmen style epic with some glorious guitar and enough of a chorus to have you singing along and even considering punching the air. There are another couple of low-fi ballads and a reworking of 'To Ohio' to finish.
The songwriting on 'Oh My God Charlie Darwin' is exemplary. Individually the songs are poetic, well written and affecting. Collectively the record tells a story which is touching, life affirming and a comment about aspects of the modern world. The writing is vivid enough to allow you to conjure up images in your mind of some of the scenes described, you will care about the record and the people within the stories.
The music itself is often low key, allowing the words to take centre stage but there is great innovation too. 'Oh My God Charlie Darwin' is a record to treasure. Containing echoes of the work of some of the all time great songwriters, this is a magnificent album - one of the very finest that I have heard in the last decade.
9.8
['Oh My God, Charlie Darwin' is out now on Bella Union. The Low Anthem tour the UK in September]
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