"I thought slow and quiet was the way to go. I was wrong"
So said Alan Sparhawk of Low, upon the release of their 'The Great Destroyer' album in 2005, which was Low with added rock. Since then, Sparhawk formed a side-project with Mark Kozelek, Eric Pollard and Matt Livingstone, which enabled him to make the louder, rockier music that was interesting him. RGC have already released a couple of EPs and now, with Kozelek producing but not playing, they have released their first full LP.
It contains ten tracks, two of which are previously released Low songs, and weighs in at just over 30 minutes. At a recent Low gig, Mimi Parker remarked of RGC "they just all solo at the same time". She may have been joking but she's not entirely wrong. The songs all follow the loud-quiet-loud formula, lots of guitar and plenty of repeated one line choruses.
The problem with this record, for me, is that there is none of the warmth that you can find on most Low records. Sparhawk's voice struggles with the pace of these songs and sounds weak and there is little variety and subtlety.
If you want to hear how Low would sound as a rock band, buy 'The Great Destroyer' instead. This sounds like a hurried, lazy, predictable album.
4.7
