“Feeds My Passion For Transcendence” - Low :: “The Invisible Way” - Sub Pop
The Duluth, MN-based group, Low, will always and forever remain this gorgeous and calculated multi-particle of poetic flesh accelerating at a speed measured only in dissonant distance and the rare rumors of having been in the presence of something divine and truly angelic throughout their near three-decade-long career leading up to the devastating passing of the band’s drummer/vocalist, the late Mimi Parker in 2022. Reliant on the paranormal prose of existence and expertise in existential bliss, Low secured themselves in the sacred fibers of history like no other. The plane from which they expressed their holy union of harmonious rhythm and soothingly safe sounds has been carefully extracted from the Platonic roots of the planet and forever displayed throughout a successfully curated museum of mourning that perfectly tells the tales of the fragile history of human greatness for all to see, hear and feel.
For Low’s tenth studio, “The Invisible Way”, the band summoned the fragile familiarity that they’re famously known for that dates all the way back to 1994 for their monumentally groundbreaking debut, “I Could Live In Hope”. But something about this album celebrates the cerebral cohesiveness of life, death and atmospheric humanity like nothing they had released up until that point. Swaying in newborn skin like that of an infinite in the infinity of creation, with its soft head bobbing to the vibrations of existence, that the band calls upon as they surge through the detailed tragedies of life with spontaneous sobriety and polished perfection. Where cells meet the swells of the early morning waves that crash against the stone skeleton of the beach like that of some ancient tale between two gods, Low manifests the almighty academia of faith, hope and love in that they harvest the solace shadows of the past, present and future in a way that’s both cinematically calming and devastatingly moving.
“How is this different from any other Low record? Mimi sings lead on five of the eleven songs (she usually only does one or two, despite being a fan favorite). Piano, lots of piano… and an acoustic guitar. Songs about intimacy, the drug war, the class war, plain old war war, archeology, and love.”
-Alan Sparhawk, 2013
While the album extends its lucid body into the deep dark crevasses of the mind, the band bends time into this sharp shape of geometric gestures that lends a hand in the most difficult of times, while the sometimes ominous orchestral opportunities of music take hold in a way that totally embodies the narrative of afterlife and friends and family. Opening with the sobering salute from “Plastic Cup”, the album branches out into the universe of prehistoric unity as the forever frozen layers of deep space conquers the senses and artistic appetite of anyone who dares to venture into its black heart of infinity and iconic isolation. Continuing with musical mosaics like “Amethyst”, “Holy Ghost” and “Just Make It Stop”, Low begins to unfold the stark details of humanity and the rhythmic rapture of its hand in a way that echos into the rhetoric and ritualism of the group’s stunning legacy and the years to come.
