Listening to Low songs stopped encouraging my whimper-ridden fits of gloom a long time ago. Yes, the Duluth, Minn., trio has a sound more mournful than that of Leonard Cohen, more stridently upset than Morrissey and more abject than any other “indie” band out there. But the quiet tones and the soft voices of married guitarist Alan Sparhawk and percussionist Mimi Parker usually don’t create depression as much as they complement it.
However, with Trust (Kranky), Low’s sixth album, the band changes up their signature death-march style just enough to make the album a challenge to the listener’s weary mood. Low will always be too dreary to fit comfortably into the “rock” section of the genre known as indie rock, but on Trust, they break from their characteristic misery and offer up some fierce, upbeat musical and lyrical tunes. The short and overwhelmingly simple “La La La Song” even features the ambiguously amusing lyric, “Sometimes I could just choke myself with laughter.” Trust’s lyrics, which alternate between jarring and soothing, are sung by the stunning and underrated Parker, who takes lead vocals on the introspective highlight, “Point of Disgust.”
Some of the album is reminiscent of the band’s earlier works with its focus on Sparhawk’s haunting and slow-paced singing, including the lengthy ender “Shots and Ladders.” But songs like “Canada” and “Snowstorm” are startlingly assertive for Low, relegating Sparhawk’s singing to the background in favor of a more powerful guitar sound. Considering the band helped lay the foundation for what is known as “slow-core,” the louder instrumentation on Trust is a radical departure from the tortoise-paced buildup that traditionally defined Low’s sound. But the more one listens to the album, the less harsh these experiments become.
What differentiates Trust from its critically acclaimed predecessors are breaks from the undeniably angst-ridden tracks fans know and love. Rock experiments like “Canada” and extreme vocal and musical simplifications like “Point of Disgust” may not prevent the listener from curling up sniffling. But they definitely make falling asleep to Trust a difficult task. nyou
