Low - Things We Lost In The Fire

Rating: 8.7
When Low emerged from snowy Duluth, Minnesota with their 1994 Kramer-produced debut, I Could Live in Hope, their trudging funeral marches, sparse instrumentation, and Royal Albert Hall production values were strikingly fresh. Though they were preceded in the slowcore movement by earlier innovators like Galaxie 500 and Codeine, it was Low that defined the genre's sound.

Of course, by their third album, 1996's The Curtain Hits the Cast, the formula began to wear thin. New producer Steve Fisk brought little to the trio's sound, which remained virtually unchanged. While Low turned out a few great songs on the record-- namely, "Anon," "Over the Ocean," and "Lust"-- the near-Canadians failed to branch out, save for the 15-minute jam session "Do You Know How to Waltz?"

Low began loosely experimenting on 1998's Songs for a Dead Pilot EP, but returned to less adventurous songwriting the following year with the full-length Secret Name. The album sported crisper, less dramatic production, but failed to deviate from the concept the band had begun with five years earlier. Regardless, the songs were of a similar caliber to those on previous outings, and a whole legion of new fans sprung up.

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