owl and bear

2007, Sub Pop

Low’s latest album is neither great nor terrible.

Call me crazy, but I kept expecting Drums & Guns to climax instead of going on like too-long foreplay for the span of the album.

In many ways, the album resembles a war observed from a safe distance: the drums indeed pound like guns, but only as if heard from a distant pastoral setting, where the violence can be safely discussed.

Drums & Guns successfully illustrates that Low exists outside of traditional genres. Somehow, this is a kind of hip-hop album, yet it lacks any inclination to shake one’s ass. Drums & Guns could also be a rock album, but it has very little instrumentation.

Here, there is a deliberate languor—a sluggishness that recalls nothing more than the pace of continental drift. In fairness to Low, it is widely known that they’re the pioneers of “Slowcore,” so the pace is not entirely unexpected. By the album’s end, though, listeners may find themselves still waiting.

C