DOWNLOAD: Low – Try To Sleep
Like many of their likeminded, bummed-out peers, Low could have been written off as an interesting relic of the so-called “slowcore” movement of the 90’s if not for their consistency and restraint. After almost twenty years together, their rhythm section has still never crept past a snail’s pace, the music minimal to the point of being maddening, but never sounding formulaic. On “Try to Sleep,” the first song off their ninth album, C’mon (out tomorrow from Sub Pop), Low still plays slow enough to make Galaxie 500 sound like The Ramones. Guitarist and singer Alan Sparhawk has only refined his lyrics, which are as barely-there as everything else, and have never been exactly cheerful. When he sings, with his wife Mimi Parker harmonizing sweetly, “You try to sleep,” the emphasis is on “try,” stressing more than anything the futility of drifting off into slumber. If sleep does come, the band warns by song’s end in a subtle crescendo, “You never wake up.” Let’s hope they never cheer up.
