Low
Drums and Guns
Four Stars

If you appreciate Low's hypnotic brand of slowcore you will love this record. Drums and Guns opens ominously with "Pretty People" – All the soldiers/babies/people/poets are all gonna die. Sounds fun! I know. But persist, chickens. There's gold in them thar hills.

Low's last collaboration – with the Dirty Three – was a perfect melding of wildly differing styles, but a meeting over shared thematic territory - a dark vein Low continue to mine here. As the title might give away, Drums and Guns is very concerned with death (And the blood just spills and spills/My hand just kills and kills – Come clean/And off with your head – "Always Fade") and the undercurrent of sacrifice and redemption. (Yes they, like Brandon Flowers, are Mormons.) But in a broader context, it reads as a pacifist rallying call and a timely questioning of the American political landscape.

As always, what elevates Low above their murder-themed and potentially dreary minimalist soundscapes are the hauntingly beautiful, intertwined vocals of husband/wife team Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. They even have fun! There are cheeky allusions and skittered beats on "Let's Bury the Hatchet": You be my Charlie and I can be your George/Let's bury the hatchet like the Beatles and the Stones/ They'll play our tunes for ever on the radio… Sure they will.

This record will worm its way into your ear and lodge itself firmly in your brain, melodies lingering long after you're asleep. Perhaps not something to throw on at you next dinner party or stew over in the midst of existential crises/a hangover, but it's a strange and beautiful thing. If you've never caught the Low train, here is where you get on. If you're already a fan of their work, you will enjoy this album hugely.