There’s a real sureness of touch about C’Mon, which is hardly surprising I suppose…. Nothing is out of place and there’s no real rush to push the songs at the listener.
There’s a real sureness of touch about C’Mon, which is hardly surprising I suppose…. Nothing is out of place and there’s no real rush to push the songs at the listener.
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This is the first Low record I’ve reviewed, or listened to at length; I suppose I should be more cognisant with their work, but they’re just one of those bands that have passed me by. Plenty of Incendiary writers love them; we’ve interviewed Alan and reviewed other stuff of theirs in the far distant past. In any case, I’m sure they don’t need us to underpin C’Mon’s qualities.
So to the record. There’s a real sureness of touch about C’Mon, which is hardly surprising I suppose…. Nothing is out of place and there’s no real rush to push the songs at the listener. It’s also a very, very accessible record; full of harmonies and the sort of wide-eyed lullabies that American bands are so good at writing. You See Everything is a good example of both these points; it takes a good few minutes for the beauty of this stately track to hit you, and there’s enough time for the instrumentation to build up brilliantly around a simple repeated coda. Try to Sleep is a classic American folk pop song; it contains all the sun-dappled melancholy that you’d expect from a Brian Wilson composition. I’ve also heard that the band talked about Richard and Linda Thompson in relation to this record and I think that if that’s true, it’s also a good thread to draw on, there’s something of the steely determination and regal nature of Pour Down Silver, for sure.
Stately is a good word to describe this LP, as it glides elegantly through its allotted time, regardless of you think. One of the strongest tracks, Witches, is reminiscent at times of the Verve at their peak (Witches takes Lucky Man’s chords and makes a much less mawkish, much darker composition from the same ingredients); and elsewhere tracks like $20 just float along like some faery caravan.
The vocals are also tremendous all the way through; Done and Nightingale couldn’t live without the rich and confident leads or the subtle counterpoints, they would just sound undercooked. As it is, it sounds like you’re being preached to. The pace of this record (also beautifully expressed on the supremely patient and giving Especially Me and the growl of Majesty / Magic) and is best heard with the highlight; Nothing But Heart. This is a tremendous slow burner, taking a good few minutes to convey its message via some determined repetition & towering instrumentation, it’s utterly overwhelming.
Top record.