![]() ![]() This is the whole thought - the untamed truth. Working 2 or 3 days at a time, leaving it with BJ, then back again for more, we don't have the time or money to second-guess or pick from a pool of possibilities. Glenn Kotche from Wilco was there one day working on another record, so we had him in to play hand-percussion on a couple songs. We tracked under the soft glow of laser discs playing lost classics like Point Break and Speed. We got along and seemed to have similar curiosity about the possibilities for Low, so time was booked and songs finished. Months later, I worked with BJ, producing the recent record by Trampled by Turtles. The studio is close to our home in Duluth, so it seemed tempting. BJ contacted us a few years ago and invited us out to the studio where he works with Justin, Lizzo, and other artists. “I will, however, tell you about how we made it. I'm not going to tell you what this record is about because I have too much respect for that moment when you come to know it for yourself. Doesn't it come from something magical and far away? No, it comes from here. It's hard to admit that one is so influenced by what is in front of us. Low’s Alan Sparhawk had this offer about the new album: “In our 20+ years of writing songs, I've learned that no matter how escapist, divergent, or even transcendent the creative process feels, the result is more beholden to what is going on at the moment. The album, featuring the standouts “No Comprende," “What Part of Me,” “Gentle,” and “No End,” was co-produced by the band and engineer BJ Burton at Justin Vernon’s April Base Studios in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Sub Pop released Low’s Ones and Sixes, the group’s latest studio effort, on CD / LP / DL worldwide Friday, September 11th. Sign up for the 10 to Hear newsletter here. It took a while for Andy Shauf to follow up his 2016 breakthrough album. Change all the names and the album can still hit you like a speeding car.Ĭatch up every Saturday with 10 of our best-reviewed albums of the week. You don’t have to map out that social network to be struck by the desperation of the lotto-playing lovers on album opener “Wilds (Judy)” or by the sadness of the unanswered questions on album closer “Jeremy’s Wedding (Wilds).” At heart these are songs about living with the weight of sadness, about the accumulation of severed relationships and missed connections and regrets both big and small. All of these songs and their wayward characters are connected, but you don’t have to be familiar with any of Shauf’s previous albums to find something relatable and powerful in these new songs. There’s a hint in the lyrics that the doomed jaywalker is actually Judy’s forlorn ex, the same guy who narrated “Where Are You Judy” on The Neon Skyline, and it’s not a stretch to think he’s nearly killed just as he’s leaving that bar. The humor underscores the pathos, and vice versa. He’s less concerned about the root of such melancholy and more interested in its effect in the real world. “Jaywalker with your head hung down, never saw it coming,” he sings over a marching beat, “it” being the car that slams into the protagonist who is so lost in his worries that he’s oblivious to oncoming traffic. ![]() “Jaywalker” is like one of those gruesome old highway safety films, except the danger here is reckless moping rather than reckless driving. There’s always some dark fear or gnawing anxiety just under the surface of his songs. Shauf can be clever, but like John Darnielle-another writer given to self-imposed songwriting conceits-he’s never merely clever. It’s a fine setting for his distinctive voice, which chews on his consonants and wrings his syllables into unusual shapes. And the rhythm section seems to be mocking him on “Jeremy’s Wedding (Wilds),” especially that “Walk On the Wild Side” bassline. An electric guitar punctuates his worries on “Call” with a single funereal strum, then disrupts “Green Glass” with a riff as unruly as a cowlick. ![]() Forgoing the lush sound of previous albums, Wilds is lovingly, wryly minimalist, and he arranges these instruments-most of which he played himself-as though blocking a short play with a small cast. Shauf has described it as a collection of demos, but that might actually be underselling it, because there’s as much wit in his playing as in his songwriting. By ceding control, Shauf allows the songs to wander wherever they want, paying their tab at the Skyline and heading out into the world.Įven as he extends his universe, he pares his songs down to their barest bones. ![]() Because it’s beholden to no overarching conceit, the music sounds looser, a bit wilder, more lackadaisical in a sadsack sort of way, its arc less predetermined and its themes emerging more organically. Despite such tortured origins, the album works surprisingly well. It’s all part of the Andy Shauf Extended Universe. It’s not strictly a sequel, but it’s not completely unrelated either. Wilds combines those two ideas into something that’s neither/nor. ![]()
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