However much devotion Duluth trio LOW may have inspired in the past (and it's legendary among their fans, believe me), their wonderfully glacial music hasn't exactly been brimming over with catchy three-minute pop single contenders in the past.
Anyone who's heard the band's recent masterpiece "The Great Destroyer", though, will tell you it's unquestionably Low at their most direct, affecting and urgent. It also harbours a relatively high strike rate of songs that could feasibly referred to as 'pop' in the recognisable (and complimentary) sense of the term.
Indeed, "California" is both the obvious contender as the album's single flagship and easily Low's most consummate pop moment to date. It's a marvellous thing to behold: delicious, Rickenbacker-style guitars swirl around, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker harmonise to perfection as usual, timpanis float in and out and the whole caboodle is simply one of the most memorable, chiming pop outings you'll hear this or any other year. To say it's in the realm of The Byrds, The Church and The Go-Betweens may sound unlikely (yes, we ARE discussing Low here), but really not that impossible. If there's any justice, it's also Low's first bona fide radio hit should they so desire.
Hang around for the alternative take of fellow album highlight "Cue The Strings" as well. This version is minus producer Dave Fridmann's "Deserter's Songs"-style mellotron, but with extra acoustic guitar from (I assume) bassist Zak Sally and is akin to the live version the band are capable of. In this context, it's plaintive and starkly beautiful and just as effective without the keyboard textures.
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To round off, we're also treated to the suitably odd video for yet another new album standout. This time it's "Death Of A Salesman" and its' acoustic lament is performed mostly by Alan alone in a darkened room, although its' "Brave New World"-style subplot intrigues and it ends (as all good things should) with Mimi planting a kiss on Alan's cheek. Aaah!
In the past, the idea of Low providing the antidote to harsh, wintry climes with an (admittedly still slightly melancholic) slice of sunkissed, crystalline pop would have sounded risible, but that was then and this is now. "The Great Destroyer" has brought a thaw in the band's glacial brilliance without sacrificing what they do best and "California" - arguably their best single to date - proves they can make gloriously light work of this guitar pop malarkey any time they like. We always knew they had it in them, didn't we?
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