There where a few things that caught me about this between the record itself and the press release given to me with it. First, this release makes a great issue for continuing to buy records - the CD itself is packaged in a silkscreened cover that looks exactly like a gatefold LP cover. It definitely helps to convey the folky "olde timey" style of the music contained therein. The second bit was that one of the members of the band is described as a "baseball scholar." I truly find myself unsure of how one gets appointed as such. Does it involve a degree or is it self anointed? If so, I'm a navel scholar (kinda like navel gazing but more professional sounding).
These things, aside the album itself starts at a crawl with two slow songs pieced together back to back. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with these songs; they are quite beautiful and clearly well written. They're just slow and they seem to be put in the wrong spot in the album. In the first song there is a beautiful female voice contained therein unfortunately it very reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan, which reminds me of TV infomercials about pet shelters. Both of these songs come off as somewhat political and amazingly bluesy and heartfelt. When the third track comes in everything picks up. The great thing about The Low Anthem is that when they pick up the tempo they make songs that sound like Tom Waits wrote them. Amazingly well put together songs built with layer upon layer of instrumentation where nothing overpowers anything lying on top of the next layer to build a beautiful structure upon which the vocals lie. The vocals pull everything together while two of the members have calmed sweet voices that drift through the songs beautifully there is the last member that has the growl of a younger Tom Waits and truly brings out a bluesy atmosphere and flavor in each song.
There are the few downsides to the album of course. As mentioned before the album starts off slowly therefore not pulling the listener in right away. the album also ends strangely with another version of the song "To Ohio." This seems unnecessary as the original version on the record is one of those aforementioned slow songs. While the revision makes the song into more of their upbeat blues style. I personally think the revision makes the song stronger and would have been a wonderful way to open the album rather than relegating it to the end of the album. Regardless of all of these misgivings this is an amazingly constructed and wonderfully played album of folk and blues with a melancholy edge. Go seek this out or see them live; you will not be disappointed.
