Low -- The Great Destroyer

Oddly enough (at least according to my Amazon recommendations), The Great Destroyer is the first Low album I've heard. I can't comment on their change of direction, but this sound works great. I suspect that all the critics are right in saying that they'll win over lots of new fans with it.

I'm pretty much taken right away by the opening drums in "Monkey". The following conventionality of "California" is a bit of a let-down, but it's still a solid pop number. Then I'm back into Mimi Parker's drums on "Everybody's Song" -- or, more accurately, I'm into the garbage-can production of them. If she'd play the same part on a standard snare, the song would really lose something (a tom would be better than a snare, but still not as effective).

The track I really dig here is "Cue the Strings" -- it's really lovely. But the album works well as a straight-through listen, so I shouldn't really dwell on individual songs. The Great Destroyer's well-paced and -sequenced; check out the transition from "Pissing" to "Death of a Salesman". True craft shows on this disc, and it makes me interested in doing some back catalog digging (even if it will sound nothing like this).