The Low Anthem have a real knack for choking me up before the first song on their albums is even halfway over. First it was “The Ballad of the Broken Bones” on 2007′s What the Crow Brings, then it was (arguably the most gorgeous of all of The Low Anthem’s songs) “Charlie Darwin” from 2008-09′s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and now it’s “Ghost Woman Blues” (originally written by George Carter) from their latest album, Smart Flesh. Simply put, the indie Rhode Island band instills a breathless yearning into their music that rivals any other kind of emotional response you will get from any other kind of music. And it’s not just the haunting piano ballads, either. The power of their softness carries itself throughout each of their albums, but never has it been more prominent than it is on Smart Flesh, where even the country-folk of “Apothecary Love” and brassy flare of “Boeing 737″ evoke the same visceral response as the soul-touching songs “Love and Altar” and “Matter of Time.” That probably has something to do with the band recording this album over a three month span in an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the affects of that particular environment no doubt enhancing their preferred lonesome-but-beautiful, weepy mustache, Sunday morning, old-timey aesthetic and love for influences like Tom Waits (“Smart Flesh”), Bob Dylan (“Hey, All You Hippies!”), and Leonard Cohen (“Burn”). Genuinely amazing and poignant stuff from The Low Anthem that will leave you reeling once again.
Check out TWO videos for “Ghost Woman Blues” and “Boeing 737″ from Smart Flesh!
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan Hawk
Vanguard Records
Yeah, okay, so the folksy, sultry tunes of Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan don’t exactly fall in with the rank and file of doom, metal, and stoner rock that you usually find around here, but the fact of the matter is — if you don’t know this already — Lanegan is a bad-ass, whiskey-voiced deity in the Broken Beard universe. The guy could put out a polka record and I’d still tell you about it because everything he touches (Screaming Trees, The Gutter Twins, Soulsavers, etc.) turns to pure grit, which is what makes his collaborations with Isobel Campbell so great. She, former member of indie pop band Belle & Sebastian, is innocence incarnate, the Scottish girl-next-door with the porcelain voice, and he is the brooding American desperado at the end of the bar. Put ‘em together and you get an old suitcase full of black and white photographs, tear-stained love letters, faded memories, long distance calls from a phone booth in the middle of nowhere, and wordless nights on a porch swing. Hawk, their third album together, is a whole barn full o’ jukebox flare, rustling up a roving range of country-folk, blues, soul, gospel, and Americana, calling to mind the eras and auras of Cash and Carter, Dylan and Baez. Campell’s songwriting on Hawk is utterly moving, playing emotion better than any instrument on the album, and is at once light, languid, deep, and desolate. To help the mood along, the album also offers a few Townes Van Zandt covers and a couple of appearances by Willy Mason. But, as always, this is the Campbell and Lanegan show, which continues to be the strangest, most beautiful show on earth.
Check out the video for “You Won’t Le Me Down Again” from Hawk!
The Low Anthem
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan