HEY WHAT

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Very few bands have the vision or sense of daring to dramatically reinvent their sound after 20 years of recording. It initially seemed that Low were taking a stylistic detour with the noisy digital landscapes of 2015's Ones and Sixes, an LP produced by BJ Burton that represented a conspicuous change from the more organic tone of their best-known and most celebrated work. However, Low's third album with Burton, 2021's Hey What, confirms that, at least for the meantime, they're still committed to exploring the possibilities of electronic dissonance. 2018's Double Negative pushed the backing tracks into the red zone while also running Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's vocals through enough processing that they sounded more like additional instruments than human beings. They've opted for a less severe attack on Hey What; while Burton occasionally adds a bit of electronic texture to the singing, most of the tracks instead make the most of the contrast between the clarity and naturalism of the harmonies and the inorganic waveforms of the music. And where Double Negative felt almost violent in its harsh, punishing bursts of sound, Hey What prefers to take a middle ground between that album's extremity and the (relatively) more measured approach of Ones and Sixes. If Double Negative was rooted in a bitter renunciation of the madness and cruelty of the Trump era, Hey What feels like a cautious but resigned effort to blaze a trail through the chaos that emerged in its wake. Parts of Hey What are purposefully hard to listen to and revel in their denial of naturalism, but in tracks like "Hey" and "Don't Walk Away," they find fleeting beauty and moments of peace. Hey What isn't an optimistic album, but it is one born of the need for hope in the face of long odds; Sparhawk and Parker are still trying to make sense of a world that seems increasingly alien, and the paradox of raging against the artificiality while using it as a creative choice is powerfully effective here.

© Mark Deming /TiVo