Duluth's very own Low return with their 10th full-length release titled The Invisible Way. Produced by Wilco lead singer and songwriter Jeff Tweedy, the album presents itself with an aesthetic folk beauty that Low has sharpened over their 20-year career. The main singles from the album, "Just Make it Stop" and "So Blue," cut right to your very soul as Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker use their harmonies and dueling vocal lines accompanied by minimalist but powerful arrangements to get you right in folk-rock heaven. With heavy piano chords and steady beats, the music only intensifies the lyrics as they sing of the heartache you can have in a painful relationship or even the unsettling feeling of not being able to change or fight something out of your control.The opening track, "Plastic Cup," has so much angst in its lyrics it creates a good atmosphere for the rest of the album. The band's ability to use their words to be incredibly honest and emotional, accompanied by their incredibly candid instrumentation, keeps you in a place of relaxation but gives you the sense of incredibly human turmoil and frustration. However,other tracks, like "Mother" and "On My Own," give you a brighter feel without getting rid of lyrical depth and truthiness. The album's closer, "To Our Knees," while being decently more vague in terms of lyrics, creates one of the more moving tracks musically on the record. For their 10th album, Low has made their style so sophisticated to a point where they could be considerred masters of their very own genre. This latest album only proves that this local band not only know who they are, but aren't afraid to keep reinventing the sound they've had for the past 20 years.
Recommended tracks: "Just Make it Stop," "So Blue," "Plastic Cup," "Mother," "On My Own," "To Our Knees"
Sounds like: Wilco, the Head and the Heart, Mumford and Sons, James Taylor