Search - Low :: Curtain Hits the Cast

Standby...

Timothy M. Miller | Richmond, VA USA | 07/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been an obsessive music fan for a very, very long time now. So when I say that 'The Curtain Hits the Cast' is still the most devastating album I have ever heard, I'm not saying it lightly.



The resonance of this record haunts me even eight years after hearing it for the first time.



The whole thing is achingly mournful. Probably too sad for one's health and well-being, but I have never, ever been affected by a simple $12 CD in the way that this CD has affected me.



Granted, I may have more subconscious personal attachments to it than most other people... I am resolutely tied to it, somehow. I guess it must have been my soundtrack to some epiphany or other.



But it's the whole thing, from the ghostly shades of brown on the desolate cover image, to the barely-audible cacophony just before 'Anon' strikes its first note, so so so slowly.



'Slow & spare' barely begins to describe it. There is rarely more than the guitar, bass, snare and voices that Low has always relied on. And anything more would rob the songs of their delicacy. But as much as anything else, there is truly the space between the notes, the quality of limitless patience and bottomless depth that balances everything.



And the bits of barely-there dissonance throughout, as if the music occasionally scrapes against the sheet metal of God.



To be sure, a guitar has never been strummed this un-hurriedly. The chords are profound, often hit awkwardly, or with a sour note, a misstep, but they are always perfect.



I wouldn't be able to describe what exactly Steve Fisk did to make the sound so absolutely, desolately Holy. It sounds perfect for long-abandoned churches, from long-abandoned civilizations. With a lone candle flickering somewhere nearby. Such faraway resonance, solitary resonance, the resonance of dark, lonely rooms.



Can you understand this? Can you understand the things I am trying to say?



Low would be a great band without this record. And this record sounds not much like anything else that Low has done, in my opinion. But with this record, Low is legendary and more than a little bit mythical. To me, anyway.



An overwhelmingly beautiful work of art."

Excellent middle-era Low.

cplewis | Merrifield, Virginia United States | 05/14/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album takes everything Low learned from Kramer on "I Could Live in Hope" and "Long Division" and combines it with some beautiful songs to create one of their best records. The album-opening "Anon" is haunting and sets a somber tone echoed in songs like "Standby" and the long, droney "Do You Know How To Waltz?" (yes, the rumors are true: Low did a 30-minute live collaboration with Godspeed on this song in Chicago in 1998)."Curtain" contains some long-time Low favorites -- at almost any Low show, you'll hear requests for "Over the Ocean" and "Lust". If you're just starting to get into Low's later records, this is a great place to start to introduce yourself to their earlier sound."

It gives me goosebumbs

cplewis | 06/14/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I imagine that most people's computer speakers don't do these songs justice. I own some of their other albums, and this one is the richest, most developed. Low is beautiful-- this album is worth owning."