It's Sunday afternoon and the heartbreaking news of Mimi Parker's death has just been announced by her partner in Low and in life, Alan Sparhawk. Mimi was only in her mid-50s and had been living with ovarian cancer for two years. I was very fortunate to see Low live in 2013, a wonderful concert that remains fresh in my memory all these years later. I wrote a little about the spellbinding nature of that evening here.
Here we are at the end of another year. Where did it go? A big thank you to everyone who stopped by my little corner of the internet over the past 12 months. Particular thanks go to all my blogging chums who continue to inspire me every single day. I'll leave you with numbers 6 to 10 in the countdown of my favourite albums of 2015. Top 5 tomorrow!
A Happy New Year to you and those you love.
Let's do it all again in 2016.
6) This is the Kit - Bashed Out
7) Low - Ones & Sixes
8) The Apartments - No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal
There was a point, during Low's performance at the
Norwich Arts Centre a couple of nights ago, when I
became aware of having no idea how long I'd been
watching the band, or indeed how long they had
been playing for. It could have been ten minutes
or ten hours. I was lost in music. It was as if
the passage of time had been rendered immaterial.
Standing a couple of feet away from me, a man
struggled to control his emotions as the evening
progressed. He wasn't alone. At the conclusion of
'Just Make it Stop' he snapped, yelping an
involuntary, 'Perfect!', ahead of the cascade of
applause that filled the hall, dismantling the
audience's breath-held rapture. Nicely put Sir.
After the annual lookbackathon that is
December, it's good to now be looking
forward to some of the musical treats in
store over the first few months of 2013. One
of the albums highest on my list of
priorities is 'The Invisible Way', new from
Low and due for release in March.
An added attraction for me this time round
(as if one were needed) is the presence of
the great Jeff Tweedy in the producer's
chair. I've been a fan since Uncle Tupelo's
debut in 1990 and continue to follow him in
the always brilliant Wilco and many side-projects to which he increasingly lends his
name.
To celebrate the forthcoming new album, Low
have made a live EP, 'Plays Nice Places',
available as a free download - grab it now!
Meanwhile, to further whet the appetite,
here's a recently recorded live version of a
cut from 'The Invisible Way', 'On My Own.' Sounds pretty darned fine to me.
The problem with (still) not having proper access to my physical music collection, is that if a tune doesn't pop up on my MP3 player for a while, it's in danger of slipping off the radar. Such is the case with this sumptuous beauty, which I played endlessly during the early part of 2011 and rarely since.
I'm not too sure about the accompanying clip - I find it distracts rather than enhances - so maybe, like me, you should sit back from the keyboard for a few moments and let this one wash over you.
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