Low - C'mon (Sub Pop, 2011)

Low
C'mon
Sub Pop
2011

Rating: 8.5 kicked chairs out of 10

Low has released their ninth album, and I'm not entirely sure what to say about other than...it's good. Really, really good. But I say that about all of their albums, because I am very much a fan of anything this band does. This band is now very much a touchstone for describing many other acts, their name now an easily identifiable descriptor meaning "sparse, mellow, haunting folk rock with very strong vocals", or something along those lines. I guess the kids call it "slowcore".

So you really only describe Low in terms of Low - and this a fantastic Low record. I'm not sure where exactly I'd rank it, but definitely in the top half, maybe even top third of the their albums. The only ones I'd rank over for sure right now is "The Curtain Hits the Cast" and "Things We Lost in the Fire", which says a lot in my book. "C'mon" features two songs that were instant favorites upon the very first listen - "Witches" and "Especially Me", and there isn't a clunker in the entire bunch. Even letting Nels Cline (the man largely responsible for nearly destroying Wilco) play on the album didn't turn it to a steaming pile, thankfully.

There is no doubt in my mind this will be one of my top five favorite records at the end of the year. In the even you are keeping track of such things.