Track Listing

1. Sunflower
2. Whitetail
3. Dinosaur Act
4. Medicine
5. Magazines
6. Laser Beam
7. July
8. Embrace
9. Whore
10. Kind of Girl
11. Like A Forest
12. Closer
13. In Metal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3133 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Quieter, slower, softer; that's the motto of Minnesota's Low. The Christmas EP, first released in 1999, saw this Mormon slowcore trio reinterpreting a number of seasonal standards and writing a few new ones in their own pared-down style; a first-time listener might assume it was the heritage of songs like "Little Drummer Boy" that lent Christmas its quiet power. They'd be wrong; Things We Lost In The Fire, Low's magnificent fifth album, is proof that while they may be shy of performing the grand gesture, a genuine sense of timelessness pervades every hushed moment. Ironically, Low's relationship with their producer--celebrated noisenik Steve Albini--has done them a lot of favours. His bare-board style lends Things We Lost In The Fire a sense of beautiful desolation, bringing the harmonies of husband-and-wife Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker to the fore on "Medicine And Magazines" and "Whore". The tunes, when they come, are breathtaking in their simplicity; take "Dinosaur Act", where a power chord clangs--and then echoes, immeasurably, over a whisper of Wurlitzer organ and the delicate tap of a snare drum. It's the perfect example of strong words softly spoken. Low may have shunned the attention-seeking clutter of the modern pop song, but the earth will do well to inherit the meek. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Quiet, fragile, stately, beautifully brilliant...
Things we lost in the fire, for the most part, carries the sound of a band defeated. Lyrically, Sunflower, Laser Beam and Dinosaur Act seem to question Low's place in modern society. Yet they never achieve anything more than a snail's pace, so that even minor changes of tempo, such as on Dinosaur Act, are magnified, almost akin to the work of composers such as Gorecki.

The fragility of the songs almost reaches breaking point on the tender and delicate July, a paranoia-laced lament on hibernation. Low themselves appear to be heading into hibernation, slowing, meditating, and they take their music with them.

Yet, despite it all, the album is emotionally involving, and when the end is reached, and the shaft of light that is the Eno-esque In Metal shines through, all the darkness that has gone before is banished.

Beautiful and eventually uplifting, this is an album that demands listening to.

near perfection
Low, over their quiet career, have been gradually embracing more traditional approaches to songwriting, and this is probably their most easily digested release- minimal, sparse and lush. The harmonies of Alan and Mimi resound with an incredible amount of beauty, their simplicity adding to their (gentle) power. Anyone who has only heard 'songs for a dead pilot' or anything before that will be surprised, the shoddy term 'post-rock' can in no way describe them now. For comparisons, try Galaxie 500, Delgados, (some) Palace etc. First great lp of 2001.

Beautiful
So hard to categorise Low. I was first introduced to them through this album, and have acquired every recording since then. This album sums them up. Tender , kind and enigmatic lyrics are sung by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. And they are quite simply the most beautiful harmonies I have ever heard. To me they have re-defined pop music, snd everything I hear now is benchmarked against this album.