Pitchfork

It's possible that "Breaker" will forever incorrectly be known first as a Low song, the single from the band's second album for Sub Pop, Drums & Guns. After all, that rendition was devastatingly spare and painfully perfect, one of the peaks of the heralded band's career: Alan Sparhawk sang it as though on a downer drip, Mimi Parker supplying an inviting angel choir overhead. The rhythm was a slow handclap, and the accompaniment was a thin, reverse guitar and a plodding organ. Led by lyrics about spilled blood and broken minds, it was protest music for the preparation of a mass grave.

But "Breaker" was actually first released by Sparhawk in 2005 with his three-piece rock band, Retribution Gospel Choir, on the first of two tour EPs. That version foretold both the slow-swinging wrecking ball of the Low take and this new, pummeling, tied-to-the-cymbal-slap RGC version. Imagine Crazy Horse in a straitjacket, mad at the world but sane just to spite it. With Low, the closing line "There's got to be an end to that," sounded like a hopeless plea, the beat and drone outlasting it by some 20 seconds, defying the commiseration of the past two minutes. Here, though, Sparhawk and Parker deliver the final line as the power trio crests. Charged by invective and disgusted by patience, they're demanding the end now. The band turns the progression again before collapsing into a coda. With Low, they wore a frown. Here, you notice a scowl.

Stream:> Retribution Gospel Choir: "Breaker"
[from Retribution Gospel Choir; due 03/18/08 on Caldo Verde]