Pitchfork

Low. The name says it all. The slow, drifting melodies send you to a faraway place of funeral tears. Low have been around the slowcore scene since the early 1990s when Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, a married Mormon couple out of Duluth, Minnesota, started experimenting with a kind of music that might be a bit 'easier to play' than conventional rock. (Which is not to say that Low can't play their instruments. On the contrary, in fact-- Sparhawk is said to be an extremely talented guitarist.)

On the new record, Low have abandonded indie rock producer/god, Kramer who "discovered" the band and produced all of their previous releases. New producer, Steve Fisk (who has worked with Nirvana and Boss Hog) gives the album an ever more stark feel, though the difference is not truly noticeable.

On the whole, The Curtain Hits the Cast is stunning, though I think the band could use a change of pace. Nothing dramatic, but perhaps trying to incorporate pianos or keyboards. Even though Low is more about a minimalistic rather than an overblown, overproduced approach, it may do them some good to try new things. I can't complain, though. There's never been such a thing as a bad Low album, and I suspect there never will be.