Artist: Lowe
Title: Evolver
Genre: Synth Pop
Release Date: 13th September 2011
Label: Megahype
Album Review
In spite of several awards as best newcomer and nominations for best song and album, LOWE had a reputation of an ordinary synth pop band, which acts in the shadow of such a famous compatriot as A-HA. But with time a student should excel his teacher, and this time has come. The story of the releasing of ‘Evolver’ is quite strange. Once per month, musicians have been uploading a new track, which it was possible to download 100% free. Nobody waited to see the album as a CD, although nobody was upset about the free downloading. The main surprise is about sound of the band. LOWE changed their direction and released the dark atmospheric album, which pulls them out of the company of A-HA, and brackets with THE CURE and THE MISSION.
It is difficult to choose right words to describe the album; more exactly, it is difficult to choose language. Most of lyrics are in English, but there are also Russian, French, German and God only knows what else. Unfortunately, je ne parle pas français, so I can’t quote some French lines. But there is a line from the opening track ‘Alpha Bravo’: “Спасибо, товарищ, my friend” (Russian for “Thank you, comrade, my friend”), and a line from the last track ‘EdT’: “Noch einmal, repeat” (German for “one more time repeat”), and I guess it will be enough to give a representation of multilingual side of the album. It is amazing, how natural do foreign words fit to the storyline and give specific inflection to the song.
Musically this record is high class synth pop. As a classical example of this genre LOWE represent its anthems ‘Live to Love’ and ‘Adorable’. Nevertheless, what makes this album special is extraordinary mood. ’Evolver’ is our darkest album so far, says Leo Josefsson, lead singer in LOWE. The atmosphere of this work recalls gothic bands, as already mentioned THE CURE or even LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. From time to time, it is possible to draw a parallel with something extremely gloomy, for example, the first line of the song ‘Breath In Breath Out’: “You’re not my type, you’re not my goal, but still you make me shiver” could be continued by MANSON’s “I’m not in love, but I’m gonna fuck you”.
From fan-reviews on the tracks, which were available for download last year it is clear that not everybody likes what happened to LOWE’s sound. Somebody would say, LOWE was no longer the band, it had been. In the end, when was it so, that every fan was enthusiastic about every next step, band makes? ‘Evolver’ is the great album, which considered being a big step forward.
Tracklist
01. Alpha Bravo
02. Mirage
03. Breath In Breath Out
04. Adorable
05. Live To Love
06. Half The Double Speed
07. Alone In The Dark
08. Forever
09. EdT
Line-up
Leo Josefsson - Lead vocals
Rickard Gunnarsson - Bass guitar, vocals
Tobias Ersson - Synthesizer, machines
Website
http://www.lowemusic.net/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 7
Total: 8 / 10
