Hey What by Low

We’re entering the Top 10 with an explosion of sound. Hey What, the 13th album from Duluth, Minnesota band Low is the loudest, most distorted album on the 2021 Top 31. And it is glorious.

My love of Low has had its ups and downs. I like to think I’m attracted to most if not all kinds of music, but I have my limits. Low often falls outside of those limits – too noisy, too disparate, too unapproachable. The last Low album I loved was 2005’s The Great Destroyer, and it, too, is glorious. But that was 16 years and seven albums ago. Consequently, you’ll notice a distinct lack of Low on the Top 31. Enter Hey What.

Hey what is the name of the album
— Royal Stuart (@royalbacon) September 11, 2021

I memorably cracked myself up with this tweet, a response to a friend’s calling this album a “masterpiece”. He’s not wrong.

It would be foolish of me to say that Hey What is approachable. It most certainly is not: excessive amounts of distortion, feedback, reverb, electronic noise and the band’s signature dissonant harmonies from dual leads Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker make for an album that is far from an easy listen. Consequently, to love this (and any previous) Low album is a somewhat singular affair, calling for expensive headphones, a dark room, and a healthy side of THC. Assemble those ingredients, lie down, and feel yourself almost literally melt into the carpet.

There are a number of videos out from the album. I particularly like the song “Days Like These,” so I featured it above, but I’d be hard-pressed to determine a favorite. Nonetheless, please enjoy these other visual delights:

“White Horses”
“I Can Wait”
“Disappearing”
“Hey”
“More”

For the first time in their career, Low is a true duo. The core of the band has always been married couple Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, but there’s always been at least one other person performing instruments alongside them since their inception 28 years ago. With the departure of their longtime bassist Steve Garrington in 2020, Sparhawk and Parker moved forward with writing and creating Hey What on their own.

They are quite possibly the quintessential working couple. The two have recorded and performed together for the entire history of the band, through the birth of two children, and here they remain, 28 years later, at the pinnacle of their musical careers, with no sign of stopping. Their music is unmistakable thanks to their uniquely harmonized vocals. They’ve found a sound and stuck with it, unabashedly doing things their way, to great effect.

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11. Local Valley by José González
12. Head of Roses by Flock of Dimes
13. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows by Damon Albarn
14. Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks
15. Loving In Stereo by Jungle
16. Flying Dream 1 by Elbow
17. Screen Violence by Chvrches
18. Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice
19. Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music
20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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Full Album
All albums in their entirety.

Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.

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