- Audio CD (18 Oct 1999)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Vernon Yard
- ASIN: B000024MNE
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Vinyl | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 83,984 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Anon |
| 2. The Plan |
| 3. Over The Ocean |
| 4. Mom Says |
| 5. Coattails |
| 6. Standby |
| 7. Laugh |
| 8. Lust |
| 9. Stars Gone Out |
| 10. Same |
| 11. Do You Know How To Waltz |
| 12. Dark |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is quite an old one but defiantly one of my favourite albums of all time; this is the epitome of utter sadness and melancholy. However sadness and melancholy have never sounded so gorgeous. Low are truly unique entity, their music exists and creates and shifts but fortunately (and this is the way it should be with all music but sadly usually isn’t the case) Low are almost virtually impossible to place them in a context with other artists to compare them to, if there was a kindred spirit that existed on the same wavelength it would have been Codeine, but a testament to Low’s talent, they are able to consistently create context and not become part of another.
Although all the Low output I have (all the full lengths and the EP on Kranky my second favourite) is sublime and of extremely high calibre, this I feel was Low at the absolute peak of their minimalist powers, each individual element here is juxtaposed perfectly, whether it be the faint tapping of the drums or the gentle melodies squeezed from the guitars and on top the ghostly singing that like the aforementioned elements is complete fragile and perfectly balanced to create an equilibrium within the music.
Usually I feel it is unfair to pick specific highlights from any album of any genre because a great album (IMO) is a complete whole not a collection of individual moments, in this case I’m going to make a rare acceptance because the mid-point of the album is bleakly heart wrenching and exquisitely powerful and contains some of the finest music ever created, from “Coattails,” to “Lust,” it’s simply….well, its unfair to put it into words, just buy this album and find out.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Got nothing by Low yet?...Well, after you've smacked yourself insensible, get this one first of all. Hit play, lie down, and drift into a kind of half-sleep whilst this beautiful noise cleanses you from the inside out. I'm not kidding. The most achingly fragile songs ever recorded and squeezed onto one CD, by anyone...ever. When you're through being reborn, go out and buy everything else they've ever recorded. But this one's the one you'll want to play to your children as you rock them to sleep.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
standby...
26 July 2004
Format:Audio CD
I have been an obsessive music fan for a very, very long time now. So when I say that 'The Curtain Hits the Cast' is still the most devastating album I have ever heard, I'm not saying it lightly.
The resonance of this record haunts me even eight years after hearing it for the first time.
The whole thing is achingly mournful. Probably too sad for one's health and well-being, but I have never, ever been affected by a simple $12 CD in the way that this CD has affected me.
Granted, I may have more subconscious personal attachments to it than most other people... I am resolutely tied to it, somehow. I guess it must have been my soundtrack to some epiphany or other.
But it's the whole thing, from the ghostly shades of brown on the desolate cover image, to the barely-audible cacophony just before 'Anon' strikes its first note, so so so slowly.
'Slow & spare' barely begins to describe it. There is rarely more than the guitar, bass, snare and voices that Low has always relied on. And anything more would rob the songs of their delicacy. But as much as anything else, there is truly the space between the notes, the quality of limitless patience and bottomless depth that balances everything.
And the bits of barely-there dissonance throughout, as if the music occasionally scrapes against the sheet metal of God.
To be sure, a guitar has never been strummed this un-hurriedly. The chords are profound, often hit awkwardly, or with a sour note, a misstep, but they are always perfect.
I wouldn't be able to describe what exactly Steve Fisk did to make the sound so absolutely, desolately Holy. It sounds perfect for long-abandoned churches, from long-abandoned civilizations. With a lone candle flickering somewhere nearby. Such faraway resonance, solitary resonance, the resonance of dark, lonely rooms.
Can you understand this? Can you understand the things I am trying to say?
Low would be a great band without this record. And this record sounds not much like anything else that Low has done, in my opinion. But with this record, Low is legendary and more than a little bit mythical. To me, anyway.
An overwhelmingly beautiful work of art.
The resonance of this record haunts me even eight years after hearing it for the first time.
The whole thing is achingly mournful. Probably too sad for one's health and well-being, but I have never, ever been affected by a simple $12 CD in the way that this CD has affected me.
Granted, I may have more subconscious personal attachments to it than most other people... I am resolutely tied to it, somehow. I guess it must have been my soundtrack to some epiphany or other.
But it's the whole thing, from the ghostly shades of brown on the desolate cover image, to the barely-audible cacophony just before 'Anon' strikes its first note, so so so slowly.
'Slow & spare' barely begins to describe it. There is rarely more than the guitar, bass, snare and voices that Low has always relied on. And anything more would rob the songs of their delicacy. But as much as anything else, there is truly the space between the notes, the quality of limitless patience and bottomless depth that balances everything.
And the bits of barely-there dissonance throughout, as if the music occasionally scrapes against the sheet metal of God.
To be sure, a guitar has never been strummed this un-hurriedly. The chords are profound, often hit awkwardly, or with a sour note, a misstep, but they are always perfect.
I wouldn't be able to describe what exactly Steve Fisk did to make the sound so absolutely, desolately Holy. It sounds perfect for long-abandoned churches, from long-abandoned civilizations. With a lone candle flickering somewhere nearby. Such faraway resonance, solitary resonance, the resonance of dark, lonely rooms.
Can you understand this? Can you understand the things I am trying to say?
Low would be a great band without this record. And this record sounds not much like anything else that Low has done, in my opinion. But with this record, Low is legendary and more than a little bit mythical. To me, anyway.
An overwhelmingly beautiful work of art.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Excellent middle-era Low.
15 May 2003
Format:Audio CD
This album takes everything Low learned from Kramer on "I Could Live in Hope" and "Long Division" and combines it with some beautiful songs to create one of their best records. The album-opening "Anon" is haunting and sets a somber tone echoed in songs like "Standby" and the long, droney "Do You Know How To Waltz?" (yes, the rumors are true: Low did a 30-minute live collaboration with Godspeed on this song in Chicago in 1998).
"Curtain" contains some long-time Low favorites -- at almost any Low show, you'll hear requests for "Over the Ocean" and "Lust". If you're just starting to get into Low's later records, this is a great place to start to introduce yourself to their earlier sound.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
It gives me goosebumbs
14 Jun 1999
Format:Audio CD
I imagine that most people's computer speakers don't do these songs justice. I own some of their other albums, and this one is the richest, most developed. Low is beautiful-- this album is worth owning.
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