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Drums and Guns
 
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Drums and Guns

~ Low
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £7.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Audio CD (2 April 2007)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Sub Pop
  • ASIN: B000MV8CSO
  • Other Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45,950 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Pretty People (Album) 3:01£0.69
Listen  2. Belarus (Album) 3:17£0.69
Listen  3. Breaker (Album) 2:53£0.69
Listen  4. Dragonfly (Album) 3:44£0.69
Listen  5. Sandinista (Album) 2:22£0.69
Listen  6. Always Fade (Album) 3:57£0.69
Listen  7. Dust on the Window (Album) 4:12£0.69
Listen  8. Hatchet (Album) 2:18£0.69
Listen  9. Your Poison (Album) 1:13£0.69
Listen10. Take Your Time (Album) 4:18£0.69
Listen11. In Silence (Album) 2:46£0.69
Listen12. Murderer (Album) 3:43£0.69
Listen13. Violent Past (Album) 3:38£0.69


Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

For The Great Destroyer, their 2005 Sub Pop debut (and 7th album overall), Low quickened their paces and rustled up a new sound. Producer Dave Fridmann helped out in '05 and is back for Drums and Guns, Low's 2007 follow up, a return to pre- Great Destroyer form. Slowing down again and training the musical lamps on Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's austere voices, the trio sets a decidedly somber tone (the album's opening line, delivered with pregnant pauses: "All soldiers, they're all gonna die/And all the little babies, they're all gonna die" and album-closing song titles: "Murderer" and "Violent Past"). Parker and Sparhawk's voices enchant eerily, a whiff of electonica here and a haunted handclap there melding with Matt Livingston's bass to give the music some dark, gorgeous machine undertones--stark, martial, and noise-brushed at once. Fridmann finds all kinds of places to add tone, color and sound, keeping the tempos slow and the mood hypnotic. This is the art that wartime breeds. --Andrew Bartlett


Description

Thirteen years into their career, Low are still a unique, ever-mutating band. DRUMS AND GUNS is perhaps the trio's moststark and minimalist album since 1995's LONG DIVISION. A near-concept album that deals obliquely with the Iraq War and other forms of violent unrest, the lyrics remain cohesive onotherwise varied songs such as the dreamy "Hatchet" and theoppressive, brooding "Breaker". DRUMS AND GUNS feels paradoxically quiet, though, almost serene in its tunes and arrangements. Only the closing "Violent Past" approaches the epic swells that mark most previous Low albums. Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's vocals, as always, are the band's most important element, and both sound exquisite throughout. A somber but not depressing album, DRUMS AND GUNS is one of Low's finest.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best album of 2007, 14 Mar 2007
By MRSCRY (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
Okay, I was a huge fan of Low turning up the tempo and rockin' out a bit on their last album, "The Great Destroyer", but these guys (and gal) have done so much better on their latest effort, which slows things down again. Ironically, this album needs to be turned on high volume more than the last one, because its haunting, modest background effects create a mood that won't be topped by any band this year. Alan Sparhawk's vocals, which are in top form, are complemented beautifully by a wide range of electronic noises ranging from eerie electric guitar to organ chords to electronic clapping. And, unlike most albums that come out these days, the record has a continuous feel to it... when done listening, it's harder to point a finger at a single track than it is the whole listening experience. However, if one is to highlight a song that stands out, it might very well be the final track, "Violent Past", which isn't a climax to "Drums and Guns" as much as it is a song that leaves me wanting to go back and examine the past 45 minutes.

And for those "Great Destroyer" fans who are wanting some sort of rock song on this record, the only satisfaction you'll get in this department is a quiet, goregous guitar riff on "Hatchet", a song that uses the inter-band relationships of the Beatles and Rolling Stones as a metaphor for a personal relationship.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark wonder from Low..., 14 April 2007
By Jason Parkes "We're all Frankies'" (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
'Drums and Guns' is darker than predecessor 'The Great Destroyer' (2005), the band since shedding a bassist, Alan Sparhawk appearing to have a breakdown (though was going on tour with Mark Kozelek really the best way to get over it?), while the current zeitgeist of war and terror appears overwhelming...

Last year saw the band performing 'Things We Lost in the Fire' in order at Don't Look Back, though the surrounding tour (in suppport of the 'Monkey' e.p.) saw the band play a set that was prmarily composed of material destined for Drums and Guns alongside much of The Great Destroyer (with a couple of tracks from 'Trust' and 'Things We Lost in the Fire' and nothing before it). The audience was quite raucous in Birmingham, Sparhawk appeared to reject the earlier tracks people were asking for and playing songs like 'Murderer' instead. I'm pretty sure that 'Dragonfly', 'Sandinsta' and 'Pretty People' were played that night...

'Drums and Guns' is quite different to 'The Great Destroyer', the latter was very guitar heavy, while this album appears to take its cue from the b-side version of 'I Remember' (see the box-set) which employed electronics and synths. The songs are generally brief and to the point, the grim album is just over 40 minutes, like some earlier Low material, I'm not sure how much more I could have taken...

'Pretty People' has similar feedback to David Sylvian's 'Blemish' as Sparhawk sings "All the soldiers...are all gonna die/All the little babies...are all gonna die/All the poets and all the liars and all you pretty people...are all gonna die." The missing link between the Blues and 'Metal Machine Music' is located as Mimi Parker offers a typically Velvets-style drumbeat. 'Belarus' is quite close to the electronic climes of Thom Yorke, perhaps the loss of Zak S. on bass lead the band to recording in a less conventional three piece way?

'Breaker' feels a bit like baader meinhof's 'Kill Ramirez', though with a minimal droning keyboard that recalls Suicide - strangely this very bleak material is quite catchy and poppy. These songs won't stop drifting around your head once heard - "...the blood just spills and spills/and here we sit debating Math...It's just the shame/My hand just kills and kills/There's got to be an end to that..." again typifies the dark feel. Maybe too much war on TV. The Neo-Con disease and the US at its lowest point since Nixon, maybe even worse off, though seemingly oblivious. "There's got to be an end to that..." - these songs could keep you up all night...

The rest of the album is as great, from the minimal piece 'Your Poison', to the blend of typical Low minimalism and a kind of trip-hop/industrial beat on 'Dragonfly', and my favourite, the brief and beautiful 'Sandinista.' This song holds its own with any of the revered Low material of yore - the allusion to the Sandnistas in Central America one that points to US foreign policy of the past, and similarly to now. Alan and Mimi's harmony vocals sound wonderful here, "Oh Sandinista...Oh Sandinista...Oh Sandinista take my side..." Then there's 'Always Fade', which sounds like a cross between hip-hop, Low and The Sisters of Mercy; and then the darkest closing tracks 'Murderer' and 'Violent Past.' The long day's journey into night...

'Drums and Guns' lyrically is everything the new Arcade Fire album isn't. I guess the emphasis on the state of things and a husband/wife element to the band shows some similarities, but where Win Butler and co come across as a slightly pious Waterboys/Grant Lee Buffalo preaching to the converted, Low here seem to have doubt. 'Drums and Guns' reflects this dark era, taking Low into unexpected sonic climes and a definite highlight of 2007. This is one album that I can't stop playing, despite "the screams/the clutching of breaths..." A dark wonder from Low...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Dark Gem, 22 Jun 2007
By D. Newton (Swindon, Wilts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Low's career spans about 15 years to date but they remain one of America's most consistently interesting and engaging `underground' rock groups. This feat is achieved in no small part due to their willingness and ability to vary their style and approach whilst remaining faithful to their overall musical vision.

`Drums and Guns' is no exception: significantly different from its predecessor `The Great Destroyer' (which was in itself a marked change from `Trust'); you will find no loud, brash guitar work here.

The mood of the album is resolutely downbeat, the songs are mostly dark and moody and the band use a greater degree of drum programming than ever before; sparse, scratchy beats underpin the organ-driven`Breaker', the heavy bass of `Always Fade' and underly Mimi's clear vocals on `Belarus'.

Distorted guitars and a semi-industrial beat mark `Dragonfly's' lament to drug addiction, whilst the magnificent closing track, `Violent Past', stuns with great slabs of layered distorted guitar noise, powerful yet melodic at the same time.

Lyrically, the record is exceptionally mature. There is anger and pain in the songs but Low are careful to avoid didacticism. `Blood spills and spills/but here we sit debating math' (Breaker) and `where would you go if the gun fell in your hand? (Sandinista) are two good examples.

It is an exaggeration to say that `Drums and Guns' is Low's best album; I am not convinced that there is a stone-cold classic track here (with the possible exception of `Violent Past'), but viewed as a whole it is a dense, challenging and extremely intelligent record which cements Low's status as one of the most vital bands in the world today.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Low's best yet
After long and careful consideration, not to mention listening to little else for the last month, I reckon this is Low's best album yet. Read more
Published on 13 May 2007 by A. Pearmain

4.0 out of 5 stars "Someone to do your dirty work.........."
Low have been on a run of brilliant albums since 2001's 'Things We Lost In The Fire', culminating in their stunning set from 2005, 'The Great Destroyer. Read more
Published on 12 April 2007 by Kevin Clarke

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