I remember reading once, from an interview with Clipping., that the group introduces rigid rules to each of their albums. These come in various forms: only using samples to make up a beat, never using the word “I” in their verses, or limiting an instrumental pallet to different pitches of harsh noise. There has been much said about the creative productivity of limitation, and Low’s amazing new album HEY WHAT is no exception. The album is solely focused on the human voice and harsh drone compression as the center of its artistic statement.  I am (obviously) a huge nerd about music, and yet I cannot think of a comparable sound. It’s like if Merzbow produced a Weyes Blood album. Or like if Nine Inch Nails produced a Joanna Newsom album. Or like if your iPhone was stuck in a steel drum with a buzzing vibrator while playin Fleet Foxes.


This album sounds huge. Cavernous. It can easily blow you away. With production so crisp and complete, it’s a truly amazing achievement. The voices of Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk, along with industrial drone, make up 90% of the sounds present on HEY WHAT.  The harsh industrial drone present on this album is in such juxtaposition to the beautiful, sincere harmonies which lay on top of it, that it takes a few listens to get used to the sound of HEY WHAT. “White Horses”, the album’s opening track, throws the listener right into the exciting, melodic noise factory. Compression has never sounded so heartfelt. This opening track to the sixth track “Days Like These” represents the best six-track run of any album in recent memory.


This album is a truly original musical moment, which is not a typical statement to describe a band’s 13 studio album. Low emerged in the music scene 27 years ago with the slow-core classic I Could Live in Hope, and followed this album with a run of quality indie rock albums. 2018’s excellent Double Negative found the band playing with more Post-Industrial sounds, and HEY WHAT took those ideas and ran with them. The album sounds like nothing else I have ever heard, and it will be on repeat for some time. It’s the kind of album that is meant for the“we can turn this off if you guys don’t like it” meme, but if it strikes a chord with you, chances are you will fall in love with HEY WHAT’s noisy, passionate sound.