I discovered the Duluth, MN band Low several years ago through reading several reviews of their albums in glenn mcdonald’s weekly music column, The War Against Silence. They’ve been making music since the early 1990s; I have managed not to have heard any of their albums until yesterday.

My tolerance for Christmas carols grows very thin before Christmas rolls around. So, since Michelle and I are having an open house this week, Michelle has tasked me to track down some good Christmas music. I remembered that Low did an EP of songs called Christmas, and had heard a snippet of their version of “Little Drummer Boy” on, of all places, a television ad for the Gap two years ago, so I decided to add their CD to my Christmas music shopping list alongside December and the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas by jazz pianists George Winston and Vince Guaraldi, respectively. While I was out, I also picked up Low’s third full-length album, 1996’s The Curtain Hits the Cast.

Much like Talk Talk’s final two albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, Low’s music demands, in its quiet persistence, that you sit still and listen. Low plays slowed down, drawn-out “rock/pop” music, somewhere around 40-60 beats per minute — although the definition of pop or rock you may know may be stretched a bit by their glacial arrangements. The ingredients include the voices of real-life married couple Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, along with Alan’s guitar, Mimi’s cautious percussion, and Zak Sally’s thrumming electric bass. Sometimes they sing alone — Alan and Mimi’s voices tremble when holding these long notes, reminding you that they are by no means trained vocalists; however, when they sing together, the result is far greater than the sum of its parts. After awhile, time seems to shift, and you wonder why all music isn’t played like this — slow and undulating, the spaces between notes finally given equal time to stand up and look around amidst the music.

Both albums were excellent purchases; the Christmas CD is especially poignant, as Low contribute five of their own songs to the canon of Christmas music, including a fairly fast (actually, it’s almost at normal speed, which is a breakneck pace for Low) full-on pop song for the opener, entitled “Just Like Christmas”.

You can get aquainted with Low and their music at Chairkickers, their official website.