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May 11, 2006

Lowlife

At last, at last: LOWLIFE, one of my all-time favorite bands, has released its back catalogue on cd, and have their songs available for download on iTunes. I never thought this would happen--I thought I'd forever be resigned to listening to Diminuendo (my favorite of all their albums, a gorgeous, melancholy, chilly-autumn-day sort of record, an album I played probably 300,000 times while in college) on vinyl only. Luckily I was wrong!

Recently I told a friend about this band, and when he asked me what they sounded like, I couldn't come up with adequate comparisons. They've got singer with a deep bass, almost gothic, sexy voice. Lots of guitar echo. Heavy, overdubbed basslines and great, tight-snare drumming. I guess if you like 80s postpunk stuff like Comsat Angels and The Chameleons, or some of the bands on early Factory and/or 4AD labels, and also if you're into the layered guitar sounds of 90s shoegaze bands like Ride and Chapterhouse, you have a slight idea of where Lowlife fits musically. I suppose they have even more in common with the Cocteau Twins, though, considering that bassist Will Heggie played on the GARLANDS album before forming Lowlife.

The band now has a detailed, nostalgic website created by folks obviously as swoony about them as I've always been. Here's the wikipedia entry on the band. And here's some (slightly misguided) reviews at the Trouser Press site. And they also have a myspace page. If you're inclined to check them out, there's a new "greatest hits" package called Eternity Road, but I'd recommend heading to iTunes for the individual albums. Some of my personal favorite tracks: "Swing"; "Ragged Rise to Tumbledown"; "As It Happens"; "A Sullen Sky."