Artist: Lowlife
Album: The Black Sessions
Release: 1989
Label: Self-Released
Album: The Black Sessions
Release: 1989
Label: Self-Released
Tracklist
1. River Of Woe
2. Where I Lay, I'll Lie
3. Missing The Kick
4. The Beggar's Burning Bush
5. Moved To Tears
6. Bittersweet
7. Forever Filthy
8. Neverending Shroud
9. We The Cheated
10. Acrid Tongue
I cannot implore the world enough to look into Lowlife’s underrated but tremendously quality back catalog. The Scottish dream-pop/post-punkers mixed the bass prominence of and depression of Joy Division with the romanticized nature of the Smiths and just enough of the Cocteau Twins’ (whose initial bassist, Will Heggie, left to form Lowlife) swirling textures. While not mindblowingly unique, the band excelled as songwriters and you should absolutely get ahold of at least the first two records, the stark and rain-flecked Permanent Sleep and the absolute gem of Diminuendo.
This 12”, limited to only 250 copies, offers a fantastic look into the quartet’s songs in their embryonic form. The band would lose guitarist Stuart Everest between these demos and their third record, Godhead, and thus hearing the original lineup play the songs is an added bonus. “River of Woe” is a great introduction to the band’s sound, and is rendered better here than in its fully-polished studio form on Godhead, Heggie’s ever-present bass pulsing underneath Everest’s minimalism and Craig Lorentson’s absolutely gifted baritone voice narrating one of his many tales of confusion. “Where I Lay, I’ll Lie,” “The Beggar’s Bush,” and “Neverending Shroud,” only continue to demonstrate the melancholic perfection of Lowlife’s formula, but “We the Cheated” makes the sadness even richer, featuring only keyboard and Lorentson’s voice as he muses that “my childhood days, when everything was wonderful/went so fast and wonderful that I felt cheated.”
I’ve heard every Lowlife record except their 1995 swansong Gush, and can say with considerate certainty that their batting average is rather strong. Scope this collection of tunes ASAP, as it’s a very ideal sample platter.
Download Here
-Asa
I cannot implore the world enough to look into Lowlife’s underrated but tremendously quality back catalog. The Scottish dream-pop/post-punkers mixed the bass prominence of and depression of Joy Division with the romanticized nature of the Smiths and just enough of the Cocteau Twins’ (whose initial bassist, Will Heggie, left to form Lowlife) swirling textures. While not mindblowingly unique, the band excelled as songwriters and you should absolutely get ahold of at least the first two records, the stark and rain-flecked Permanent Sleep and the absolute gem of Diminuendo.
This 12”, limited to only 250 copies, offers a fantastic look into the quartet’s songs in their embryonic form. The band would lose guitarist Stuart Everest between these demos and their third record, Godhead, and thus hearing the original lineup play the songs is an added bonus. “River of Woe” is a great introduction to the band’s sound, and is rendered better here than in its fully-polished studio form on Godhead, Heggie’s ever-present bass pulsing underneath Everest’s minimalism and Craig Lorentson’s absolutely gifted baritone voice narrating one of his many tales of confusion. “Where I Lay, I’ll Lie,” “The Beggar’s Bush,” and “Neverending Shroud,” only continue to demonstrate the melancholic perfection of Lowlife’s formula, but “We the Cheated” makes the sadness even richer, featuring only keyboard and Lorentson’s voice as he muses that “my childhood days, when everything was wonderful/went so fast and wonderful that I felt cheated.”
I’ve heard every Lowlife record except their 1995 swansong Gush, and can say with considerate certainty that their batting average is rather strong. Scope this collection of tunes ASAP, as it’s a very ideal sample platter.
Download Here
-Asa
2 comments:
Such a great band that I've only had on vinyl. Thanks for posting and sharing!
LTM have rereleased all their LPs on CD in the last few years, except Gush. The Black Sessions are included in two halves with Godhead and San Antorium.
Singer Craig Lorentson died in 2010.
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