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Mar 19, 2013It’s as if Low has taken its tried-and-true songwriting formula--a slow buildup into a smoldering climax--and stretched it to the length of an entire album. And an entirely superb one.
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Mar 14, 2013On The Invisible Way Sparhawk has managed the rare trick of rendering that language not only intelligible but lustrous and attractive to even the staunchest naysayer while simultaneously steering his band around a fresh and perhaps uncharted musical turn.
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Mar 19, 2013The trio again puts a premium on space and intimacy in the arrangements, which works especially well this time because of the uniformally high quality of the melodies.
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Entertainment WeeklyMar 29, 2013Lovely, intimately spare songs. [5 Apr 2013, p.67]
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Jul 31, 2013The Invisible Way champions everything that is great about Low and realizes it through a neat and clear lens. It’s a formidable outing and at number ten, a remarkable feat met with solid results.
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May 15, 2013The version of Low that helped define a subgenre remains recognizable throughout, but their sound has expanded.
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Mar 20, 2013The Invisible Way is very good--and not just “good for a band that’s 20 years old.”
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Mar 20, 2013It doesn’t quite rank alongside their very strongest material, but there are still more rippling vocal harmonies and gutting one-liners than most bands could be proud of in a lifetime.
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Mar 19, 2013The Invisible Way is as spare, heavy, and lovely as anything Low’s ever done, but it feels essential; there’s an extra beauty to the bleakness of these songs.
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Mar 18, 2013As ever, it's the gorgeous harmonies of husband and wife Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker that make these sparsely decorated songs take flight.
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Mar 18, 2013Low give us a definitive chapter for where they are presently, and present it with more clarity and joy than we've heard from them in some time.
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Mar 14, 2013[Drummer Mimi Parker's] songs, like the uncharacteristically jaunty, slowly swelling Just Make It Stop, are the highlights.
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Mar 13, 2013Produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, The Invisible Way is warm and organic, melodic and fragile. Twenty years into their career, and Low have created one of their best albums yet.
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Mar 13, 2013There’s a majestic soulfulness here too that makes The Invisible Way one of their strongest, most coherent works.
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Q MagazineMar 12, 2013Gloomy and wonderful. [Apr 2013, p.105]
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Mar 11, 2013The Invisible Way is Low’s essence distilled--potent, powerful and pure.
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MojoMar 7, 2013The balming glow of the Sparhawks' sunray-through-clouds harmonies, their surfeit of haunting, enigmatic melodies, makes immersion in The Invisible Way's melancholia a sublime pleasure. [Apr 2013, p.96]
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Alternative PressMar 1, 2013The core of any Low album, though, is the unearthly beauty of Sparhawk and his wife Mimi Parker's vocal harmonies, which, after 20 years, have lost none of their emotion-stirring power. [Apr 2013, p.90]
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Mar 1, 2013Parker's vocals have taken a noticeably more prominent role, often duetting with herself rather than her husband.... Songs like 'Four Score' and 'Holy Ghost'--where Parker takes the lead--are buoyed by unashamedly gospel-inflected chorales. And it works, wonderfully.
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UncutMar 1, 2013The fact that Parker sings five of eleven tracks is The Invisible Way's other obvious point of departure, and one of its great strengths. [Apr 2013, p.61]
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Mar 21, 2013They maintain the patient emotional tone that has drawn fans to their music over the years while refining their sound into something even deeper.
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Mar 29, 2013The character of each new Low album is always a mystery until you hear it, so speculating on whether they’re likely to continue working in this manner is pointless at this juncture, but it’s good to know that ten albums in Low still have the ability to put together a stirring collection of songs.
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Mar 21, 2013Nothing on these songs sounds the least bit rote or comfortable, and that’s remarkable for a band so far into an unlikely career.
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Mar 25, 2013Hello, Mimi Sparhawk, who sings lead on five of these 11 songs instead of her usual one or two, and it is glorious to behold.
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Mar 25, 2013The Invisible Way may not be the most significant brick, but its sturdiness is something to be admired.
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Mar 20, 2013They make enough changes while doing what they do best to avoid getting pigeonholed, which is more than we can ask for from a band that’s about to start a third milestone.
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Mar 18, 2013Its 10th full-length album in two decades as a band, the band pulls back from that intensity but adds layers of depth and surprise.
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Mar 18, 2013While the connective tissue between the record’s highlights simmers at the same temperature as much of Low’s back catalog, The Invisible Way flows as a satisfying whole.
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Mar 13, 2013It’s the sound of Low passing up the opportunity for a twentieth-anniversary blow-out and opting instead for a quiet get-together with old friends.
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The WireMar 1, 2013The Invisible Way has Wilco's Jeff Tweedy behind the faders, and he superbly captures the concentrated simplicity of Low's aesthetic. But sometimes the restricted palettes can be a little cloying,[Mar 2013, p.56]
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Mar 19, 2013It’s a disappointment to hear the band retreat into their old shell on their latest, The Invisible Way.
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Mar 18, 2013Overall, this is a fine record that continues the Low legacy.
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Jun 4, 2013Low still sound beautiful, but there’s a nagging feeling that The Invisible Way represents a slight drop-off in focus.
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Mar 15, 2013This throws most of one's attention on the vocals, always the most engagingly evanescent aspect of their sound.
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Apr 5, 2013It's a record that doesn't undermine their body of work, but nor does it stand out as a career-defining highlight.
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Apr 1, 2013Low has found what they do well and occasionally even exceed the standards they've set for themselves, but the stoicism and gradual build that comprises the band's best songs is at times defeated by their lyrical disinterest and repetition.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 20
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Mixed: 2 out of 20
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Negative: 1 out of 20
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Feb 3, 2014
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Jun 1, 2013
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Mar 29, 2013