The Invisible Way

Editors’ Notes The decision to record The Invisible Way at Jeff Tweedy's Chicago studio helped ensnare Tweedy for the producer role and make this album the most singer/songwriter–like album of Low's slo-core career. Mimi Parker handles five lead vocals (previously unheard of), with "Waiting" giving longtime fans an idea of what Americana ballads would sound like done the Low way. Of course, the Low way in 2013 is but a distant non-echo of the band's heavily reverbed past, where the beauty was in the mystic tones that sounded as if they were bouncing off of a cathedral's walls. Low's songs have been slowly rising to the surface with instrumental and vocal parts more clearly defined, but never quite like this. "Clarence White" could be a tribute to the former Byrds member, but the lyrics suggest something less quantifiable. "So Blue" actually threatens to cruise before the band falls away to better expose the harmonies. "Just Make It Stop" sounds like an AM radio piano-based pop tune. "Holy Ghost" mixes gospel and the blues as only Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker can design it.