“WE’VE always had the two voices, mine and Alan’s, I guess those have maybe been the constants in Low,” Mimi Parker told Uncut in 2018. She was discussing the band’s 12th album, Double Negative – an astounding reinvention that blasted the band’s trademark harmonies with gales of sound and distressed electronic textures. Uncut’s Album Of The Year, this most radical departure in a career defined by exploratory detours nevertheless sounded like Low, precisely because it featured those two voices. “We realised that we’re always going to have those, which means we’re always going to be recognised as Low.”
When Parker died in November after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer, it was not just the passing of a beloved vocalist, but perhaps it also marked the end of one of America’s most influential bands. Born and based in Duluth, Minnesota, Low crafted slow, careful songs that could grow almost unbearably intense without increasing volume. In silence, they found a kind of loudness. As instrumentalists they were sophisticated in their austerity: as a guitarist, Alan Sparhawk is both imaginative and restrained, while Parker’s drumming was artfully spare, her rhythms subtly nudging the songs forward.
But it was their voices that truly defined Low – his expressive and soulful, hers more reserved but conveying a sense of calm, steadiness and intense compassion. Whether she was singing about faith, alienation, salvation or loss, Parker added a unique and powerful humanity to their songs, offering consolation and reassurance – a reminder that such a harsh world could produce immense
