Low Listening Club

So here’s my ‘buying my first low album’ anecdote (set expectations low, it’s not that interesting) as we prepare to listen to ‘I could Live in Hope’ next week.

I think I was 17ish and a penniless sixth form student hunting through CD racks (remember them?) with my then girlfriend. I came across ‘I Could Live in Hope’ on CD and it was a on sale for a fiver which is all the money I had in the world (and would get until the following month).

All I knew about the band was from hearing their cover of Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’ which was on a compilation of Joy Division covers called ‘A Means to and End’ which my brother had. The only time I’d ever heard this cover was coming through my bedroom wall from his his room several times. He’d told me they were called ‘Low’ but he hadn’t let me borrow the cassette. Git.

So I told my gf I was thinking of buying the CD and she looked at me like I was mad. I didn’t know any of the songs on it, the cover that I liked wasn’t on there. I didn’t know anything about this band, they might be terrible apart from one decent Joy Division cover. Neither she nor I had read about them in NME or MElody Maker which in the 90s meant they might as well not exist.

Something about it called to me though and I bought it, even though it meant we had to walk miles back to my house as neither of us then had any money for the bus.

This feels kind of ludicrous now but the whole way home I was holding this CD thinking ‘crap, crap, crap! What have I done? What if it’s terrible? I’ve wasted all my money! And my gf will think I’m such a loser’.

We got home and I put the CD on and heard that intro to words and I was all oh thank God, this is AMAZING . We just sat in my room listening to the CD the whole way through making out and then she went home.

I love Low.

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See what you did there.

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Oh blimey. I would love to pretend that I intended that.

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That is superb mate. I used to love taking that kind of gamble in the pre-streaming days.

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Me too. Some gems, some not gems.

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Welcome to Week 1 of Low Listening Club! I’m a bit taken aback by the amount of interest in the original poll, so great to see there is an appetite for it and hopefully we can do it justice over the next few months,

The intention aas get this going first thing this morning in time for the commuter crew, but a bad night put paid to that. Will endeavour to do so for future weeks!

As with the R.E.M. thread, listen whenever you like over the week. Any chat related to the featured album welcome - from posting about old favourites, to hot takes to any personal recollections etc. Only rule is please don’t jump ahead with albums before their week - better to give each its own space, and the thread starts to lose its focus otherwise.

Housekeeping done, and so to this week’s album. From a quick look around over the weekend, it doesn’t look like an album that’s easy to get hold of physical copies of any more…so I’m guessing this will be a new listen for a few of us. It’s not one I’m familiar with yet.

Ok, then, this week’s record is:

I Could Live in Hope

Enjoy!

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Quick question, will we be doing A Lifetime of Temporary Relief, and of so when?

I have no Low anecdotes really except that I bought a whole bunch of their albums (maybe four or five) around the time of Drums & Guns cos I didn’t really “get” them but everyone on here bloody loved them, and I really wanted to understand it.

So when I did get them, I had a whole pile of CDs to listen to. That was nice.

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Good question. I was planning on doing, but hadn’t considered when. It’s massive (but probably not all essential repeat listening) so was thinking of maybe splitting it over two weeks?

Looking at scheduling now, it was released in 2004, so I’d say it can go between Trust and The Great Destroyer.

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One CD a week

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Just to say that, I’m a recent Low fan - came on board at C’Mon so I am very excited to start from the start. Just starting this now.

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Have you timed this so we are listening to the Christmas album in December and not in the middle of November/January?

I guess I could work this out for myself… but you know I’m kinda lazy.

Three weeks on an odds and ends compilation might be a bit of a slog, but will see how we’re doing by the time we get to that point.

See the OP. I think we hit it too early if we go completely in sequence, so I’m putting it back a few weeks so that we can listen over Christmas.

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Loads of good music on each CD though - i’d put each one up against most stand-alone albums. Maybe if it affects the crimbo placing?

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Here goes.

When I got into Low I had to make a decision on which albums I bought because I didn’t have much money. So as a result I could live in hope (as well as being quite obscure to find) was not on my agenda.

Someone else in this thread commented how the first song on the album magically manages to sum up everything low is about.

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listening to the first one now (on YouTube) so there’ll be ad interruptions but ah well

‘Words’ is perfect for this Autumn day. Quite early Cure-esque in a not-obvious way (though, when you have it in mind, it’s very spottable).

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Oh this is one of those threads where I need to read the whole of the OP…

Sorry Wowee I completely missed that part.

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Listened to I Could Live in Hope this morning, couldn’t sleep and so at 4am decided to give a listen. Maybe it is my half awake state and the stillness of the night but it really got me in the gut this time. Can’t give any specific song memories, listened to it as a whole with my phone hidden under my pillow with my partner sleeping next to me, but there were many moments of shivers when the guitar rose in volume. I like that the rise in intensity could just be Alan playing a riff slightly more aggressive with slight volume increase, and still have the effect of a sudden distorted chorus come in from another band. It’s going to be a tired day, but glad I started it with this album :slight_smile:

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