60 albums
2001 - Low - Things We Lost in the Fire

So my 60 albums series took a back seat while I picked my 50 songs for #LET5D0IT and the plan to get it all wrapped up by the time I reached 60 fell by the wayside. Also I found it tricky to pick albums from the early years of the 21st Century, not sure why.

Low - Things We Lost in the Fire (Kranky, 2001)

Things We Lost in the Fire was Low’s fifth album and the beginning of my drift away from them - I kept buying albums but the first four seemed so unimpeachable that I found it hard to have a sensible relationship with anything post- Secret Name.

I haven’t really figured out why I have problems with certain bands that I do actually love - there’ll be another of those later in the series - but I do. It sometimes feels like I don’t actually want to love them but can’t help myself. I wonder if it’s related to their popularity. In 1999 they played The Garage and Dingwalls (two small London venues) in 2001 it was The Shepherd’s Bush Empire and two nights at The Union Chapel - they had outgrown me.

I saw them a stack of times, the first time in, I think, 1995 when they supported Chris & Carla (The Walkabouts) at The Borderline - my pal was a Walkabouts fan and I didn’t even know Low were supporting until we arrived. I was already a fan (because of… you know… Kramer!). The last time I saw them was in 2007 at The Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

I found this in a post to The Galaxie 500 Mailing List in 2001 - it’s a transcription of a conversation with Hazel:

I never went to see Low when they were in London recently - it is, as far as I'm aware, the first time I've missed them on a London visit since 94/95. I saw them earlier this year and was disappointed and rather than be disappointed further I opted to stay at home.

Hazel asked me "Why didn't you go see Low?"
>I replied "Well I was disappointed last time"
>H: "Where were they playing?"
>A: "They did two nights at the [fairly big] Union Chapel"
>H: "hmmmm..."
>A: "They were so good at the [tiny] Monarch in 96 and even [medium-sized] Dingwalls in 1999"
>H: "hmmmm..."
>A: "and what's that supposed to mean?"
>H: "You are an unbearable music snob - they are just as good now, maybe better, but you object to them because they can fill the Union Chapel twice...maybe you object to the fact that everyone's heard of them..."
>A: "hmmmm..."
>H: "Well..."
>A: "Fancy a cup of tea?"

Galaxie 500 Mailing List 4th December 2001

Of course, in recent years I have come to realise that TWLITF is as good as those first four albums, and sometimes seems better, and I regret that I never got to see them again after a show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2007.

Low in orange - Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2007