For a guy whose new record features as much piano playing as guitar work, Alan Sparhawk sure doesn't make a very good salesman for either the ivories or his album.
"Using the piano can be fraught with clichés," said the frontman of Duluth's beloved somber-rock trio Low. "A lot of times, it's just used like a sprinkling of fairy dust to make a song sound prettier. That's not what we were going for."
Indeed, the piano takes on darker and wearier tones on "The Invisible Way," Low's impressive 10th album, which lands Tuesday on famed Seattle indie label Sub Pop Records. Interest in the record is a little higher this time around, thanks to who produced it: Jeff Tweedy, leader of Chicago rock band Wilco.
Tweedy is the latest in a string of more famous rockers to lend exposure to Low, which Sparhawk has been leading for 20 years with his wife, Mimi Parker. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin recorded two of the band's songs for his 2010 album "Band of Joy," and Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie have recruited Low to open their tours.
The Duluthians have also done a few outings with Wilco, whose guitarist Nels Cline is a longtime cohort of theirs. Sparhawk hesitated to say he and Tweedy were tight pals — "We jogged together a few times; that's pretty close, I suppose" — but it was Tweedy who offered up his studio/rehearsal space in Chicago. He won a Grammy for producing soul legend Mavis Staples' most recent album there.
When Low hit the studio, Sparhawk recounted, "Jeff told us upfront, 'You guys know how to do what you do. I'm not going to be concerned with that.' So he focused his energy more on making sure everything sounded right and there was the right energy in the room — which he was good at, since it's his room."
Even before they started recording, it was apparent this would be a different album for Low. Many of the songs were written on piano instead of guitar — which is because many of them were written by Parker. She sings lead in five of the 11 songs on "The Invisible Way," much more than on any previous record. They include such key tracks as the steamrolling Velvet Underground-ish gem "Just Make It Stop," the downfall-tinged finale "On Our Knees," plus "Four Score," a numb-sounding critique of the financial crisis.
Since Low's inception, Sparhawk has always been in the spotlight while his wife hung in the back behind a stand-up drum kit, offering vital but subtle support with her serene, siren-like voice. Their on-stage roles reflected their off-stage personalities, with him being more gregarious and wily, and her more aloof and even-keeled. Somewhere in between is Steve Garrington, the band's bassist for five years running and a bandmate in Sparhawk's noisier trio, Retribution Gospel Choir.
