HEY WHAT

10/10 I can’t remember if I’ve heard any of Low’s albums before, but I think they’re a very unique band with an amazingly unique sound after listening to this and a few other albums happy to call myself a new fan :D

Impossible to separate this from its tragic context. I like Low, saw them a couple times in concert, but wasn't really a superfan, but for some reason Mimi Parker's death really gets to me. This is a very strong and affecting finale for the band, extra point for, you know, respects.

I absolutely ADORE Low - saw them live a few times. Was utterly heartbroken when Mimi parker passed away. I would happily see one (or more) of their earlier albums added to the list in addition to this one, as it would be good to get something more representative of their slowcore-founding origins. I have no quibble with this album being added, as they really had evolved into something weird and new. The list has far too many artists with multiple albums present despite them doing the exact same thing. Fave tracks - "More" -> "The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off" is a hell of a one two album closer! Really, though, this is a whole album deal for me. I want to hear everything in context...

Love this band glad it has been added to this list. I haven't listened to this particular album much but that will be rectified in the future. Faves: all of them.

Wow this is really powerful and emotional listening back now. I’m a fan of low but didn’t give this album much time when it came out and following the tragic passing of Mimi I relived their earlier albums (things we lost and live in hope) rather than coming back to thiier last album. Coming back to this now it clicks , a real final masterpiece from the band, bruised and distorted but still unmistakably tender Thank you to whoever picked this album, it really made my day.

I'm a fan of the music of Low. The albums Things We Lost In The Fire, The great Destoyer, Trust and Drums and Guns are my favorites. HEY WHAT is one of their weaker ones. It is one ofd their more recent ones and it does not add a lot to their oeuvre. It's not a bad album, but in comparison...

Just an amazingly textural and unreal LP. This was the album that put Low on my radar, and once I listened I understood the hype immediately. Though a bit slow in places, each track on this album contains some of the most creative, expressive uses of guitar and synth out there, and completely pushes the indie envelope in a way only this band can. Some will find this album boring and necessary with another Low LP on the list, but as someone in the target audience. I think this is a deserved nod to one of the most creative albums in an already experimental and insane discography.

Interesting album from a group I know from some of their Christmas songs. A lot of weird, noisy, long transitions between songs that didn’t always appeal but overall pretty good.

Felt like a bunch of discordant background noise

This slaps and doesn’t really sound like anything else. Thanks for sharing!

Sounds like what radiohead have been aiming for since OKC, mixed with a hint of JAMC noise and plenty of beautiful vocals. An absolute masterpiece, and a reminder of exactly why I started this in the first place - to listen to great albums I might otherwise never have chosen to put on. Thanks!

Since white horses have taken Mimi Parker away from us all, this Low studio album -- the last one that will ever grace our ears -- will undoubtedly sound poignant to anyone with a soul attuned to elegiac songwriting, passionate performances, and daring production values. Truth be told, I was already in love with this album before the tragic news. But I admit it, the context makes it all the more precious to me. That said, and whatever your personal relationship or mileage with the band is, I think it's a safe bet to "objectively" state that Low went out on a bang here, and not a whimper. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a latecomer to Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's artistry and this plays a part in how I received this particular album of theirs. Of course I had heard of Low before I fully dived into their music -- I had probably listened to a couple of individual tracks from them here and there decades ago... But my love affair with them has actually started with *Double Negative*, the LP that preceded *Hey What*, and it's the one that made me go back and explore their whole discography, turning the Duluth project as one of my twenty favorite acts of all times. It's a band that I will never have the chance to see play live, very sadly. Yet I still consider *Double Negative* as a criminally underrated album -- one that's for me as important as the masterpieces once released by Portishead, Radiohead or Yo La Tengo. *Hey What* thus picks up the ball from *Double Negative*, enhances the duo's elated harmonies compared to its predecessor, and somewhat tones down the abrasive, digitally-manipulated tinkering -- even if some discrete experimental moments in it still sound pretty extreme frequency-wise. Hear the unhinged, almost deafening blizzard of static on the otherwise lively, gorgeous and ecstatic "Days Like These" or "More" to find very clear example of that. Producer BJ Burton, here completing the trilogy he had started with "Ones And Sixes", outdid himself again. He helped Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker negotiate the perfect synthesis that *Hey What* is, summing up all the threads of this last era of the band's near-perfect discography. Just like for *Double Negative*, it's sometimes hard to say whether this record is minimalistic or "maximalistic". But that's what makes Low's music at the turn of the 2020s one-of-a-kind. "Ex-static" indeed. *Hey What* is indeed more than a "swan song". For me it comes off as fresh and uncompromising as their debut *I Could Now Live In Hope* was three decades ago -- and this as vastly different as those two bookends are. How many bands can succeed sounding this relevant and groundbreaking almost thirty years into their career, all of this while retaining their initial soul and heart??? Very, very few of them...Mimi and Alan still had the sacred fire in them at this point of their career. The fact that their life together (both as artists and domestic partners) was taken away from them right after this album's release is so damn unfair. But one can at least rejoice that they could leave us this incredible work while they were still together. What's also poignant in this record is that it also often looks towards the future. Low's music does not only embrace sounds, emotions and affects as they come, it also challenges your expectations of what heartfelt ballads should sound like in the 21st century. It's an album that's fully open to life -- whether its sufferings or its small blessings, here expressed through so many gracious acts of musical faith -- a simple yet heartrending vocal harmony here, a catchy melody there, a blast of echo-laden distortion elsewhere -- pushing some of the songs to truly epic heights. The tragic context gives an extra resonance to that life-affirming nature, sure. But even without said context, you'd have to be a little extinguished inside not to sense the passion behind the music. A quick sidenote here: as a music writer, I have had the insane opportunity to interview Alan last year through a zoom call, and that life-affirming spark is still with him today, I can guarantee that. The man was very generous with me, either through his words, his time, and his sincerity during the course of the interview. So even if I have never talked with Mimi, that's how I want to remember both her and Alan: people filled with life, benevolence and passion. I'm not gonna spend too much time dwelling on *Hey What"'s individual tracks -- this gem is best appreciated taken as a whole anyway. The incredibly epic opener "White Horses" thus transitions to "I Can Wait" (the inflexions of Mimi's voice going "I'm afraid" on this one moves me to tears every. single. time.) ; the lullaby-banger "All Night" (who else but Low can write lullabies-bangers???) gives way to the relentless waves of white noise in "Disappearing" ; you go from a "Don't Walk Away" that has so many foreboding connotations since Mimi's passing to the dark and obsessive rhythms of closer "The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)". There is not a single dull moment in this record. Even its demanding, ascetic interludes are speaking to my soul. The clear centerpiece and emotional anchor of this album, though? It's "Hey", of course. You really feel like Mimi is singing from the heavens on this one, somewhere above the overcast skies blocking us from the light up there... "Hey..." one voice timidly goes several times over. "What?" another voice finally answers. And then, at that exact moment, a ray of light pierces through the thick dark clouds. I might be an atheist or an agnostic, you know. But when I hear something like that, I really want to believe in a higher power. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 75 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 90 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 177 ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

Didn’t remember having this in my downloads, go figure. I haven’t listened to this album so much since the year it came out, 2021, when it was another intriguing progression in the recent evolution of Low’s sound further from any conventional idea of a rock band into coarse, glitchy quasi-electronica. With the tragic passing of Mimi Parker just a little more than a year after the album’s release, this instead has become the final statement in a just shy of 30-year long career. Comparing this music to that of I Could Live in Hope, the album at the opposite end of Low’s history, or even something a little further along like Things We Lost in The Fire, you would reflexively make the judgment that this is a band that made a complete left turn in their musical direction. Putting aside the fact that one, you would hope a band whose discography just reached its 4th decade will have something new to say compared to when they started, and two, that this move has been presaged by the trajectory of their releases up to this point (and truthfully, the seeds were laid by Curtain Hit The Cast’s sonic explorations at the latest), the essential abstract elements of what could be considered the essence of Low are still clearly present: Mimi and Alan’s harmonising and texture as the primary point of focus. The distorted sound blocks that can be distantly recognized as having been produced by instruments are often aggressive, overpowering, and even shocking with some frequency. The aspect separating art with shock value from art with staying power, however, is care of expression. In this case, the care would be the craft of songwriting, and Low haven’t sacrificed a drop with the shift from conventional song forms. I fear I am going to veer away from the nebulous point I’m trying to make the more I write, so I will only bring up one specific instance of music: The closer ”The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)”. In a truly impressive catalogue, this is a finale that I still think about. The slow build, from a somewhat understated first few minutes, keeps piling on until you eventually get the sense that the music itself is evaporating from the sheer energy accumulated. Between this track and the standout single ”Quorum” from the preceding album, the results of Low’s sonic experiment is clear as day. I haven’t really as much as scratch the shell of everything that HEY WHAT is in all this writing. It’s also 3 am and I don’t think I should stay up any longer trying to elaborate any more than necessary. I mostly just want to pay tribute to an album, band, and artistry that only reveals more the longer it sits with me. R.I.P. Mimi Parker

Started pretty strong, but fell off for me near the end. I wanted more glitchy from it than it ended up delivering

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: I can wait, Hey, More, The price you pay

This is something very special. Very crisp clear vocals, with distorted electronic music. A bit niche, but definitively not bad

Hey now you’re an all star

The Apple Music summary for the album basically says this is spooky Mormon indie rock and, yeah

This isn't my favorite Low album - it isn't quite as good as earlier stuff

I liked this less than the other Low album I got. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Good surprise

Hints of new age with all the intentional distortion

It sounds pro and different enough to be on lists like this. It's probably exactly how they wanted to sound, but I don't have the patience. I liked the first song and then I got bored.

Post-rock, noise rock, experimental rock, experimental pop. Demasiadas canciones rollo. Un 2.

Hmm interesting

This is what happens when modern music needs new avenues to adventure. This to me was lo-fi rock music which seems like an oxymoron but here we are. The electronic/white noise sound mixed with a slightly upbeat tempo and limited grungy lyricism is what makes this that kind of album to me. Not something I truly enjoyed but it is different. 5.5/10

Here's an example of a band I want to love based on the backstory...but this is not for me.

I only know Low as a Slowcore band. I had no idea they pivoted towards Industrial right before the passing of Mimi Parker. Never been a big fan of them though. Okay, not sure if I like this. Very loud, but strangely shallow. Some of the crunchy distortion makes this sound like Imagine Dragons lol. Like a strong 2/5.

den första låten funkar, den är faktiskt ganska bra. men sen blir det för konstigt för min smak.

HEY WHAT isn't for me, it's all a bit dull and weird, which I know is the intent, I don't like the distortion elements, 2/5, just not my tastes.

I'm not feeling this album. It’s not boring, it's just odd—like discordant background noise in the background. I know that’s the point, but it’s still strange.