Album Summary
Hey What (stylized in all uppercase) is the thirteenth and final studio album by Minnesota-based duo Low, released on September 10, 2021, through Sub Pop. It is their third recording in a row produced by BJ Burton, building on the distorted sound of the band's previous album Double Negative (2018). Burton and Hey What were nominated in the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical category at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. It is their only album as a duo of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, all earlier Low albums being recorded as a trio. Hey What, described as a minimalist album and an "organized chaos", builds its tracks around two vocals (performed by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker), surrounded by a "roaring electronic noise", which Pitchfork compares to an "electrical storm in the cavern between two earbuds". The vocals are described as a "little deeper and rounder at the edges than" on previous records. Pitchfork adds that every sonic decision on the album is "shorn of excess and beheld with close attention, conveying feeling beyond words". Thematically, Hey What creates a contrast between crystalline vocals and prevailing distortions, interpreted as a "reminder that darkness and light are inseparable". Loud and Quiet felt that the album was instilled with "a little more hope than much of Low's recent work", while not radiating "happy-clappy" energy it "hits a note" of stoicism; it makes no promises about the future, but seems at least to have the temerity to believe that there will be one".
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