{"id":1685,"date":"2014-07-08T10:21:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T14:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2014-07-16T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T15:03:31","slug":"lower-seek-warmer-climes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/lower-seek-warmer-climes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower <br>Seek Warmer Climes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Lower-Seek_Warmer_Climes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1686\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Lower-Seek_Warmer_Climes.jpg\" alt=\"Lower, Seek Warmer Climes\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Lower-Seek_Warmer_Climes.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Lower-Seek_Warmer_Climes-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>When Lower put out their noisy spurt of an EP, <i>Walk on Heads<\/i>, in 2012, it seemed Copenhagen&#8217;s scene of downer punk had successfully infiltrated our conception of hardcore (or perhaps, revitalized its original subversive nature). After all, <i>New Brigade<\/i>, from scenemates Iceage, came out just a year before to much acclaim. While the Danes\u2019 influence seems questionable now, Lower&#8217;s full-length debut, <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i> (Matador Records), sees the band departing from the swift pummel-and-bash hardcore of their EP, instead delving into unrealized melody and dissonant arrangement.<\/p>\n<p>While <i>Walk on Heads<\/i> favored punk of a downtrodden, yet straightforward, vein (think a less melodic TSOL), <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i> attempts to be more extravagant. In doing so, it ultimately ends up being a drawn-out dilution of its predecessor. No song on the full-length matches the brevity and intensity of that first EP, and you won\u2019t find any anthems on the level of that record\u2019s \u201cEscape\u201d here. In that four-song sprint, Lower was purely unabashed, the very reason why it resonated so well. As they look to expand their sound on <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i>, it becomes more difficult to take anything away.<\/p>\n<p>If anything\u2019s maintained between the EP and this album, it&#8217;s that Lower can be a bit of a downer. The aforementioned \u201cExpanding Horizons\u201d speaks to this, as does the analysis of keeping social face in \u201cUnkempt, Uncaring.\u201d It&#8217;s often hard to pinpoint exactly what Toubro\u2019s singing, but by composition alone (the stuttering, descending guitar line of \u201cTradition,\u201d in particular), <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i> is objectively dreary, forcing the listener into a bout of self-reflection. As such, Lower&#8217;s subject matter seems to necessitate the aggression of <i>Walk on Heads<\/i> rather than the attempted alterations heard on <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking melody and hooks, Lower&#8217;s focus has turned to a post-punk realm, and this approachable direction has yielded a mostly watery product. Sometimes it works, as on the hard-hitting \u201cLost Weight, Perfect Skin\u201d and in the enchanting chorus of \u201cSoft Option.\u201d The obvious centerpiece is the 7-minute-plus \u201cExpanding Horizons (Dar es Salaam),\u201d a constantly disintegrating piece that channels a sense of disillusionment into an utterly exhausting listen. That is largely how the album plays out, with little exception. In this respect, <i>Seek Warmer Climes<\/i> truly becomes a pick-and-choose record, worth a glance but not a full read-through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Lower put out their noisy spurt of an EP, <i>Walk on Heads<\/i>, in 2012, it seemed Copenhagen&#8217;s scene of downer punk had successfully infiltrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,720,50],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-lower","tag-matador-records"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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