Low: Alan Sparhawk (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Mimi Parker (vocals, percussion); Zak Sally (keyboards, bass). Recorded at John & Stu's, Seattle, Washington in January & February 1996. THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST is Low's third full-length record, and it is a much longer and wordier affair than the band's previous releases. By no means, though, is it a more cheerful record; what can you say about a song with the lines "Mom says / We ruined her body?" Musically, the band maintains the slightly fuzzy sound it introduced following LONG-DIVISION--Mimi Parker's minimalist drumming accents Alan Sparhawk's muted guitar, while the whole thing is pulled along by Zak Sally's expressive but spare basslines. Standouts include "Over the Ocean" and "Coattails." Both songs are spectacularly delicate, the second highlighting Sally's understated bass and Parker's gorgeous, enveloping voice, which extracts incredible beauty from the one-line lyric. The record's masterpiece, however, is the 14-minute "Do You Know How to Waltz?" The song is broken into three sections and is an ambient epic. After an introduction of ominous swirling sound, the duet vocals of Sparhawk and Parker weave amid the towering guitar and bass notes, before a looping, reverb-drenched guitar (anchored to a very creepy bass line) slowly swells over the song's remaining ten minutes. This is a haunting record that lingers long after the disc stops spinning.

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Low: Alan Sparhawk (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Mimi Parker (vocals, percussion); Zak Sally (keyboards, bass). Recorded at John & Stu's, Seattle, Washington in January & February 1996. THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST is Low's third full-length record, and it is a much longer and wordier affair than the band's previous releases. By no means, though, is it a more cheerful record; what can you say about a song with the lines "Mom says / We ruined her body?" Musically, the band maintains the slightly fuzzy sound it introduced following LONG-DIVISION--Mimi Parker's minimalist drumming accents Alan Sparhawk's muted guitar, while the whole thing is pulled along by Zak Sally's expressive but spare basslines. Standouts include "Over the Ocean" and "Coattails." Both songs are spectacularly delicate, the second highlighting Sally's understated bass and Parker's gorgeous, enveloping voice, which extracts incredible beauty from the one-line lyric. The record's masterpiece, however, is the 14-minute "Do You Know How to Waltz?" The song is broken into three sections and is an ambient epic. After an introduction of ominous swirling sound, the duet vocals of Sparhawk and Parker weave amid the towering guitar and bass notes, before a looping, reverb-drenched guitar (anchored to a very creepy bass line) slowly swells over the song's remaining ten minutes. This is a haunting record that lingers long after the disc stops spinning.