Luck isn’t a word normally associated with Lowgold. After being part of the Nude Records roster, the label soon dissolved, the band themselves faced bankruptcy and - following the knowingly-titled compilation ‘Keep Music Miserable’ - they all but split up. Worse still, their manager Martin Gilks passed away. Remarkably the funeral brought the band together just when they had seemed to have given up. So ‘Promise Lands’ really is a triumph in the face of adversity.
After an opening brace of the slow-paced downbeat fare that has become the Lowgold trademark, ‘Just Like Skin’ sees the group embark on a potentially unwise shoegazing jaunt but they deliver it with a surprising energy and gusto. Better still is ‘Don’t Let Love In’ where Darren Ford and co. shift from maudlin verses to a genuinely uplifting chorus. Thereafter the formula seems to dry up as one melancholic epic follows another; the sombre mood at least punctuated by the angry urgency of ’Dead Sea’ and a moving finale in ‘Hope & Reason’.
So it’s probably no surprise to say that ‘Promise Lands’ is not their best album but it has its share of excellent moments. Darren Ford’s yearning voice is still an instrument of wonder even if the musicianship itself isn’t so awe-inspiring. Yet for all that’s gone before it, it’s certainly a record to be admired and cherished.
Web Sites:
Lowgold Official Site
Lowgold MySpace
Further Listening:
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