It’s hard to imagine how Alan Sparhawk could face making music after the loss of his wife and musical partner Mimi Parker in 2022, especially those points of preternatural beauty when their two voices melded together into one entity. But thankfully for all of us Alan has returned with ‘Can U Hear’ the first release from the White Rose, My God album being released on 27 September.
‘Can U Hear’ is unsettling and compelling, full of synth lines writhing likes snakes along the floor of the track with twisting electronic percussion darting overhead like starlings. Over this is a treated vocal line warping and shapeshifting Sparhawk’s voice, moving from guttural subterranean rumbles to impassioned cries. I checked to find out what was used to create the restless vocal effect and it’s a TC Helicon C-1 hard pitch pedal which is designed to auto-tune unless it’s in the hands of someone as inventive as Mr Sparhawk in which case it becomes the perfect way to mirror the asymmetric pulse of the track.
The video, directed and edited by Rick Alverson, is a menacing prowl through confined poorly spaces and night-time scenes with Sparhawk lit only by a spotlight although the face is pixilated or so backlit it renders the face unreadable. Maybe grief is the prism that this video is refracted through – searching through empty rooms, the blurring of features that are our most expressive; eyes and mouth, and someone on their knees in front of a pile of white roses – but this is the kind of fever-dream imagery that psychoanalysts could put their kids through college trying to interpret.
White Roses, My God will be released on the Sub Pop label on 27 September.
Alan Sparhawk/Low socials: Instagram | Facebook | X |
Review by Paul F Cook
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