The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh review, Live in Boston 4.20.10
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 7:46PM 
My most anticipated album of early 2011, The Low Anthem's Smart Flesh, is out today. It's been more than a year since I first heard live versions of many of these songs - but in the intervening months the band holed themselves up in a freezing, abandoned pasta sauce factory and put the songs to wax. The result is as beautiful and memorable an album as I expect to hear this year.
Smart Flesh showcases the band's continued growth - mixing delicate, whisper-soft hymns ("Ghost Woman Blues", "I'll Take Out Your Ashes", "Love And Altar") with electric guitar stomps that give the listener a chance to breathe ("Boeing 737", "Hey, All You Hippies!"). Haunting imagery, deft turns of phrase and starkly personal subjects - Ben Knox Miller's songwriting stands up as an example of songwriting at its best and most pure.
What lies within these grooves is a collection of songs that drip with soul but benefit from restraint. Big ideas and intense emotion, stripped to the bone. Devoid of pretense or anything superfluous, the songs have a lived-in patina and hand-worn luster - simply beautiful.
The Low Anthem will be at Old South Church in Boston on March 4 (tickets) and will be back in Boston on April 19 at the House of Blues, opening for Iron & Wine. Two must-see shows.
Check out a remastered version of our excellent recording of the band at the Paradise last April 20 - the sound is improved over the last version, and is a pristine soundboard+room matrix. Don't miss this!
The Low Anthem
Paradise Rock Club - Boston MA
April 20, 2010
Cage The Songbird
Ticket Taker
[thanks]
Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From *
To The Ghosts Who Write History Books
Apothecary Love
Ghost Woman Blues
Charlie Darwin
Home I'll Never Be **
Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild, Wild Women ^
Maybe So
This God Damn House
Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around %
Ain't No More Cane %
Dreams Can't Chase You Down
Ohio
Love And Altar
I'll Take Out Your Ashes
* - Rev. Gary Davis
** - Jack Kerouac
^ - Jim Croce
% - Traditional
Full set download (mp3 zip)
Reader Comments (2)
Many thanks for this excellent download - I am still waiting for the cd to arrive in the post from the band so this is nice!!
What a beautiful recording! I wasn't at the show, but I was at Old South Church this past week. Beautiful, beautiful music.