Lowly - Keep Up the Good Work (2023)

In 2019 they shook my musical world withe their near-perfect album Hifalutin. This winter, the Danish band of Lowly finally released their next, third one already, album called Keep Up the Good Work. And they did exactly what they mentioned in the title.

They call themselves "restlessly inventive, exquisitely melodic, and defying easy categorisation" and there's no exaggeration in those words. They create indie pop that borders with everything possible. There's a lot of ambitious electronica and synthpop here, that's for sure. There's some dreampop and noise pop elements (although I feel like less than before, instead, there's more tropical, twee vibes). There's a very broad approach to vocals as they very often function as background sounds for the whole compositions. But the main thing is how easily the Danish create absolute bangers that are catchy and melodic to the extreme. On the last album, it was Children and In the Hearts, now it's Seasons and Keep Up the Good Work.

This kind of experimental in nature but also extremely catchy music with positive vibes makes me think of their latest work as a calmer, more artsy version of what Plastic Mermaids delivered us last year. Both albums being something very special.

Keep Up the Good Work costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Lowly - Hifalutin (2019)

Check: Seasons

Country: Denmark

Genre: experimental synthpop

Label: Bella Union

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Lowly - Hifalutin (2019) EN

Their second long play is covered with toxic green and filled with fantastically intriguing pop music. Lowly of the Danish Aarhus can safely be very proud of Hifalutin.

The band's music balances between pop-ish electronic and extravagantly avant-garde pop, the deep voice of the vocalist Nanna Schannong makes the listener's spine thrill not once and not twice during the album. Especially when she shows what she's able to and she does so without need for any complex music accompaniment (as in the moody Go for a Walk). The album;'s title means something like "pretentious", but I can'r see it here, for me there's only ambitious pop music that is both interesting and engaging. This is Lowly's strength, even when a track seems to be taken by the sweet pop, it suddenly becomes experimental in the very best of the word's meaning. And the best examples of this are tracks like Stephen and Staples.

And finally there comes Children and everything's settled. This track ends with spectacular, electronic finish with clear post-rock's ecstasy vibes. And it gets my vote for the song of the last month.

Hifalutin costs 7 GBP.

Check: Children 

Country: Denmark

Genre: avant-garde pop

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Lowly - Hifalutin (2019) PL

Swoją drugą długogrającą płytę skąpali w toksycznej zieleni, a zawarli na niej fantastycznie frapujący pop. Lowly z duńskiego Aarhus mogą spokojnie być bardzo zadowoleni z albumu Hifalutin.

Muzyka zespołu balansuje pomiędzy popową elektroniką a ekstrawagancko alternatywnym popem, głęboki głos wokalistki Nanny Schannong nieraz i nie dwa sprawia, że słuchaczowi przechodzą ciarki po grzbiecie. Zwłaszcza, gdy wokalistka pokazuje co potrafi, a nie potrzebuje mieć do tego złożonego podkładu muzycznego (jak w klimatycznym Go for a Walk). Tytuł płyty oznacza tyle co "pretensjonalny", jednak ja widzę tutaj tylko ambitny pop, taki który jest zarówno interesujący jak i wciągający. To właśnie siła Lowly, nawet, gdy kawałek wydaje się być stracony dla słodkiego popu, nagle okazuje się być muzyką eksperymentalną, a najlepszym tego przykładami są Stephen czy Staples.

A w końcu nadchodzi Children i wszystko sprząta, kawałek ten kończy się spektakularnym, elektronicznym finałem na iście post-rockową, ekstatyczną modłę. I mam mój głos na najlepszy utwór ostatniego miesiąca.

Hifalutin kosztuje 35 złotych (7 GBP).

Sprawdź: Children 

Kraj: Dania

Szufladka: avant-garde pop

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