Lowry is continuing to rack up high marks for their just released Engine Room recording Love Is Dead.

We hope that you are considering a review or small feature on the band.  Lead singer Alex Lowry and multi-instrumentalist and back-up vocalist Heidi Sidelinker are available for interviews.

The band is following up last week’s video debut for “Face Behind Your Hands” (http://vimeo.com/2082094) with a bit of a treat for long time fans – a brand new video for the track “Arkansas” from Lowry’s previous album Awful Joy is now available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXZxd5Pabc0 

From Tracer Magazine:

 

“Hailing from New York City, the quintuplet’s indie folk/pop rock sound is both an amalgamation of and a divergence from a host of musical influences. The New Yorkers take bits and pieces from the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Radiohead, Nada Surf, Nick Drake and, yea, even Willie Nelson. While I am prone to gravitate toward the simplicity of an artist with only their guitar, Lowry’s neo-folk concoctions are coupled with some authentic lyrical honesty. After my second listen to Love is Dead, I realized that what makes Lowry so extraordinary is their lyrical rawness. Honestly, Elliott Smith’s Basement on a Hill was the last album to resonate with me in such a way.

Musically, Lowry monopolizes on today’s postmodern opportunities, inserting folk here and then pop-rock there and maybe a little ethereal ambiance just for the heck of it—all within a given song! On this nine track album, two-thirds of the songs are over five minutes long, allowing ample opportunity for differentiation in sound. Lowry takes these opportunities to twist and turn the musicality to coincide with the lyrics and emanating emotional tones.

Love is Dead is an album that is to be listened to slowly. Sure, it can serve as lovely background music to a night of sipping cocktails and sharing your own stories with loved ones. But those cold October nights, when your four walls are the only company you have, Lowry’s stories will affect, resonate, and evoke the emotions that come when chilling with a close friend. If anything, Lowry is a wonderfully refreshing listen, because it’s obvious that they really give a damn about using music for all it’s worth. That, in itself, makes Loves is Dead more alive than a proliferating music-world where arrogant and dull dilettantes get too much attention.”

http://www.tracermagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=1

http://www.tracermagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=1

 

From 411Mania:

“Lowry wear the influence [of Death Cab for Cutie] well and I believe they managed to cram all musical highlights from Cuties Plans album all within the first three minutes. Pretty impressive. However the best part of this song [Whiskey] comes at 3:26 in as they break into a beautiful languid beat with a slide guitar refrain and piano chords underneath adding a superb lush feel.

 

This encapsulates Lowry as a musical entity. Most of their songs wear their musical influences on its sleeve but when the band stretch beyond that original musical idea and look at adding a new feel or flourish to a song they usually hit upon something good an interesting.

Probably the best example of hearing the band as itself and not a sum of its influence is on the first single "Face Behind Your Hands", as the feel of the song is unlike anything else on the album. The guitars, vocals and arrangement all play off each other creating the songs own internal logic, thus making something more original.

Another good example would be "Roads" which has a nice Kinks-like feel and invokes some serious 60’s vibes and then brought into today’s music scene via the vocal blend and the stylistic shift created when the drums come in around the 3 minute mark and the funky guitar riff that come to the fore. Add the very tasteful guitar solo at the end and you have an all round winner.

Perhaps my favorite track is "One Thing". Funnily enough this probably is one of the more heavy Death Cab sounding songs but that can’t take away that the song is really good. The instrumentation is fantastic and as is the standard for this whole set, the band play for the song and not for glory.”

 

http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/89100