Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles – Album Review
by Killian Laher

After the, for want of a better word, shitshow that was White Roses, My God, Alan Sparhawk has teamed up with banjo-loving folk band Trampled by Turtles for a more conventional-sounding album.  Stranger sets the album as a more comfortable listen than the previous one, propelled by violin strokes and the band providing vocal harmonies with Sparhawk.  Too High is a gentle ballad, plenty here for Low fans to get into.  He reprises two songs from the previous album.  The brief Heaven, which is deeply sad, Alan Sparhawk singing “heaven it’s a lonely place if you’re alone” over a gentle strum.  Get Still is the other reprised song, and it works better here as a banjo-led track than under the previous treatment; the vocal harmonies towards the end are like an aural balm.

One of the finest tracks is the heartfelt Not Broken, with a gorgeous fiddle and a turn by Hollis on voice, “it’s not broken, I’m not angry”, the sound of resigned acceptance.  The loss of Mimi Parker is all over the lyrics of this album, from the very direct plea Don’t Take Your Light to the deeply sad Screaming Song, where Sparhawk laments, “when you flew out the window and into the sunset, I thought I would never stop screaming your name”.  This latter one is a decent song, but a bit hard to listen to when halfway through, the violin replicates the sound of screaming in pain.

Princess Road Surgery could almost pass for a mid-period Low song, while in the final song Torn and In Ashes, Sparhawk could be singing about himself.  The track has a lovely fiddle part, a glorious way to finish.  It’s a million times better than last year’s White Roses, My God, but there is still something lacking. Alan Sparhawk sounds lost and bereft, which for obvious reasons, he is.

Not Broken: