Album of the Week: Alan Sparhawk – White Roses, My God

White Roses, My God is Alan Sparhawk’s second solo album and first new music since the dissolution of the band Low, which he founded in Duluth, Minnesota with his wife Mimi Parker in 1993. Parker’s tragic passing in November 2022 has seemingly and respectfully ended the Low story, and with his new solo album Sparhawk refuses to revisit anything really approaching the band’s catalogue. 

Over three decades, Low traversed many modern-rock genres including slowcore, dream pop, indie-rock and in their latter years experimental rock with prominent electronic processing and embellishment. Which means that learning Sparhawk’s new album leans heavily towards the electronic music spectrum may be no surprise, but the dedication to the medium is somewhat surprising.

To my ears at least White Roses, My God is entirely electronic with repeated use of synthesisers, drum machines and vocoder-like vocal effects. The vocal effects in use render Sparhawk’s usual sombre yet powerful singing voice entirely unrecognisable and the album as whole, vocally and instrumentally could be seen as the shedding of a skin. White Roses, My God opens with Get Still which finds Sparhawk in familiar sombre territory and while his vocal remains severely warped, stretched and pitch-shifted and lyrics are indiscernible, a tangible emotional quality prevails front and centre. Sparhawk’s voice both glides and streams, vapour-like through the song but also at times abrasively cuts through the backbone of atmospheric synths and strident rhythms.

An immediate touchstone is Bon Iver’s 2016 album 22 a million, on which principal member Justin Vernon retained the emotional power of his folk and rock-oriented work while also introducing an innovative, initially jarring, experimental edge. Likewise, Kim Gordon’s post Sonic Youth albums on which the indie-rock icon has embraced trap, hip hop, noise and electronic music rather than rekindle any semblance of her former band are also something to think about in the context of White Roses, My God. After all, both Gordon and Sparhawk are such significant figures in the evolution of indie-rock that it would be unwise to expect complacency.

Can U Hear, featuring tense, stabbing synth lines and skittering rhythms and manic, frenetic vocal effects is an album highlight. The build up of tension culminates in a sublime vocal release, on which Sparhawk’s voice is manipulated and stretched with fluctuating pitches and trills, evoking Middle Eastern melismatic singing.  It’s a moment of spiritual release and catharsis one would perhaps expect given Sparhawk’s personal circumstances over the last few years. The fact is it is rendered artificially only makes things more interesting.

In keeping with the emergence of spirituality in Can U Hear, the short, minute-long interlude Heaven follows and features some of the album’s most decipherable lyrics as Sparhawk intones “Heaven, it’s a lonely place if you’re alone. I wanna be there with the people that I love”. As the track progresses, Sparhawk is enveloped by the angelic sighs of backing vocals. Instrumentally, White Roses, My God does not try to get too clever, as each track often complete with a complex rhythm pattern, textural washes and/or  distorted strobing synths and melodic basslines. In this way, there is a sparseness to the compositions that is akin to the spacious landscapes of Low.

Feel Something is, for me, another standout. The melodic bassline and simple rhythm is evocative of 90s IDM (Boards of Canada, early Autechre) and like Can U Hear and Heaven, Sparhawk’s repetitious vocal refrains of “Can you help me feel something here?” And “I want to feel something here?” is authentically resonant, while also perhaps presenting the idea of Sparhawk wrestling with his electronic equipment in an effort to eek out genuine emotion from the technology of choice. On the excellent Station, Sparhawk’s vocal is rendered nasally robotic as he spits verses in a fashion that wouldn’t be out of place on a boundary pushing hip hop record. Here Sparhawk declares “I can please myself with the things I seek out”, which lets us imagine Sparhawk on a solitary path of enlightenment and discovery as his career continues to progress in which ever way he may choose. Later in the song he also utters “I can’t repeat it” and on the evidence of White Roses, My God he doesn’t show any inclination to.

The album is also home to some of Sparhawk’s most overt attempts at something that could be considered pop since Low released their surprisingly radio-friendly 2005 album The Great Destroyer. Both I Made This Beat and Somebody Else’s Room are imbued with a pop immediacy. Somebody Else’s Room with its euphoric arrangement, climactic build and siren-like vocals is a particularly enjoyable moment of joyous release. Project 4 Ever sees the album to a close and does so in powerful fashion. Building from a quiet vulnerable and reflective intro, Project 4 Ever morphs into a fully-fledged noise-rock inspired rave anthem, albeit one envisioned by an artist as unique as Sparhawk.

White Roses, My God is likely not the album one would expect from the founding member of Low. That said, it is an album that will gift ample reward given time and an open-mind. A brave, experimental rebirth.

Alan Sparhawk ~ White Roses, My God is OUT NOW on crystal clear vinyl & CD.