Low Skies: All the Love I Could Find Review

First Impression:
Final Rating:

I'm not sure who holds the copyright here. I haven't signed any contract saying that my writing becomes the property of the Dispatch Media Group as far as I know. This is my review, published in the Columbus Alive newspaper.

Chicago four-piece Low Skies has the sort of downtrodden mystique that few artists can claim. There's a quiet rage to All the Love I Could Find that seems ready to combust, if only it could muster the strength. Morose and blues-tinged, if the characters described in the songs are going to hell, they're getting there on their own time.


"Stone Mountain," the opening track, describes how a person falls in love with a "boy from nowhere," only to cut his throat and leave him for dead. On "Sweet Young Girls," songwriter and lead singer Chris Salveter tells a former girlfriend, "I was hoping one day you would call my name in a car crash." The lyrics evoke minimalist authors like Raymond Carver, with characters that are usually morose and altered by substances. On "The Cause of It," Salveter's rich croon is complimented by organ and a three-part harmony.


Playing what critics are already gleefully dubbing "post-country," Low Skies explore familiar images of the Midwest, and all the dark, expansive places in between. While it has little variation in tempo and volume, this album boasts an almost otherworldly intensity. All the Love I Could Find provides a perspective on life for the off-the-wagon addict in all of us.

End Review -- This is already a serious contender for record of the year. I'm hard pressed to think of another album that aims for an aesthetic and nails it as dead-on as this one. This is a real winner.

Low Skies - Levelling.mp3
Low Skies - You Can't Help Those People.mp3
Low Skies - To Fail You.mp3

All The Love I Could Find on Amazon
Link to the review (until it's broken -- I don't think the Alive archives anymore)