Two decades on, eleven albums in, and Low are still determinedly testing their limits and composing songs that leave listeners on the verge of apparent breakdowns, whether due to their cataclysmic clout or gorgeous hymnal simplicity. Ones & Sixes is as lush as it is unsettling and it’s closing moments best portray the Minnesotans’ tour de force.

Ten songs in and we’ve been suitably charmed/alarmed by the time the airy, reverb-laden ‘Lies’ enters. Alan Sparhawk opens with “When they found you at the edge of the road, you had a pistol underneath your coat” and the track perfectly exhibits Low’s proficiency for creating warm, encircling melodies, as Mimi Parker’s towering voice builds to a divine close.

Fragile notes creep in, there’s a sudden rawness to the air and the icy mood is met by imposing, drumfire strums that with each advance seem to predict the coming storm. And so begins ‘Landslide’. That former roadside Sparhawk referenced is now buried beneath the weight of its overdriven impact. By the time Wilco drummer, Glenn Kotche comes in heavy handed on the kit, we’ve already been overpowered as Sparhawk unloads, “Look at us now, broken like teeth, torn at the mouth, loosing our feet”.

Now that could be dismissed as slight hyperbole. They haven’t drifted into doom metal territory just yet. But what I’m trying to convey are the staggering musical shifts Low take throughout Ones & Sixes. The latter six minutes of ‘Landslide’ build to a euphoric, rapturous close centred around Parker’s cherubic chanting and Sparhawk’s wrestling to keep his whipping guitar neck under control.

This isn’t new for Low; it’s part of their allure in the first place. When asked why the title Ones & Sixes Sparhawk revealed: “It’s a step away from zeroes and fives. It’s an organised effort to create randomness and/or chaos”. Each song feels charged, at times both bleak and filled with hope. This could partly be down to producer BJ Burton’s involvement. Recorded at Justin Vernon’s April Base Studio in Eau Claire, WI, he’s assisted with the recording of Poliça’s pulsing synth-pop and Volcano Choir’s Repave, which shares many textural rippling digital idiosyncrasies with Ones & Sixes.

Each song, whether it be the eerie electrical crush of ‘Gentle’; the soft “slow dancing across a disaster area” feel of ‘Into You’ or the heartrending drive of ‘Spanish Translation’ with sincere sighs of “Everything always confusion, things I could never explain… Everything once within reason, falling away like the dust” goes deeper than that last avalanche may lead you to believe. Ones & Sixes is composed of many intricate layers, beyond the charred earth, rubble and settling ash, moments of glittering sunlight break through. So I’d honestly advise put those headphones on and dig.

Ones & Sixes is out now via Subpop Records.

David Weir