For years people have wondered what an Alan Sparhawk solo album would sound like. When Low, his band since 1993, retired due to the passing of Mimi Parker, his bandmate and wife, in 2022 talk was rife as to whether Sparhawk would record again or pass into music folklore. During 2023 he recorded with friends and family on the electro-pop project Damien and the funk band DRECHO Rhythm Section. They were fun, but some rumoured they were just to get him playing again. Then in mid-2024, he released his debut solo single, ‘Can U Hear’ – filled with trap beats, filthy bass, and a world away from Low. The vocals were the most surprising: instead of the usual croon they were vocoder-laced, which divided the Low fanbase. It was, however, a fitting prelude to his debut solo album ‘White Roses, My God’.
‘Get Still’ kicks the album off with a woozy synth melody, before a massive beat kicks in. “This doesn’t sound like anything Alan Sparhawk has put his name to before,” you think. And you are right. It doesn’t. That’s why it’s awesome. The opening line is “Do you want a big thrill? Do you wanna get real?” but it’s so overprocessed it’s hard to decipher it the first time around. While you are working out the lyrics suddenly some female vocal harmonies come in. “Is that Mimi?” you think. Sounds like it, but it’s not. It is Sparhawk’s daughter Hollis. At the right moment, the seed is planted. You go from the confusion of being confronted with something you didn’t expect, to hearing a vocal so familiar to Low fans that you immediately feel at home.
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‘I Made This Beat’ is part mantra, part banger, and “I made this beat” is the main vocal. Again, manipulated and textured to make it sound almost unrecognisable. His excitement is palpable, though. You can tell he loves the fact he made a killer beat… so why not shout about it? I would!
As the album progresses the basslines and processed vocals are the order of the day. Throughout guitars appear but they are subtle and down in the mix. On ‘Brother’ they’re front and centre. A jarring riff is backed by a pulsating beat, over which Sparhawk sings “watch and wait”. Is he foreshadowing what is coming on the song or the album? The standout track on the album is ‘Feel Something’. You can feel the pain in Sparhawk’s voice. “I wanna feel something here,” he repeats over and over as the grief flows out of him. Later in the song he croons “I think I feel something here” and later “yeah, I feel something here / C’mon and feel something here / Oh, I can feel something here.” Is he talking about the numbness leaving his body after the shock of Mimi’s passing or is he talking about something more spiritual? It’s hard to know, but the results are mesmerising, to say the least.
‘White Roses, My God’ is an incredible album. Despite the subject matter, it isn’t a downer. The music pops and has a real bounce to it. It might be one of the most upbeat, musically speaking, albums Alan Sparhawk has ever released. It ripples with love and longing throughout and the production wouldn’t be out of place on a trap mixtape. As with the bulk of his career, the combination of emotion and subdued tempos isn’t anything new, but here it feels almost groundbreaking. Like Kim Gordon’s ‘The Collective’ did. If there are fans who aren’t into this solo album, that’s OK, you still have his 2006 ‘Solo Guitar’ album to listen to, but for those of us who are into ‘White Roses, My God’ there is plenty to engage with. Grief has never sounded so captivating.
9/10
Words: Nick Roseblade
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