Probabilistic Jukebox: "Walk Into the Sea" by Low

Portrait of Igor Stravinsky from the LIFE magazine collection, 1882

I heard some troubling things about Low a few months ago. I don't follow the band fanatically, so I don't always know what they're up to, but I've heard that bandleader Alan Sparhawk has not appeared to be doing well in recent public appearances. I don't know if this is true, but it easily could be - Sparhawk has talked very publicly about his struggles with depression, particularly in the Low documentary You May Need a Murderer, and there's the much-exaggerated "mental breakdown" he had onstage at the End of the Road festival last year. I see that Low is doing some shows in Europe later this summer, so maybe he's feeling better.

A lot of the lyrical content of Low's songs addresses feelings like doubt and fear, a result of Sparhawk's perspective as a person of faith with depressive tendencies. The closing number from Low's 2005 record The Great Destroyer revisits these themes with lyrics like, "Time's the great destroyer / Leaves every child a bastard / But when it finally takes us over / I hope we float away together." With a pounding drumbeat and Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's signature harmonies, it's one of the band's most accessible songs, but I find it as emotionally devastating as the agonizingly slow and spare songs of their early albums.

"Walk Into the Sea" by Low