Low Skies' moody debut,
The Bed, combines the whiskey-soaked drama of
Mark Lanegan and
Nick Cave with the desert country-rock sound of
Calexico. "Down Below Him" is a heavy start for the record -- all thundering drums and spindly riffs, like
Sonic Youth doing
Lee Hazlewood tunes. At times,
The Bed can drag (the dark slowcore of "This Is Where You'll Be Staying" for example), but the album is best defined by its high points: the undeniably catchy melancholy of "Palmyra," the foreboding, ambient intro and background to the eerily surreal murder ballad "Stop Me," and the gentle pleas of "Margaret."
The Bed is too rock to be alt-country and too country to be
Black Heart Procession -- along with its excellent contemporaries
Young People,
Low Skies may actually be exploring a new subgenre altogether: post-country. ~ Charles Spano