Retribution Gospel Choir

Since starting Low in the mid-’90s, Alan Sparhawk has built a career out of quiet. Yet with his new project, Retribution Gospel Choir, he’s all about the rock — plain, simple and surprisingly loud. Produced by Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), the band’s self-titled debut plays as the antithesis of Low, dropping mope-y melodies and crawling rhythms for brash, in-your-face tactics that are as rockin’ as it gets. With Sparhawk’s cool, wavering voice intact, the trio (including Low bassist Matt Livingston and drummer Eric Pollard) deliver redlining guitars, rumbling bass and rhythms that are anything but minimal. Even with wife Mimi Parker periodically singing back-up and the band taking on a few Low tracks, Retribution Gospel Choir provide few sonic links to Sparhawk’s slowcore day job, instead sounding more like early Silkworm and Crazy Horse-backed Neil Young. While this approach may not be as forward thinking as Low, Retribution Gospel Choir succeed in making a no-frills album that cuts the shit and lets the rockin’ do the talkin’.