Retribution Gospel Choir, the more rocking part-time gig of Low frontman Alan Sparhawk, have a harder hill to climb on their sophomore record. For one, their 2008 LP reprised some songs that, though first played live by RGC, debuted on record on Low's 2007 LP, Drums and Guns. The differences between the versions was fascinating, as was hearing RGC release all the tension that Low so carefully maintain. It made sense to finally document a project that had been running for a few years. And there was the added novelty of hearing Alan Sparhawk singing and playing guitar in an honest-to-god rock'n'roll band-- and the surprise of hearing him pull it off. But the novelty is not an issue on 2. RGC now have to justify themselves as a stand-alone act-- and fortunately, they acquit themselves just as ably as they did on their debut.
It's a record of sharp hooks and slick production, with several anthemic and instantly memorable choruses, all evident from the very first track. "Hide It Away" blends chest-beating harmonies and moments of quieter guitar jangle with the band's familiar surging 4/4 rock. It's as sweetly melodic as anything Sparhawk has written, but with unfettered, audacious confidence and a guitar solo gliding on heavy reverb-- more stumping on their campaign to become a current-day Crazy Horse. "Your Bird" follows up on the teeth-gritting bile of their debut with some added catchiness. And "Working Hard" toys with rock convention without inhabiting it completely, toning down the verses to a quieter shuffle and adding slyly nihilistic lyrics while still milking the handclaps and blue-collar guitar chug of the chorus for all they're worth.
While 2 may not be as consistent in mood and tone as the debut, it diversifies the band's otherwise guitar-dominated sound in the album's second half. The strum of a banjo adds texture to the distorted chords of "White Wolf". Cello is used on two songs, the epic eight-minute reach-for-the-cheap-seats of "Electric Guitar" and the following comedown of the Low-like closing track "Bless Us All". a song marked by acoustic plucking, choral harmonies. "Something's Going to Break" goes all the way into using studio as instrument, sounding both muffled and feral in its first two minutes before abruptly shifting into the heaviest head-down riff of the record. The resulting explosions are still the band's raison d'être.
But if 2 is slightly more dynamic, it isn't a dramatic departure from the debut, which the band nods to in its bone-simple title (another tweak on rock convention) and in the similarity between the album covers. What you see is what you get here, and while this record is as hard and heavy-- sometimes more so-- 2 bears all the slow, subtle refinement of Sparhawk's better-known projects. Slowly getting better at what you do isn't the most exciting story ever told, but it's one that has yet to get old.
