White Roses, My God by Alan Sparhawk

Review: Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God

Many of the lyrics on White Roses, My God—along with its promotional campaign—focus on grief as a key theme.  However, the pain in Alan Sparhawk's life, and its emotional impact on his work, feel evident even without hearing the album or reading about it. The loss of his wife and Low bandmate, Mimi Parker, in November 2022, inevitably manifests itself in his life and his work.

Sparhawk, who has a propensity for creative surprises, includes several on White Roses, My God. He shares his emotions in unexpected, vulnerable, and whimsical ways. His first solo album since 2006's Solo Guitar defies the usual approaches a musician might take to communicate grief. While his singing in Low directly conveyed emotions, here he obscures his voice, processing it through a pitch shifter that he had bought for his children. The result sounds otherworldly, with little hint of the excellent singer behind them.

This playful approach extends beyond the depersonalized vocals. White Roses, My God also juxtaposes well-crafted songwriting from a skilled veteran with instruments and effects geared more towards beginners. A drum machine his kids would experiment on, along with primitive keyboards, shape the album's structure and sound. The drastic contrast between this method and the album's underlying sadness feels vulnerable in a wildly different way than sharing through conventionally-expressive lead vocals or guitar solos. Only "Brother" includes guitar, and its simple repeating part barely hints at Sparhawk's virtuosity.

Sparhawk states, "In hindsight, I can see now that it must have been what needed to come out of me, but at the time it felt like chaos and naïveté—even a little desperate." As Low often captured intense emotions through austerity, this combination of playfulness and detachment is unexpected and rewarding on an album where the raw emotions are already deeply felt by Sparhawk and his fans. © Steve Silverstein/Qobuz