Let it be noted that I’ve never read a Philip K. Dick novel. I’ve seen many films based on his novels — “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly,” etc — but I’ve never read any of his stuff. Sometimes, I think people in Hollywood are running out of ideas so they take a great science fiction story and put Will Smith in it, and voila. I can hear the announcer, “Coming this summer, from the mind of legend Philip K. Dick…. A story like none other starring Will Smith and that kid from ‘Constantine.‘”

With that being said, I find myself thinking that Low has made music for a Philip K. Dick novel. Drums and Guns is a very loud minimalist album. Take the first track, “Pretty People,” which has the lines, “All you pretty people, you’re all gonna die.” The music is very toned down — a sparse tom and snare beat and a few piano notes, but the lyrics are bound to get at least a gulp of a reaction.

A lot of the songs on this album consist of that — buzzing electronics, muted drum beats and some piano. Very few of the tracks have guitar. Very few of the tracks have an upbeat tone or beat. But this is with good purpose because this album is either the sound of a band deteriorating or the political album that Thom Yorke almost made.

In both of these cases, there’s a battle. If the band were on the brink of breakup, there would be many fights. Proof of this might be in the song, “Hatchet,” where lead singer/guitarist Alan Sparhawk sings, “Let’s bury the hatchet like the Beatles and the Stones.” In “Murderer,” he sings, “One more thing before I have to go,” as if he wants one more shot with the band. If they would’ve ended on that note, I would say this is a breakup album. Instead, the album ends with “Violent Past,” with the haunting chant “Maybe it’s your violent past,” which seems to be just pointing at the President.

And for the politics, well, let’s just say that a lot of people want to be out of the war that is going on right now. But the difference between Low and say, Slayer is that Low is more meditative and reflective. If Drums and Guns is a war album, it’s one in slow motion; it’s an album with a narrator that thinks about every step in battle. The drum beats rattle like core marching drummers leading a pack of soldiers.

If we’re taking this album as a political statement, we can see the titles of “Belarus” and “Sandinista,” both revolutionary people that I had to look up on dictionary.com. The recent video for “Breaker” was either a statement showing a greedy leader being a gluttonous asshole or Sparhawk wanted to eat some damn cake.

Either way, Drums and Guns is an interesting listen because it captures a bleakness and truly eerie sound at some points. Where Thom Yorke’s The Eraser fiddled with knobs, blipping and bleeping his way through a song; Low’s recent album feels like the band really planned to show this bleak, futuristic vision. The Eraser was an obvious political statement on many songs. Drums and Guns is an enigma. I also compare the two, because “Belarus” is the best song that Yorke never made — a hauntingly beautiful song that’s easily the best on the album.

Thanks to the production of Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips wiz), the album really does sound like a broken, distorted view. The band never gets louder than in “Your Poison,” where the band builds up then slowly falls down. Even the guitar solo in “Breaker” is muted but so effective. In “Murderer,” the band keeps building and building tension but never lets all the tension out.

A lost Philip K. Dick score? Could be. A political album? More than likely. A band’s breakup album? Well, if it is, then they went out on an incredibly depressing high note. Either way, something’s gone awry, and Low is trapped under that weight. Is it bad to hope they don’t get out?

Sub Pop Records