Low’s Alan Sparhawk Mines Grief & Sonic Exploration On Debut Solo Album ‘White Roses, My God’

Low’s Alan Sparhawk will release his debut solo album, White Roses, My God, through Sub Pop Records on September 27. Sparhawk previewed the sonically expansive album by sharing the single, “Can U Hear.”

The 11-track solo effort comes in the wake of the death of Mimi Parker, Sparhawk’s wife and longtime Low bandmate who died in 2022 after years of cancer treatment. Sparhawk’s resulting grief helped inform the lyrical and contextual nature White Roses, My God, as well an eclectic array of cited influences ranging from Childish Gambino to 100 Gecs to Prince to Neil Young (whose experimental album Trans was compared to White Roses, My God).

The album was written and recorded entirely by Sparhawk, who shared a statement regarding his process:

“The kids had the drum machine and a microphone set up in the studio. They’d have their friends over sometimes, and they’d record themselves taking turns free-styling. I brought them a synth and a voice pitch affect to have more options to mess with but before long, my curiosity won, and I found myself secretly stabbing around at possibilities with the unfamiliar tools, improvising, turning knobs until something would hit and a song would form. 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. It kept tapping into a part of me that I’ve come to trust, so I kept recording.

“I found that the sounds and the rigidity demanded a certain structure, a framework, and I was trying to improvise songs within that framework. Which meant that the things that were organic had this freedom to be even more non-regimented. I really respect the moment when the music instigates transcendence. The vocals ended up being this very spontaneous, visceral engine. There’s a moment when something comes out of your mouth that you didn’t know was going to come out, and then it turns into something else. And something else. And it shakes you. Because what just came out was more precise and accurate and organized than anything you could have come up with. There’s magic in it because it is from the moment that it was created.”

Slipped into the White Roses, My God announcement was mention of another pending Sparhawk album that was recorded with fellow Duluth, Minnesota cohorts Trampled By Turtles.

Watch the official video for Alan Sparhawk’s new single, “Can U Hear,” below:

White Roses, My God Tracklist

1. Get Still
2. I Made This Beat
3. Not the 1
4. Can U Hear
5. Heaven
6. Brother
7. Black Water
8. Feel Something
9. Station
10. Somebody Else’s Room
11. Project 4 Ever