The Low Anthem

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)

By Kim Newman
Published: July 3rd, 2009 | 12:05am

Remixed from its original self-released version for a Nonesuch label release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin by the Low Anthem is an exquisite sampling of back porch Americana. For the majority of album, the Rhode Island trio creates a hushed and stripped folk that is intent on pondering modern decay and the loss of those that Darwin’s theory leaves behind. Rather than jangly country, the Low Anthem looks towards a more quietly haunting folk, and it is a sound buoyed by Ben Knox Miller’s stunning falsetto and the band’s limitless instrumental ability from acoustic guitar and mandolin to pump organ and crotales.

Songs like the gospel “Omgcd,” transcendence in a muted tent revival, and “Cage the Songbird,” another devotional that swirls with a melancholic yet fragile power, are simply beautiful. Then there’s album opener “Charlie Darwin,” which is a quiet elegy highlighted by Miller’s pure voice and bandmates Jocie Adams and Jeffrey Prystowsky’s gentle harmonies.

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin is sparse and pretty, save a few jagged upbeat numbers, and an obsession with Darwin illustrates the evolution between Nick Drake and Tom Waits with tracks that ramp up the tempo and bar room blues like “The Horizon Is a Beltway” and “Champion Angel.” Miller even does a fair approximation of Waits’ ragged rasp, which must account for the inclusion of a cover of “Home I’ll Never Be.” Miller transforms Waits’ sad and intimate musical incarnation of Jack Kerouac’s words into a ferocious, boot-stomping country hoe down.

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