4 out of 5

Label: Pitch-a-Tent

Produced by: Alan Weatherhead

With his Lowery-esque slacker rasp and musical folk leanings, Steve Koester’s first post-Punchdrunk band, the cleverly named Koester, seemed like a perfect fit for Pitch-a-Tent records.  Koester’s first outing for the label was like a minimalist Cracker, stripped of the snide but with a similarly dry, observational eye for life and relationships, and minusing out Cracker’s initial alt-rock tendencies for a slowed down, shifty swagger.  The effect wasn’t directly impactful – it’s a subtle album – but it definitely was notable as something / someone to keep an eye on.

And The High Highs The Low Lows pays off that attention: the group’s sound expands into keys and pop and jams, and Steve gets some oomph beyond his croon.  The only thing really standing in the way is maybe too strict of an adherence to the concept pitched by the album title: the first half of the disc is very heavy on the toe-tapping good times, with the latter half sinking back into quieter, more drawn out tracks.  Both halves are pretty fantastic – with stunners on both sides that help to emphasize the darkness that creeps into Steve’s lyrics – but the disc has a hard time transitioning.  The way boppy Transistor Sister closes out the first half, leading into the contemplative Richard, It’s Time and the slowburn Mrs. Saturday Night Special, with the ‘slow’ unfortunately emphasized by the sequencing.  Once you get a sense of the disc’s pacing, all is well and good; every track is solid if not great, and, smartly, we don’t end on a Low Low: closer Flowering Judas is a good melding of the styles, both musically and tonally, and definitely leaves you wanting to return to the album again.