CD Reviews

Jeremy Lowell

No Arms | Self-released

By BEN WESTHOFF | February 20, 2008

3.0 Stars

Jeremy Lowell

Jeremy Lowell is a 24-year-old Allston singer writing vulnerable lyrics in a folksy mode and delivering them with garage-rocking grit. Lowell, who also records and produces hip-hop, deals with existential travails on No Arms, which incorporates classic-rock radio-worthy electric-guitar riffs as well as slow, savory acoustic ones. “Watch me come down now like King Kong being shot from a tower/What is this old life I’m holding on?” he sings in a pleasing baritone on the standout, “Morning.” Elsewhere he conveys the yearning and the angst of being twentysomething — on “Just Die Young” he wonders, “Why’d imagination become so damned?” Although such sentiments can come off as immature, Lowell documents the growing-up process with imagination and insight.

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

ARTICLES BY BEN WESTHOFF

INTERVIEW: JAMIE FOXX | August 11, 2009
"Until you get a chance to define another side of your career, people will always say, 'You're doing it as a hobby.' "

INTERVIEW: JOHN LEGEND | August 05, 2009
Despite being one of the most successful R&B singers of the decade — with six Grammys and three top-selling albums — John Legend is something of an oddball.

SAY WHAT?! | September 02, 2008
Rapper Esoteric has been getting lots of death threats via e-mail recently. But he’s not too worried about them, if only because of their elementary character.

THE CALL OF THE WILD | July 28, 2008
It’s not easy being in a band whose two primary songwriters have quite different ideas about how to write an indie-rock song.

THE SILENT RAPPER | July 21, 2008
One of the most influential hip-hop MCs of all time, Rakim brought rap from its sing-songy beginnings into its late-’80s golden era with his dense lyrics and virtuoso internal rhyme structures.