Today marks the release of The Low Anthem's new album, Smart Flesh. The Providence, Rhode Island-based band—Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams, and Mat Davidson—recorded the majority of the album, the follow-up to their Nonesuch debut album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, in a cavernous, vacant pasta sauce factory in nearby Central Falls, using an eclectic array of instruments, like jaw harp, musical saw, stylophone, antique pump organs, and oversized drum kits. The new album is available in stores and online now, including the Nonesuch Store, where you can also pick up a copy of Smart Flesh with a limited-edition letterpress poster signed by the band.

Rolling Stone gives the album four stars. "The Low Anthem render the ghosts and damaged souls in these songs with delicate precision ... steeped in echo," writes reviewer David Fricke. "It's as if the Band stripped their prairie-gothic majesty down to Tom Waits' early barfly essentials." Read the review at rollingstone.com.

---

The Los Angeles Times gives the albums three-and-a-half stars out of four. "Smart Flesh is a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music's frayed edges add emotional weight, not who-cares credibility," writes reviewer Mikael Wood. "Give hushed, slow-rolling songs like 'I'll Take Out Your Ashes' and 'Apothecary Love' time to properly unspool and you'll find yourself swept up in the band's old-fashioned tales of romance and mortality." Read more at latimes.com.

---

Paste magazine gives the album an 8.7 and sums it up as "soft-spoken stories that’ll stop you in your tracks." It's "the kind of album that demands to be listened to, the kind of album you put on when you really want to hear something," says reviewer Bonnie Stiernberg.

The new album, says Stiernberg, is "full of echoes, hushed vocals and stripped-down beauty ... Smart Flesh is subtle, but if you listen closely enough, you’ll find yourself immersed in its drama."

Read the complete review at pastemagazine.com.

---

The band's hometown paper, the Providence Journal, calls Smart Flesh "a stunning, incandescent gem of a recording." The Journal's Rick Massimo spoke with the band about the monumental year they have had, not least recording the new album in an abandoned pasta sauce factory in nearby Central Falls. Massimo writes of the new album:

Taking from various musical traditions and filtering them through almost 30 instruments, the new disc updates classic American musical traditions, infusing some songs with a gorgeous melancholy (“Matter of Time”) and some with a raucous clatter (“Boeing 737”), along with odd-yet-perfect touches such as the booming jaw harp on “Smart Flesh” and the bowed-saw solo on “Burn,” and—as always—luminous vocal harmonies (it’s no wonder Harris had them sing with her on the road, and vice versa).

Read the complete article at projo.com.

---

Entertainment Weekly says the band "maximizes the impact of minimal gestures." Reviewer Greg Kot writes of the album: "Exotic instruments blend to create muted tonal colors, and rough-hewn voices tell stories of longing and mortality." Read more at ew.com.

---

No Depression's Jim Morrison calls it "a haunting masterpiece, a new generation's Music From the Big Pink. Like the mystical alchemy The Band conjured in a West Saugerties, New York, house, the four members of the Low Anthem have created a new sound, turning our expectations of Americana (or Alt Americana, if you will) on its head, partly by using the sonics of the place." Read the review at nodepression.com.

---

In the UK, where the album was out yesterday on Bella Union, the Observer says the band creates "dark, beguiling folk-rock, less immediate than the likes of Fleet Foxes but, ultimately, more satisfying." Reviewer Killian Fox says the new albums is "slower, quieter and even more beautiful" than its predecessor. "But the big wow here is the sound: the album was recorded in an old factory with mics spaced out across the floor, giving the songs remarkable warmth." Read the review at guardian.co.uk.

---

The Daily Telegraph gives the album four stars. "It sounds wonderfully resonant, taking Fleet Foxes’ churchy vibe to its logical conclusion, while finding room, too, for a couple of red-blooded blues rock numbers," writes reviewer Andrew Perry. "These exquisitely voiced musings on love, healing and mortality really hit the spot." Read more at telegraph.co.uk.

---

Uncut magazine's Graeme Thomson says: "It's all stunningly beautiful ... The sounds on Smart Flesh may be muted, but there is power and daring in its pursuit of stillness." Read the review at uncut.co.uk.

---

Clash Music chose the album's opening track, "Ghost Woman Blues," as its Track of the Day yesterday. Clash's Robin Murray calls the album "deeply impressive," calling it "a major step forwards by The Low Anthem. Mixing mature songwriting with a stark, breathless atmosphere the album has a rare intimacy—due in part to where it was recorded." Read more at clashmusic.com.

---

The Scotsman gives the album four stars. Reviewer Fiona Shepherd credits the factory in which it was recorded with "bringing great acoustic rewards and an unsurprising resonance to their lovingly fashioned country/folk melancholia." Read more at news.scotsman.com.

---

The Irish Independent's John Meagher says "Miller's voice is a most evocative instrument. He's one of those singers that has the listener hanging on every word—and that's a good thing, because his lyrics are so keenly observed." Meagher calls particular attention to the song "Burn," calling it "a triumph." You'll find the review at independent.ie.

---

To pick up a copy of Smart Flesh or the album-plus-poster bundle, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.