[2] A reaction to the abrasiveness of alternative rock in the early 1990s, when grunge had reigning popularity, Low "eschewed conventional songwriting in favour of mood and movement.
"[4][5] Influenced by Brian Eno and Joy Division, the band, collaborating with long-time producer and New York underground mainstay Mark Kramer, favored slow-paced compositions characterized by minimal instrumentation and an economy of language.
Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot felt that "its heavy-lidded drama creeps by in all-enveloping slow motion" and called it "the best record made for those dreary, nothing's-going-on-and-I-want-to-crawl-into-a-hole afternoons since Galaxie 500's debut.
"[10] Featuring an "unprecedent pace in the then-flowering underground,"[5] I Could Live in Hope helped to birth the genre known as slowcore, which encompassed acts from Bedhead to Codeine throughout the 1990s.
[16] All tracks are written by Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker and John Nichols, except where notedCredits adapted from the liner notes of I Could Live in Hope.