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Waxed - Record Review from Issue #61 Jan-Feb 2006

Winterpills

Self-Titled (Signature Sounds)

By

It started when four friends gathered to swap other people’s songs in an old house during the snowy season in western Massachusetts. It led to Winterpills, the self-titled debut from a band that quickly discovered its members had their own stories to tell. And such stories: Alternately sad, cynical and deeply moving, the ten songs here evoke the dusky seasonal chill of the band’s origins. Although the group has drawn comparisons to slo-core stalwarts such as Low, Winterpills isn’t so easy to peg. There’s a jaunty pop feel on “Laughing”, where silvery bursts of electric guitar ornament the chugging acoustic that pushes the song, and “Portrait” is a heartrending roots-rock ballad. Singers Philip Price and Flora Reed harmonize like kin, his voice strong and prominent, her accompaniment breathy, almost ethereal. It’s a mesmerizing flash of warmth among the turned-down lamps and cold hardwood floors of a wintry night.

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Originally Featured in Issue #61 Jan-Feb 2006

Cover of Issue #61 Jan-Feb 2006

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