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Waxed - Record Review from Issue #68 Mar-Apr 2007

Winterpills

The Light Divides (Soft Alarm)

By

Listening to Winterpills’ music can be disorienting. There you are, bobbing your head, tapping your foot to the wildly infectious tunes. But when you reach for the lyric sheet to sing the real words instead of the phonetic ones in your head, you realize you are actually grooving to tunes about dying, death, funerals, the end of the world. It’s the musical equivalent of a rollicking picnic at the cemetery. Take the opening track to the western Massachusetts quartet’s impressive sophomore disc. On “Lay Your Heartbreak”, singer-songwriter Philip Price and bandmate Flora Reed build to a beautiful, harmony-rich vocal crescendo at the end of the waltz-tempo song. The lyrics they are singing: “You could make me feel so good if you’d come here and cry.” Price writes poignantly melancholic, largely acoustic songs but delivers them with shovelfuls of sugar, backed by a talented and innately dynamic band.

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Originally Featured in Issue #68 Mar-Apr 2007

Cover of Issue #68 Mar-Apr 2007

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More articles from this issue:

  • Carlene Carter

    Carlene Carter - Back in the fold • Carlene Carter starts dancing as soon as she comes onstage. The crowd at the Cannery Ballroom in Nashville surges forward when she appears, pushing at the edge of the wooden stage…

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