Winterpills – Self-Titled

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.