Winter Pageant

Winter Pageant
Studio album by
the Softies
Released1997
GenreIndie rock
LabelK Records[1]
The Softies chronology
The Softies
(1996) 		Winter Pageant
(1997) 		Holiday in Rhode Island
(2000)

Winter Pageant is an album by the American indie rock musical duo the Softies, released in 1997.[2][3] The sound was occasionally dismissed as "crush-core".[4] The duo supported the album with a North American tour.[5]

Production

The album was recorded without a rhythm section, with one or two guitars as accompaniment.[6][7] The majority of the songs deal with troubled relationships and broken friendships.[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Spin7/10[6]
Martin C. Strong5/10[10]

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Jen Sbragia and Rose Melberg ... strum and twang guitars while delicately harmonizing, their lovely vocals masking bitter lyrics about broken relationships."[11] CMJ New Music Monthly thought that Melberg and Sbragia's voices "are complementary, but there's a cool space between them: a graceful austerity that creates some of the record's most sublime moments."[12] The Oregonian decided that "the Softies are saved from being mired between the twin evils of cutesy candy-coating and abject despair by a queer note of hope found in even their saddest stories."[13]

Spin called the album "music for indoor introverts—solitary souls who still write letters."[6] The Washington Post opined that it "combines '50s lounge music melodies with the '60s pop-rock harmonies of Softie Rose Melberg's previous band, the ebullient Tiger Trap."[14] The Lincoln Journal Star deemed Winter Pageant "deeply honest confessions of lost love, broken promises and lives adrift, set in quiet songs that are near lullabies, but have a lasting power."[15]

AllMusic wrote that "despite the melancholy tone, there is something hopeful in the Softies' resignation, a faith in perfect moments that is as strong as the knowledge of love's frailty."[9]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Pack Your Things and Go" 
2."So Sad" 
3."Over" 
4."No One at All" 
5."Tracks and Tunnels" 
6."Excellent" 
7."My Foolish Way" 
8."The Best Days" 
9."Fortune" 
10."Splintered Hands" 
11."About You" 
12."Anywhere but Here" 
13."Winter Pageant" 
14."Make Up Your Mind" 

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Baumgarten, Mark (July 10, 2012). Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music. Sasquatch Books.
  2. ^ "Softies Biography". AllMusic.
  3. ^ Bresnark, Robin (January 25, 1997). "Winter Pageant". Melody Maker. Vol. 74, no. 4. p. 40.
  4. ^ Lewis, Scott D. (January 29, 1997). "The Softies Winter Pageant". The Rocket. p. 20.
  5. ^ Daley, David (March 20, 1997). "Winter Pageant The Softies". Recordings. Hartford Courant. p. 4.
  6. ^ a b c Huston, Johnny (March 1997). "Spins". Spin. Vol. 12, no. 12. pp. 102, 104.
  7. ^ Linn, Allison (January 17, 1997). "The Softies". Entertainment. The Olympian. p. 4.
  8. ^ Imamura, Kevin (March 20, 1997). "The Softies Winter Pageant". LA Weekly. p. 51.
  9. ^ a b "Winter Pageant". AllMusic.
  10. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2003). The Great Indie Discography (2nd ed.). Canongate. p. 1030.
  11. ^ "Winter Pageant". Entertainment Weekly.
  12. ^ Clayton, Liz (April 1997). "Reviews". CMJ New Music Monthly. No. 44. p. 42.
  13. ^ Foyston, John (February 28, 1997). "Simple Songs of Love and Loss". Arts and Entertainment. The Oregonian. p. 40.
  14. ^ Jenkins, Mark (March 19, 1997). "The Softies". The Washington Post. p. D7.
  15. ^ Wolgamott, L. Kent (March 9, 1997). "The Grammys are over, now it's critics' turn". Lincoln Journal Star. p. 10.
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