The Long Winters Reviewed
The Long Winters
Putting The Days To Bed
(Barsuk)
By virtue of recording for Seattle indie label Barsuk and having some hip friends (Peter Buck, Chris Walla, Ken Stringfellow), John Roderick’s The Long Winters is supposed to be some kind of indie rock.
It’s not. Well, not since he made amends for his iffy debut back in 2002. No, while he has the pedigree of Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows savant Scott McCaughey — both are based in Seattle, too — Putting The Days To Bed pins him as a pure pop rock songwriter with mere economics and an impenetrable caste system holding him back. The giant hooks in “Fire Island, AK” know it. The explosion of open chords and brass on “(It’s A) Departure”) know it. Dogs know it. Roderick and bassist Eric Corson play it straight, keeping artsy pretense to a minimum (new, cooler lines like “I’m smoking cigarettes when no one else does”), and clogging the ether with guitar-fueled crescendos, warm organ tones, and getting downright Knopfleresque on “Hindsight.” Now if we could just keep his voice from sounding like Matt Pond’s . . .
— Kevin Keegan
Click here to download “Pushover.”
