Admarginate's Full Review: When I Pretend to Fall by The Long Winters
Discovering The Long Winters is like discovering Radiohead; what they do, they do perfectly. I discovered them when a Seattleite friend of mine gleefully dragged me to a live show. They instantly became one of my favorite new bands.
What The Long Winters do is craft solid, pop songs with intelligent lyrics. The music is hooky but complex with a little bit of Woody Guthrie folk flavor and a dash of modern rock. The lyrics are poetic, and offer insightful commentary on human relationships, like this example from the song "Nora": [i]"But she never says, 'I love you', till I say 'I love you'...like we're exchanging hostages"[\i]
Singer John Roderick's voice has a very honest, everyman feel to it that allows you to instantly relate with the music. Occasionally it's coupled with backup vocals from the exquisite Sean Nelson (of the recently back together one-hit-wonder Harvey Danger) When Roderick and Nelson sing together, it echoes Simon and Garfunkle.
When I Pretend to Fall is their second album. It is much sunnier and poppier than their first, but no less beautiful or complex. The tunes are strongly guitar driven, but there is a lot of variety throughout the album. And there is a monstrous list of famous contributors/friends including members of the Posies and R.E.M.
The Long Winters have established themselves as a favorite local band in the booming Seattle indierock scene, but they transcend any kind of "scene". I think they aren't long from exploding in popularity, but even if they continue to be underrated, they will surely be around for a long time to come.
But you don't have to take my word for it...you can check out some great full length tracks at The Long Winters official website:
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