Rainbow Quartz
2002
Winter's Kill
About This Album
New Radiant Storm King had hit its stride in 1996 with Hurricane Necklace, its fourth and most mature album to date. However, the indie rock band went downhill from there, struggling to find a drummer and struggling with the realities of life -- marriage, money, career opportunities, geographic locale, and so on. It was perhaps no surprise then that Singular No Article (1999), the band's fifth album, failed to reconnect with New Radiant Storm King's fanbase and went relatively unheard. And that's too bad since Singular No Article was a respectable album; granted, it was no Hurricane Necklace, but it still met an undeserving fate. It's perhaps fitting then that Winter's Kill follows suit in terms of style. On this album, released in 2002, the band seems to have put extra effort into making sure that Winter's Kill wouldn't meet the same unfortunate fate as Singular No Article. The songwriting is similar -- incredibly varied and informed by indie rock precident -- but the production is far more considered: these guys obviously devoted substantial effort into making sure these songs sound as wonderful as possible. And, thankfully, they do indeed sound wonderful; this is a beautiful sounding indie rock album, lo-fi yet a crystal-clear sort of lo-fi where none of the instruments -- guitar, bass, Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, synth -- sound the same from song to song.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,10 and 12)

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