The Light Divides [Digipak] (CD - 2007)

Winterpills: Philip Price (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards); Flora Reed (vocals, keyboards, tambourine); Dennis Crommett (electric guitar, background vocals); Dave Hower (xylophone, drums, percussion); Jose Ayerve (bass guitar, drum); Brian Akey (bass guitar).

From the ashes of beloved cult folk-rockers the Maggies rose Massachusetts's Winterpills, who carry a similar if not identical flame. The album features Philip Price's strummily melodic minor-key tunes with lots of high harmonies, smart lyrics, and simple but affecting guitar parts. Price's high vocal register, matched with close harmonies, sometimes resembles Elliott Smith's, but he maintains a unique songwriting presence throughout. This is lovely, thoughtful music perfect for fireplace thawing.

Winterpills turn in a second album of becalmed folk-pop on The Light Divides. The dominant tempo is a lope, and the dominant instrument is a strummed acoustic guitar, with the other instruments adding accents to create arrangements that used to be known as folk-rock, although the playing isn't really that energetic for the most part. Over that music, Philip Price sings precious, impressionistic lyrics. You might get eye strain trying to read those words, which have been printed lightly over strongly colored arty photographs in the CD booklet, a pretentious touch that seems perversely appropriate when it turns out that they aren't about much of anything. It's mood that matters here, not meaning. So, it's not much of a surprise that after the initial 13 tracks, there's a 14th that consists of nothing but five minutes of silence, followed by another performance of "Broken Arm." Once again, the poor consumer is forced to suffer, to no particular purpose, a form of petty sadism that is supposed to pass for art but only succeeds in being irritating. ~ William Ruhlmann minimize