| Winter Pageant | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1997 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | K Records [1] | |||
| The Softies chronology | ||||
| ||||
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]
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]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Spin | 7/10 [6] |
| Martin C. Strong | 5/10 [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]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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" |
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