By the time broke up in 2015, its grungy rock songs — careening and claustrophobic, anxious and self-deprecating yet slyly philosophical — had become the stuff of legend in the tight-knit Boston indie-rock scene. On the band's very first record, Alam No Hris, you can hear the seeds of the sound Krill would perfect over the course of its too-short run, though you can't currently find those tracks on streaming services. That's soon to change: Today, the band has announced a remastered 10-year anniversary reissue of the album coming out next month, alongside the album's first pressing on vinyl later this year. (In the meantime, though, you can hear the .)
"Solitaire," a fan favorite from Alam No Hris, is proof of the band's early knack for making a song about malaise feel nearly anthemic; it highlights songwriter Jonah Furman's strength in crafting songs about the tiny personal anxieties that can often feel so big they blot out the sun. But it's also a song about how great music can be a weapon against all that stress. After musing over a broken heart and low self-esteem as the band alternately thrashes and retreats, Furman admits he knows just the thing to turn it all around: "I can be in a bad mood / everyday all day," he sings, "Put on some Arthur Russell, see how fast I change / It's embarrassing." If it's embarrassing, it's a shame many of us share; I a Krill song has done the same for me.
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