By the time Krill 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 original release on Bandcamp.)
"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 wouldn't be the first to say a Krill song has done the same for me.
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