Best of Winter

 

Best of Winter were a band from Quincy, Illinois, active from 2003 to 2005. They were an emo pop act, in the same vein as Saves The Day, Park, or The Get Up Kids, energetic, catchy, and yet somehow fundamentally morose in that 90s emo pop manner, where the bouncy quality of the music never quite papers over the pathos. The last time I was in Quincy, the streets were half-obliterated by snow and slush, everything frozen beneath an endless steel sky. I didn't know the band's only LP, Olalla, existed then, but if I had, it would have made a worthy companion for that cold, midwestern drive.

Besides the 2004 album, the band also released a six-song EP called Only In The Long Run in 2003, from which I've only been able to recover two tracks. In 2005, the band would break up and two of its members would go on to greater success in The Graduate.

Olalla + Only In The Long Run Tracks