Unwound Makes Perfect Songs For Winter

Unwound’s Leaves Turn Inside You (2001) is the absolute perfect album for winter. I spun it the other morning and it matches this first cold front just fine. Man, does Unwound have such perfect songs for this weather.

I don’t know why but I’ve been trying to match my music with the outside climate. I always do this. I’m big on the belief in saving old-timey for spring and summer, jazz in the winter, and reggae/dub basically for any group-house party. But winter is tricky.

It’s cold and brittle outside. The music should match that but not too much. You can only listen to so much Codeine in the winter months. The other day, on my morning walk to work, I tried out Unwound’s last album, a double LP they spent two years recording. Despite being seven years old, the record more than holds up. I find myself turning to it more now than I ever did when it first came out. (I found it buried in my car years later; it was beat up, but it still played). Playing the album the other day, it just made my miserable walk almost enjoyable.

Unwound deserves a more prominent spot in the Pacific Northwest canon. Give a listen to two clips and tell me they don’t hold up as well as Sleater-Kinney.

“December”

“Scarlette”

You can buy the LP, of course. In an interview, Unwound’s Justin Trosper had this to say about recording Leaves:

“It was a long process – two years. We actually built two studios because we moved houses. Basically we decided we needed to change the recording process, and I didn’t think just working with another producer would do the job, especially since I cant really think of anybody who would do more justice to an Unwound record than [Steve] Fisk. Also we decided since we have other projects, it just made sense to start doing this by ourselves (keep the means of production in your own hands!) But to make this record in a normal studio we would have had to do some pre-recording at home anyway, since there is so much going on. There’s advantages to both, I certainly do like recording in bigger budget studios (quality and convenience), but having all the time to conceptualize things at home outweighs it slightly.”

Leaves would turn out to be the band’s last album.

Tags: Kill Rock Stars, Pacific Northwest, Unwound