Red House Painters - Rollercoaster (1993)

 ...without you what does my life amount to?

One of the saddest albums I've had the pleasure of listening to. Red House Painters second album is full of so much sorrow. "Katy's Song" sends chills down my spine and puts me in a nostalgic place of heartache and loneliness. I can't express how happy this album makes me feel. Depressing albums tend to cheer me up, strangely enough. Of course it reminds me of past situations that I can never capture again, but it makes me grateful of those certain memories. Sun setting, warm summer evening with the windows opened, daydreaming...this is my favorite way to listen to this album.
 The LP is considered by many fans as the pinnacle of the band's work, a point which Mark Kozelek acknowledges as he discusses the Rollercoaster album in the forward of the 2002 edition (and revised 2008 edition) of his lyrics book Nights of Passed Over: “ ...I know the Rollercoaster album is many people's favorite. But for me, it is and will always be the most difficult to get through. I hadn't heard it in years, and though there are some beautiful things I had forgotten about -- a delicate piano in "Things Mean a Lot," the way the band brings life to "Brown Eyes" midway through, and the chorus of "Strawberry Hill," which was sung by a group of strangers we gathered from outside the Divisadero Street studio where we were recording -- what I remembered most, even when I look at the album's cover, is nine months of worry.

Track Listing:
1. Grace Cathedral
2. Down Through
3. Katy Song
4. Mistress
5. Things Mean a Lot
6. Funhouse
7. Take Me Out
8. Rollercoaster
9. New Jersey
10. Dragonflies
11. Mistress (piano version)
12. Mother
13. Strawberry Hill
14. Brown Eyes