It's weird how an album finds you. Some take a while, repeated listens, you have to shelve for a while and come back later only for it to speak to you. Others are instantly appealing. These albums seem to be connected to you before ever knowing they existed, and on only first listen everything is alive and you find yourself. I believe that Roommate's Guilty Rainbow falls into the latter. The opener was immediately engaging, and somewhere during the bridge on August Song, he sings, "No one understands why kittens purr, and why people die, No one understands why." Accompanied by strings that swirl up and come crashing down on you, I'm telling you right then and there I was like, I get it. The rest of the album takes you to unexpected places. Flicker Flame is arguably the best song on the album, and I love the line, "Nobody owes you for your righteous rage, you got paid, you got paid, you got paid move on move on." Now what is interesting is that there are two covers on the album. The first is The Country With A Smile, by Ned Collette. First off, love Ned Collette. Future Suture is an incredible album, beautiful and haunting. Roommate nails it. They make it their own and had you not known it was a cover, you would probably think it was theirs. Ghost Pigeon and Snow Globe are huge standout tracks, delivering some of my favorite moments on the album. On Ghost Pigeon, that drum beat, the driving bass, God it is so good. And on Snow Globe he sings, "If your someone no one wants to be around, where do you go at night?" as if he's asking us. The final track and second cover they do is Smothered In Hugs by GBV, which let's just be honest, as a general rule, you do not fix what is not broken, you do not tamper with perfection. YOU DO NOT COVER GBV. Trail Of Dead tried with GoldHeart Mountaintop Queen Directory, to mediocre at best, awkward at worst. And Roommate slows it down and fucking kills it, in a very good way. It's wonderful. Again, they make it their own and had you not known it was a cover... All in all I was floored on first listen. It's deeply melancholic, yet engaging. Repeated listens have just yielded more rewards. I've listened to it regularly since around its release. It deserves so much more praise than it has gotten and should be in everyones year in lists.
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