Red House Painters (Rollercoaster)

Background

The album follows the band's 1992 debut Down Colorful Hill. Recording sessions produced twenty-three songs from Kozelek's back-catalog, fourteen of which appear on Rollercoaster. Two tracks, "Funhouse" and "Strawberry Hill," had been on a 90-minute demo tape recorded between 1989 and 1992, alongside material from Down Colorful Hill. "Dragonflies" and "Brown Eyes" also existed as earlier demos and later appeared on the 1999 Retrospective compilation.

Eight leftover songs formed the band's second self-titled album. Kozelek's lyrics address pain, desolation, and loss, while the music ranges from folk-pop ("Grace Cathedral Park") to shoegaze ("Mistress"), starkness ("New Jersey"), and soundscapes ("Funhouse," "Mother"). Kozelek described the sessions as a nightmare, noting that the initial excitement of recording twenty-three songs turned into a grind, and he felt nervous about increased attention.

In the foreword to the 2002 and revised 2008 editions of his lyric book Nights of Passed Over, Kozelek said the album is the most difficult for him to get through, recalling nine months of worry despite beautiful moments like a delicate piano in "Things Mean a Lot," the band's lift in "Brown Eyes," and the chorus of "Strawberry Hill" sung by strangers gathered outside the Divisadero Street studio. The cover is a sepia-toned picture of the now-demolished Thunderbolt roller coaster at Coney Island.

Reception

In a contemporary review, James Greer of Spin wrote that the album rewards patient listening with a rare and sublime ecstasy. It peaked at number 63 on the UK Albums Chart in 1993.

Marc Hawthorne of The A.V. Club later called it Kozelek's crowning achievement. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic gave a 5-star review, hailing it as a sprawling, remarkable set and Kozelek's most fully realized collection. In September 2010, Pitchfork included "Katy Song" at number 162 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s.

"Mistress" single

No commercial singles were released from the album, but a promotional-only CD for "Mistress" was issued in the US in 1993. It contains a different mix of "Mistress," a piano version, and the album version of "Grace Cathedral Park." Although the sleeve lists "Strawberry Hill" as the album version, it is actually an edit that removes roughly 50 seconds of guitar noise from the beginning. The CD catalog number is Warner Bros./4AD, PRO-CD-6108.