Kill Creek's first real album in four years. Colors of Home finds Kill Creek, once again, acutely reflective and powerfully dark. But in contrast to 1997's oppressively cynical Proving Winter Cruel, Colors of Home sounds, well, a little upbeat. The disintegration that suffocated St. Valentine's Garage is gone; its immediacy and energy are reprised. Colors of Home is an urgent record, compressing 10 songs and 1,100 words into 31 minutes, the way albums were intended. The lyrics and stories are still striking and universal, but these are archetypes for a slightly different age than previous Kill Creek recordings. They are more about life than a life. With newfound thematic breadth and afflictive observation, the resulting stories are touching rather than pitiful. And all this is somehow quilted out of contagious enthusiasm for settled lyrical and melodic passion.