Drop Nineteens - "1991"

 

This album is the precursor to the band's "Delaware" album. This is the first official release of this album. Not only is it more of a murkier dive into trippy shoe gaze sounds that prove this band was more than holding their own against their peers at the time, but proves that these guys were way ahead of their time. Granted the band's sound has evolved since this point and their last album was held a more tightly coiled sound with an indie rock flavor. If this album was played without knowledge of what those were you might swear it was recorded last week, and just some kids who captured this sound.  

There are some moments like "Kissing the Sea" that bring Stone Roses to mind. If Stone Roses were doing drugs with Psychic TV, thanks to the surreal placement of the vocals deeper in the mix. At times they were still ironing out the balance of experimentation and songwriting as the arrangement of "Snowbird" takes a weird turn. Still, the way the vocals are used is interesting and you can hear the Cure's influence on their role in how the bass and drums interplay. There is more of the dream pop jangle to "Another Summer" which comes together with the drums providing more of a backbone for the vocals to glide over. While the vocals are less of a centerpiece than they were for the Cocteau Twins, you can hear how the band took that inspiration and went in their own direction with it

"Day Mom" is a little moodier, the darker a shoe gaze band can get the better it is for me. This is more of an opaque haze, than a melancholy that spreads with their sound.  They still leave room for the atmospheric vocal melodies to work. Things get even denser with the ambiance as the vocals fall back further into the wall of sound on "Song For JJ". You can hear more about how their bass player was influenced by post-punk back then. The drummer lays a more solid foundation for "Back In Our Old Bed"  but the guitars go wild with a woozy chaos of sounds. "Soapland" is more ethereal even as the drums summon underlying storm clouds beneath its fey wonderment. The vocals are faint to the point of being an obscure layer of sound in the mix. Given the changes in recording technology, their last album sounds better, but the adventurous nature of youth gives these songs some charm to show how they have evolved, I'll give this one a 9 if you are a shoegaze fan, you will want this album in your collection. 

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