Drop Nineteens
1991
WHARF CAT
The second full-length to be re-released after Drop Nineteens’ recent reunion record actually hails, as its title suggests, from 1991. Comprised of the band’s first two studio sessions, 1991 has been doing the rounds as a bootleg known as Mayfield (1991) for years, regarded by the Boston shoegaze band’s fans as a quintessential part of their history—and practically as important as the debut album, Delaware, that emerged in 1992. While it was these songs that got Drop Nineteens a record deal back in the day, they made the decision to record an album made up of entirely news songs, and so these tracks were confined to history, save for the unauthorized copies floating around.
Now, with a recent tour, their first new album in three decades (2023’s Hard Light), and a reissue of Delaware under their belts, the five-piece have officially made these nine songs available in remastered form. Though often referred to as demos, in the press release for 1991 the band describes them as “just unreleased Drop Nineteens songs that never benefited from the fidelity of a recording studio.” That, though, is downplaying the nature of these songs. Even 34 years later, they’re resplendent explosions of emotion and wonder, despite the then-nascent band clearly striving to find their sound.
They do so fairly quickly, though, each song finding and settling into its own groove as hypnotic melodies and the dual vocals of Greg Ackell and Paula Kelley combine to create something raw but beautiful. “Kissing the Sea,” for example, begins tentatively, a pulse of ethereal sound that fades almost as soon as it begins, only to then explode into a majestic night sky, an infinity of stars twinkling from afar, both incredibly close and also a million light years away. “Daymom” and “Shannon Waves” are both full of vibrant, youthful, restless energy while simultaneously dreamy, and “Another Summer” and “Back in Our Old Bed” both transform human wistfulness into something grander, more mysterious and spectral.
While they do sound of their era, each of these songs also feel as if they could’ve been written today, for today’s shoegaze revival scene. In other words, 1991 is timelessly magical, and magically timeless.
