Boston’s Drop Nineteens made a bit of a shoegaze stir in the early 1990s, releasing two full-lengths on Caroline in the USA. It was debut Delaware that set them on the course for fleeting success. Formed in 1990, by ’95 they were done, but in 2022 they sprang back into action with 4/5ths of the original lineup. Hard Light, their third album, came out late last year via the esteemed Wharf Cat label, and it’s a welcome return that eschews predictable retread.
There’s been a whole lot of talk about shoegaze lately, but the flat fact is that the style has endured and evolved since its emergence in the late 1980s. Largely a UK development, Drop Nineteens were something of a US exception, though concurrent Boston act Swirlies can be considered fellow specialists in the sustain.
If My Bloody Valentine set the baseline shoegaze sound, then Drop Nineteens were admirably not mistakable for that august act or for that matter any of the other bands that defined this post-punk-Alt-indie subgenre. Delaware, with it’s distinctive color cover photo of a handgun wielding young woman (by Boston artist Petrisse Brièl), stood a bit a apart from the standard sound (a little noisier, and sometimes quieter).
And so, Hard Light can be considered a proper extension of the debut, as the returning band consists of guitarist-vocalist Greg Ackell, guitarist-vocalist Paula Kelley, guitarist Motohiro Yasue, and bassist Steve Zimmerman, all contributors to Delaware. Drummer Pete Koeplin, who joined for second album National Coma, completes the lineup.
As said, a proper extension. Drop Nineteens don’t sound like a different band, and there are a few tunes on Hard Light that do bask in the classic shoegaze sound, particularly two of the pre-release singles, “Scapa Flow,” which starts poppy and gets thicker and hazier (gazier?), and “The Price Is High,” where Kelley’s distinctive vocals deepen the familiar.
The thing to understand is that Drop Nineteens are as much about songs as texture, so while there’s a whole lot of guitar layering across the new record, there are also melodies strong enough to get lodged in the brain. A prime example of the twain meeting is late track “Another One Another,” the guitars bursting immediately forth but with rhythmic drive that brought Yo La Tengo circa Painful to mind.
The other single “A Hitch” is a bit of a departure, catchy but bringing the rhythm section and Ackell’s vocals to the forefront, though the guitars do eventually come flooding in. The opening title track is infused with jangle, shimmer, strum and glisten, but with enough hooks in the drift to resist landing in the dream pop zone.
“Gal” does recall the sound of early ’90s alt-rock, but in a non-retro fashion, as the band emerged in the midst of the stuff. Closer “T” mines a similar mode, but with an appealing lethargic quality that allows for the guitars to ramp up for the finale. But there are some key up-tempo moves, such as the energetic strum fest “Tarantula,” one of the Hard Light’s standouts. “Lookout” is another as it illuminates the band’s maturing songwriting ability. Mid-way through, the instrumental “Rose With Smoke” further broadens the canvas.
Similar to Delaware, penultimate cut “Policeman Getting Lost” shifts into the acoustic with Kelley’s arrangement of a song by The Clientele. The song’s inclusion underscores that on first listen to this LP I thought more of The Clientele than I did any shoegaze band then or now. Additional spins drove home that Hard Light is simply Drop Nineteens’ best record.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
