1991 by Drop Nineteens (Wharf Cat Records)

Drop Nineteens
1991
Wharf Cat Records

Buried deep into the 1990s continuum of the Boston college scene—most notably Galaxie 500’s emergence from the Harvard University cultural diadem—a quiet band from Boston College swooned their way into the Eastern seaboard scene with a gentle roar. Drop Nineteens existed in the first half of the 1990s to release a couple of albums nestled in a hardcore shoegaze record collection.

The band started out as April Rains but soon changed their name to Drop Nineteens. It took a cover of Madonna’s “Angel” for Caroline Records to swoop them up. Delaware became their signature album, garnering more attention overseas and riling up the locals because of jealousy. After an EP and some touring overseas, the band broke up only to resurface almost 30 years later with some new music only to fizzle out just as quickly.

Deep in the archives lies a forgotten album now resurrected by Wharf Cat Records. 1991 gives us a glimpse into the early days of the band nestled in demos and school age daydreams. This early album is like a whisper. All instruments and vocals play a crucial role to swirl around your bedroom and make shimmering pop music in a way that is immersed from the time.

Post Disintegration ripples, you feel elements of the style leak over to “Daymom.” The guitars wrap around the rhythm to create an energy that’s mysterious like driving through a fog of the moment. I wish the remaster would bring the vocals up, but the subtleness gives it a nice touch as words fade in and out. These songs do emerge from two cassette demos; the masters are about what you would expect from the source material. You don’t want it to sound like My Bloody Valentine and be too noisy, but you also don’t want to lose the artfulness in their message. And that’s the balance that we face, elevated from My Bloody Valentine’s momentum, but drifting away into their own vision.

From the wide scope of “Soapland” to the dissonant soft perspective of “Snowbird,” this album is not just a gateway that will lead you to Delaware, but as a collector’s album filled with some of the most fragile pop will wisp you away into a space that is filled with dreamers.