曾與 Radiohead、Blur、PJ Harvey 同台的波士頓瞪鞋樂團 Drop Nineteens 雖然僅僅存在了 90 年代的頭五年，但首張專輯《Delaware》絕對是瞪鞋中的必聽作品，當時這些十幾二十出頭的年輕人雖然快速的解散，但與那些人同台、進過 MTV 等.. 備受關注的歷程已經讓樂團相當滿足。事隔近三十年，主唱 Greg Ackel 某天突然感到需要彈吉他的衝動，就 call 了團員並且開始創作，相見歡後發現默契就像不曾中斷過創作般，但同時間也非常好奇現在的 Drop Nineteens 聽起來會是什麼樣子，於是新專輯《Hard Light》誕生。睽違 30 年的新作《Hard Light》就像《Delaware》熟成後的延續，夢幻的吉他殘響依舊，有著令人愉悅的一片晴朗天空，並且帶著 90 年代的青春滋味，成穩卻沒有過熟。
Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had a great run. Shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey. Went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid twenty somethings with an MTV video under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Greg Ackell felt content, music was a closed chapter.
That was until 2021. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Ackell felt compelled to pick up a guitar. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band s bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. “We were off to the races,” he says. “But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today? Enter Hard Light, the band s stunning third record. It is the band s proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision.
The first task making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell s primarily the lyrics writer, and he collaborates with Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.
The guitar reverb is expansive as ever. Ackell and Kelley s vocals are crystalline. “Scapa Flow,” is triumphant. An excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide like clouds on a blue sky day, drums shuffle in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley s vocals are cool toned and dreamy, bound up in a haze of reverb. It is unquestionably lovely. You could say the same for the whole of the record. Hard Light is so lovely. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and as dedicated to their craft as ever.
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