Following the release of Drop Nineteens’ first album in 30 years, Hard Light and the re-issue of their 1992 shoegaze masterwork Delaware, we are excited to announce the official release of Drop Nineteens' 1991. This LP comprises the band’s first two demo sessions which were mailed out via cassette to labels in 1991, finding their way to the UK music press and generating instant buzz and an ensuing feeding frenzy to sign the band. After signing with Caroline Records, Drop Nineteens decided to write an entirely new record, Delaware, for their first official release, leaving the songs on 1991 behind, frozen in time. Swells of layered guitars and buried vocal harmonies adorn these tracks, displaying Drop Nineteens' UK influences with the comparison to their UK contemporaries like Slowdive and Ride were apt. 1991's songs, recorded with a lo-fi charm, show an ambitious young band capable of writing songs filled with texture and hooks, on the eve of their breakthrough with Delaware. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Mayfield
2. Shannon Waves
3. Kissing The Sea
4. Snowbird
5. Another Summer
6. Daymon
7. Song For J.J.
8. Back In Our Old Bed
9. Soapland

On the eve of Drop Nineteens’ first live performances in 30 years, we are excited to announce the reissue of the band’s 1992 shoegaze masterpiece, Delaware. “Reissue” is slightly misleading as Delaware has never actually been issued on vinyl in the United States.

Delaware is the debut studio album by American band Drop Nine­teens released on June 19, 1992. Despite the albums release over 30 years ago, and the band remaining inactive from 1993 onwards this album has remained a favorite of shoegaze fans for decades, and was listed as one of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time by Pitchfork in 2016. This lasting love of the record has cemented the band as one of the most influential bands of the genre from their time.

Over the last several years the album has found a new audience that has championed Delaware along side of the band’s mostly UK 90’s contemporaries. A new legion of Drop Nineteens fans have like­ly discovered their music through streaming services, rather than on 120 Minutes.

Tracks like the towering “Kick The Tragedy” and pop songs “Winona” & “Delaware” sit next to more experimental moments like “Reberry­memberer.” And while the album is certainly a wild ride, it all flows together as easily as singers’ Greg Ackell and Paula Kelley’s vocals.

TRACK LISTING

1. Delaware
2. Ease It Halen
3. Winona
4. Kick The Tragedy
5. Baby Wonder’s Gone
6. Happen
7. Reberrymemberer
8. Angel
9. My Aquarium
10. (Plus Fish Dream)

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’s 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’s 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.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been THIRTY YEARS since Boston's Drop Nineteens put out an album, and we've finally been gifted with another outing. While 'Hard Light' clearly trades in the sort of woozy heft and wall-of-sound intensity we've come to know from the 90's shoegaze, it's got a more nuanced melodic edge, shining through the fog when you least expect.

TRACK LISTING

1.Hard Light
2.Scapa Flow
3.Gal
4.Tarantula
5.The Price Was High
6.Rose With Smoke
7.A Hitch
8.Lookout
9.Another One Another
10.Policeman Getting Lost
11.T