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ROCKETSHIP
Some of the best records are those that transcend the usual parameters of music to create worlds of their own. When it’s clear that what you’re listening to isn’t just a collection of that year’s songs, but a deeply thought-out, architected space where ideas clash, converse, interlock; these are the albums that end up lasting well beyond their era, changing with us, and revealing new surprises every time we return to them. One of the clearest examples of an album that crafts a strange and beautiful world not quite like any other is Rocketship’s 1996 full-length debut A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness. Even upon arrival, this was an experience unto itself, and 30 years later, these eight songs of bittersweet bliss still feel new. Slumberland is delighted to release a 30th Anniversary edition of this instant classic, making it readily available on vinyl and CD once again after years of unavailability and collector demand.
Rocketship came into focus in the early ‘90s, incubating through a series of demos and early 7”s into their fully-realized album. The continuum of sounds that made up A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness were recorded at home by bandleader and vocalist/songwriter Dusty Reske with help from members of the early lineup. While they sometimes melt into one another, each of the eight songs goes somewhere a little different. The bright, jangling guitars, zooming tempo, and co-ed vocals of brilliant opener “I Love You Like the Way That I Used to Do” blurs mod energy into something dreamier, practically blueprinting the next decade of indie pop in the process. The atmospheric weather patterns of “Heather, Tell Me Why” drift between melancholic acoustic guitars and gusts of overwhelming noise. It’s baroque pop from another solar system, but it doesn’t feel jarring when the bass-forward slow down of “Let’s Go Away” follows, or bounding fits of fuzzy enthusiasm like “Carrie Cooksey” enter the picture. The songs cautiously orbit each other, all glued together by that interplanetary all-tube M2 Hammond organ, loud in the mix. This was an album of unrepentantly vulnerable melodies, unusual seventh chords, lingering ambient interludes, and soft sentiments in a time when unfriendly, self-conscious punk rock was the order of the day. Even in the considerably gentler environs of the U.S. indie pop scene of the time, these were bold moves.
LIGHTHEADED
Lightheaded are, simply, a great pop group. Their songs are full of melody and harmony, are bittersweet and memorable, familiar yet original. The Jersey based jangle pop softies make songs that call on the unsatisfied tunefulness of classic indie pop and college rock, as well as tapping into the idealistic daydreaming of ’60s chamber pop. They signed on with Slumberland Records for the release of their proper debut album, 2024’s Combustible Gems, then added UK based Skep Wax to their list of sponsors for the thoughtful, reverb-bathed follow-up, 2025’s Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming.