One of the high watermark moments in Slumberland's esteemed catalogue gets the 30th anniversary treatment, and bang on time too, finding itself right in-line with the prevailing zeitgeist. The aesthetic of 90s revivalism - shoegaze, alt. rock, indiepop et al - is now rife throughout contemporary music (independent or otherwise), which makes A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness a key text of sorts with its compelling mix of bittersweet melodicism, enduring invention and heart-on-sleeve romanticism that feels so quintessentially of that period. Was this the last time 'pop' was truly futurist? These songs certainly still feel mighty fresh, harnessing the kind of space age zeal and openness to texture and tone that we might also associate with the front-foot thinking of MBV and Stereolab, and driven by committed vocal interplay that's straight out of the Sarah Records Book of Longing. Just the eight songs that clock in a touch a touch over 30 minutes, but it somehow feels denser and wider than that run-time would suggest, one of those records that you can sink into to and lose yourself in its own universe of sound and narrative, something which a good few subsequent generations of Slumberland artists cleary have done. A true legacy record.
FFO: MBV, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Unrest, Blueboy, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Peel Dream Magazine
