Dream Academy - Remembrance Days (Dream Pop 1987)

Attempting to follow up the enormous success of their debut proved to be a difficult task for the British trio Dream Academy. Hugh Padgham (Genesis, the Police) came on board to produce the band with frontman Nick Laird-Clowes, resulting in a more glossy sheen to much of the material. "Indian Summer" kicks things off, and while echoing the wistfulness and even incorporating a chant-like chorus similar to their massive hit "Life in a Northern Town," it fails to impress in a similar manner. "Here" is a lovely, understated ballad that concludes with a flourish and Kate St. John playing oboe, and "Ballad in 4/4" is a Beatlesque tale of infidelity featuring Laird-Clowes adding harmonica. Remembrance Days, however, failed to make a splash commercially and received more exposure through the use of "Power to Believe" during a key scene of the hit movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles than through airplay. Not a bad record, just a pale imitation of the first.

AMG Review by Tom Demalon