Album Review

Tom Demalon [allmusic.com]

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.