Album Review: Springhouse — From Now to OK

Here’s a gem. Springhouse self-describes as shoegaze, and while the first two albums from the New York threesome may have displayed some of that style’s hallmarks, by the time they went separate ways, reunited and crafted a third album, their sound had undergone a major change. The difference between “Layers” – the opening track on 1991’s Land Falls – and the band’s sound on 2016’s From Now to OK is remarkable. Think of you will the musical space between early XTC (say, “Statue of Liberty”) and “Love on a Famboy’s Wages” from five years later. That’s the difference between Springhouse’s early work – itself quite good – and the music on From Now to OK.

A wonderfully crafted album with equal parts power and subtlety, and with muscle and melody in equal measure, From Now to OK brims with top-notch songwriting, exquisite arrangements, chiming melodies. Highlights on the finely-tuned record are many: “Passion” feels a bit like The Milk and Honey Band’s early releases (there’s an XTC connection there if one digs deep enough), but other sonic cues call to mind everything from George Harrison to Supertramp to Matthew Sweet to Ben Folds. The ingredients are all masterfully blended, and each listener will likely land on different points within the album’s twelve songs as favorite. The songs will lodge themselves in the listener’s brain.

The winsome flavors of “Time Runs Out” dial back the production flourishes in favor of simplicity, showing that Springhouse could make music that was straightforward and unclutter, and they could create layered and complex tunes. From Now to OK is one of those albums that leads one to muse, “Why weren’t these guys a major success?” If the riches contained within the newly-reissued album aren’t enough, a bonus CD full of instrumental mixes, demos and live tracks adds to the enjoyment value of this sublime release.