Night Falls, the title of the second album by Baltimore quartet Thrushes, seems to mirror the title of their 2007 debut, Sun Come Undone. And in many ways the album feels more like a companion piece to its predecessor than a new chapter for the band, with similar production and faithfulness to the shoegaze guitar sound of the early ‘90s. But the more you listen to the two albums and compare them, the more it becomes clear that the new songs do represent some subtle but notable steps forward in the band’s songwriting and arranging.

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In my younger days I wasn’t much of a Cure fan. They were mopey. Wore dark clothes. And were considered “gothic”. Something I couldn’t wrap my finger around. Until I heard their album Mixed Up, which was simply remixes and rearrangements of their studio songs. At that time, anything with a drum machine was offensive to me. It felt inhuman, like a sub-par replacement. I didn’t see the big picture of what could be created and innovated with a drum machine. Anyhow, regardless of my problems with a certain instrument, the record spoke to me. Namely the remix of Caterpillar and Inbetween Days. They were so completely different from the originals; they were almost new songs.

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