The Belltower - Popdropper [12", LP, Bonus 7", Limited Edition]

A couple of weeks ago i stumbled upon a song on Youtube by THE BELLTOWER. I must admit in the past i only vaguely had heard about this band, probably had seen some videos by them on MTV's "120 Minutes" back in the days, but that's about it. But now it got me curious and i started to check out more music by them, which resulted a few hours later in buying the only full length album they ever made: POPDROPPER. I was lucky because not only was there someone selling a still originally sealed copy (from 1992, mind you!) on Discogs, but also was it the limited edition with a bonus 7". So i've got an old yet brand new copy of the album now, in mint condition. Extremely happy with that, as you can imagine. There were 2000 numbered copies made.
The Belltower might not be very wellknown, at least not over here on mainland Europe, but their history is pretty interesting. The band was originally from New York, but they moved to London in 1990. Over there they recorded their debut EP Exploration Day, produced by Terry Bickers of House Of Love. After two more singles, Popdropper was released. Not long after that, the band moved back to the USA. When they split up in 1996, Jody Porter joined Fountains Of Wayne. Britta Phillips first joined Ultrababyfat and later the band Luna. After that last band broke up in 2005, she formed a duo with her former Luna bandmate and later husband Dean Wareham (who used to play in Galaxie 500 before starting Luna): Dean & Britta.
The music that The Belltower made was catchy indie rock. Not strictly shoegaze, but definitely with some shoegaze influences. Think of some mix between The Sundays and Swervedriver. I'm particularly happy to have that bonus 7" as well, because both Sea Of Smiles and Overseer are pretty cool songs, in the same vein as the rest of the material on this excellent album. Actually Overseer might be my favourite The Belltower song. I just love "discoveries" like this :)

Label: Ultimate
Cat.nr.: TOPP LP002s
Year of release: 1992

SIDE A: 
01. Grounded
02. In Hollow
03. One Dimensional
04. Slipstream
05. Too Late

SIDE B:
01. Outshine The Sun
02. Flight
03. Eyes On The Time
04. rawl
05. Everytime



Bonus single:

Label: Ultimate
Cat.nr.: free 001
Year of release: 1992

SIDE A:
01. Sea Of Smiles

SIDE B:
01. Overseer