When The Dream Syndicate released The Days of the Wine and Roses in 1982 they barely had time to form a sound beyond a White Light/White Heat Velvet Underground imitation, which is the root of their name--The Dream Syndicate was the name of a "band" of minimalist musicians featuring John Cale prior to the formation of The Velvet Undgerground.
A rare case, they start a band at the beginning of the year and had a hit record by the end, not hit as in world famous, but enough to get a major record label's attention for their second album. They take that sound, remove the urban psychosis, then reform it as laid back infantile 60s revivalist motif that was going on in the late 70s, and well, up until today. Steve Wynn also keeps the anti-vocals of Reed, but is even less intriguing at just about every moment of the album.
The laid back jams of "Tell Me When It's Over", "That's What You Always Say", and "Halloween" define the peak of their sound: simple rhythm section with a jangle guitar countered with a feedback drenched guitar (of Karl Precoda) that is very far from what was achieved, on the album, by the pioneers of Hendrix, Reed, Beck, etc. from the 60s; “When You Smile” is the peak of the peak of The Dream Syndicates hopeless romantic on the verge of psychopathy (the latter is largely due to Precoda). When the band does pick up the pace in "Definitely clean" and "Then She Remembers" the Southern California mellow of the band's environment permeates the sound leaving the songs to be only played faster but somehow heard at the same speed of the rest of the album. The album on the surface may seem like a lame attempt at 60s until you turn off the lights, put on the headphones and fall into a dream of girls and guys who are failing to cope with life. There is nothing original here or even anything that resembles what people call original, it is supreme songwriting and playing on the shoulders of giants, the best place to be looking down on the rest of humanity.
The closer, "The Days of the Wine and Roses", is a summa of the previous eight tracks coming closest to their live sound of an endless improvised sounding jam with the heavy feedback taken away. The VU and The Stooges had similar problems getting their live sound onto record. Precoda could deafen a crowd with the best of them but is lost in the studio like the rest. But, if you hear a live version of the band you will hear how much they were watered down to The Days of the Wine and Roses. And, sadly, they got rid of the one quality that made them interesting, the feedback, that is, the energy on their second album Medicine Show.
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