Rocketship’s A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness Gets a 30th Anniversary Reissue

Originally released in 1996, Rocketship’s A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness more than lives up to its title with eight songs full of unrequited love and heartbreak. Much like their mopey contemporaries in The Field Mice and Trembling Blue Stars, Rocketship combined aspects of twee, indie-pop, and shoegaze to create heartfelt tunes so saccharine sweet, you can feel your teeth rot while listening to them — and you don’t mind one bit.

Sure, as I wrote in my original review, the album gets pretty sentimental at times. Even so, I find it impossible to deny the band’s starry-eyed earnestness and winsome nature, particularly on songs like “Kisses Are Always Promises,” “I’m Lost Without You Here,” and “We’re Both Alone.”

Unfortunately, physical editions of A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness have been hard to come by in recent years. Slumberland Records is therefore reissuing the album on CD and vinyl to celebrate its 30th anniversary. As far as I can tell, this is the original release sans any remastering, but it will be available in two flavors of vinyl (one of which is already sold out).

The 30th anniversary edition of A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness will be released on March 20, 2026. Rocketship’s most recent single, a haunting cover of “Moon Love” (a song previously made famous by Frank Sinatra), was released in 2023.