Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records describes Above Me as “the main songwriting vehicle for San Francisco based artist Rick Altieri”. As part of Blue Ocean, Rick released two albums on another Oakland label, Slumberland. The dreamy shoegaze of that band (and many other bands on that label) is a good reference for Above Me, though here the synths and drums play a more prominent role, making me almost write ‘soundscapes’. I say almost, as underneath the electronics this Water Drops, like most of Above Me’s debut album Soften The Blows, is a really fine pop song.