by Jason AnkenyThe airy, baroque British pop trio dubbed the Dream Academy emerged in the mid-80s as one of the leading lights of the psychedelic revival movement. The group was led by vocalist/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, a former member of the short-lived Act; also comprised of multi-instumentalist Kate St. John (an alumna of the Ravishing Beauties) and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel, the Dream Academy issued their eponymously titled debut LP in 1985. Co-produced by David Gilmour, the atmospheric lead single Life in a Northern Town, an elegy for Nick Drake, quickly reached the Top 20 of the U.K. charts; issued in the U.S. the following year, it became a Top Ten hit. The trios follow-up single, The Love Parade, failed to repeat the success of its predecessor, however, and the Dream Academys commercial momentum stalled. After 1987s Rememberance Days quickly dropped from sight, the group went into seclusion; when their 1991 comeback A Different K...