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Artist
Constant Smiles
12+ albums
shoegazePsychedelic Rockdream poppsychedelicfolk
about
Based around the songs of prolific songwriter/producer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Jones, Constant Smiles finds the nexus of several generations of shadowy pop songcraft, merging the laid-back style of '70s singer/songwriters with elements of shoegaze, dream pop, and notes from the American indie rock underground. Constant Smiles operates more like a collective than a traditional band, with both the band membership and the overall sound of the music shifting from one release to the next. Jones and friends moved from synthy and reverb-saturated sounds on earlier albums to more direct, organic fare on 2021's Sacred Bones release Paragons but bounced right back into the synth pop realm on 2023's Kenneth Anger. Constant Smiles began near the end of the 2000s, when Jones was living in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The project was shifting and free-form from the beginning, sometimes materializing as experimental noise and other times drawing on the influence of synth pop or chilly goth tendencies. Jones enlisted various friends to help bring Constant Smiles to life and often self-released recordings online. Digital-only releases like 2013's Maya Deren or 2016 releases including Constant Haze and Constant Dream came frequently, arriving with self-referential titles and a series-like presentation. The 2018 album Lost was a more fully formed statement with heightened production and songs that explored noisy synth instrumentation and moody lo-fi rock. 2019's John Waters was s
