Welcome to Album Month - August 2022's Day 24 feature! It shall be of shoegaze legends Slowdive and their fantastic 2017 selt-titled comeback album. Get on your Doc Martens on and let's gaze, shall we?
As much as I would love to say that I knew the legendary Slowdive from the beginning, it would be a lie. There was a lot of music I've missed out on or didn't properly hear until later in my life (even recently, thanks to some amazing DJs on Twitch), and Slowdive was no exception to this. Growing up I didn't have peers that listened to anything I did, and I found those folks via the internet around the mid 00s. I discovered and rediscovered bands through them, and in those discoveries, mentions of classic shoegaze came up, Slowdive being considered one of the majors of the genre. Naturally, I needed to explore this. The little I did know of shoegaze I definitely loved, and, of course, I found I loved their classic, Souvlaki, at first listen–thanks to the Brown County library–with "Souvlaki Space Station" being my favorite on the album.
In doing this current Album Month, I am learning that I can be too precious/purist about how I first listen to a release by a band I know, which leads me to taking literal years before I get to hear it. This preciousness of wanting to avoid what I could before listening and having the physical album to do so was, honestly, self defeating. (may explain some other time.) It's because of this that it has taken me until now to finally listen to the Slowdive comeback album everyone was talking about back in 2017. I know how evil some streaming services are in terms of artist compensation, I just have to say that I wouldn't be hearing this album right now if it weren't for them. I don't want torture myself anymore, and so...
I am so glad I let go and just listened. My gawd, is this an incredible comeback!! Slowdive brought themselves from the 90s, added modern touches, and brought their sounds into now in the most perfect way. It was just what we needed before we knew we needed it, and here in the 2020s, it is the perfect balm for all the hell going on out there.
From start to finish, Slowdive takes you into the stratosphere, into the clouds, and off into space, bringing you back down ever so gently at the end, leaving you feeling a little lighter and calm about it all. I love it so much!! There is not a dip in the song quality at all, each one of them wonderfully well done, and dreamy (at least to me). I noticed that "Star Roving" and "Sugar for the Pill" were in their Spotify top 5, and deservedly so (both wonderful tracks). For myself, though, I find my favorite to be "Everyone Knows". I love the way it begins so softly, bringing the drums in, and then…lift off into the stratosphere. It's so damn dreamy, leaving me feeling like I'm an angel just flying through the sky, above country sides, over mountains and oceans, through billowing clouds and back. Lyrically, the song feels so incredibly sad with longing ("Just pack me up/take me to the place you love/Take me to America"), the music seeming to follow suit as if to follow the 'you' in question. So incredibly lovely…
My other favorite is "Go Get It". There are so many great song openings on this album, and this one is among the best for me. I love the way it slowly pulls you in, bringing in that wall of shoegaze-y goodness at just the right time, emphasizing the refrain in the best fitting frame. I can just close my eyes and get lost in it. Such a fantastic track. The stand out for me is the final track, "Falling Ashes". It's not what one would call a 'traditional' shoegaze track, but it's moody just the same. The opening piano begins to weave this overall mood of being at an elevation on a coastline. It's daytime but the skies are grey and the waves are insane, crashing onto the bottom of the cliffs nearby and low beneath the elevation being stood upon. Leaning against the rail, hands clasped as eyes stare out onto the sea lost in thought, the sounds of the waves just white noise to the loudness of the heart and the head. It's really a subtly beautiful yet haunting track, and a lovely way to end a lovely album.
I feel like Slowdive is a new shoegaze classic. It has all that makes Slowdive one of the premier shoegaze bands and all so many borrow from, but it also shows how they've grown musically and personally. It comes together in such a wonderful way, bringing you onto a new adventure with touches of nostalgia to bring with you to keep you warm. I seriously wish I hadn't waited so long to listen to Slowdive, and now that I have… I never want to be without it.
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