Back in 2014 the shoegaze band Slowdive reunited for live dates and continued on to record their fourth album, the self-titled Slowdive. Since hearing a b-side on a random blog years ago, Slowdive for me have been on the longlist of bands to check out after missing them the first time around. So, I started backwards with the latest release, one that sound tracked many late summer walks, with an eye on collecting their older albums.
The album was preceded early in the new year with the joyous single “Star Roving”. “Emma flies a kite, said she’s feeling love for everyone tonight”. Second single is the quieter, more ethereal “Sugar for the Pill”. The chorus of “Don’t Know Why” is pure Cocteau Twins, full of beautiful yet unintelligible lyrics and soundscapes.
Where Slowdive the album starts to drag is on the very dull penultimate track “Go Get It” and album closer “Falling Ashes” would work better as a concise three-minute instrumental instead of the eight-minute slog it can be. Overall, this is the sound of grown up and mature indie shoegazers. Other bands that have reunited in the past few years should be so lucky to have recorded something as good as what Slowdive has done here.
8/10
Spoon’s eighth studio album, Hot Thoughts, is the one that broke this website! I was on a roll with reviews and then hit this one and found myself struggling on what to say or write about… for several weeks that turned into months. There’s plenty of good tracks here – the title track could fill an indie dancefloor in seconds, “First Caress” features a piano that sounds like it’s falling down the stairs, while “Shotgun” packs a mighty punch.
The Light Appears 