Slowdive, “Slowdive”
Available: Friday, May 5, via Dead Oceans Records on cassette, compact disc, and standard black vinyl LP. Also available at your local independent record store. Special, limited-edition pre-order CD and vinyl bundles are also available directly from Dead Oceans and include a T-shirt, record player slip mat, enamel badges, and limited-edition silver vinyl and CD.
The reunion of highly-influential independent rock bands from the ’80s and ’90s continues. Unlike some of their contemporaries, the English down-tempo shoegaze act still sounds fresh and relevant as ever. Considering it has been 22 years since the last Slowdive full-length, that is no small feat. When questioned as to “why now,” principal songwriter Neil Halstead quips, “It was just nice to realize that there was a decent amount of interest in it.” Co-vocalist and guitarist Rachel Goswell agrees and calls it as she sees it, suggesting the return to a band that formed in the last year of the ’80s feels like “a trip down memory lane.”
The self-titled album was recorded in Oxfordshire and mixed in Los Angeles by Chris Coady, who has worked with a slew of bands that owe a sonic debt to Slowdive: Grizzly Bear, The Antlers, TV On The Radio, and Smith Westerns to name a very, very few. The tracks build on layered guitars and minimal echoes, just as the genre permits.
Recommended for fans of Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Mojave 3, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and newer acts such as Beach House or DIIV.
Jon E. Lynch[email protected]
