Slowdive - Everything Is Alive

Relistening the Jadu Heart quickly to see what shoegaze influence she listened to and forgot there’s actually a couple of songs round the middle that sound shoegaze-y so I can see now why she liked it.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m an inch from falling asleep but It’s actually sounding really good right now.

“Shimmer” is the one that sort of sounds like mbv. Maybe check that out?

“Blame” and “freedom” are the songs I liked on first listens and haven’t really listened to it in the past months but realizing the middle of the album is actually good.

Also listened to the new Slowdive album.

Shanty is the highlight on first listen.

"shanty" is massive

best ever

really digging this

i'll have some more concrete thoughts in the next few days. in the meantime this is about... oh idk, 20 times better than i had expected?

"kisses" has become my so-far SOTY in case anyone was wondering. definitely one that belongs on my shoegaze makeout playlist.

oh for all the wickedness in the world, and yet here they still are. jfc, what a band.

and yeah-
on first listen, it's hard to say where it falls in the bigger picture. i will say this: if you even remotely liked the last album, you're gonna like this one too. a lot.

random outburst of thought-
john martyn's influence on just about fucking everything has been severely underestimated.

Listening now, glad this is out. Just found out they played last night in Hollywood.

This is really good, it does sound like their third album at times. Too short in my opinion.

they said there's two more tracks finished from these sessions but they cut them to keep it fitting on one lp. maybe those will show up somewhere idk

One more album, then it's time for the Mojave 3 reunion.

title isn't on the cover art all, only the spine (of the cd anyway). and i had a sew-on patch in mine.

lp was in the window of hmv but the cd was only in the new releases s-t bin with everything else released in the last month.

and no, you can't have my email to send me a receipt.

CD was similarly hidden at Newbury Comics in Harvard Square, and there was only one copy. There's barely any CDs there at all. I try to avoid Amazon but my local stores don't make it easy.

title isn't on the cover art all, only the spine (of the cd anyway).

this was fantastic on first listen, not a weak track. "Shanty" and "Andalucia Plays" were my favorites among the new tracks

I gotta hand it to them, Slowdive make some of the best opening tracks ever and "Shanty" kills. Irrespective of time, if Pygmalion is the hinge point in their sound then I like the last three albums more than the first three.

Great album

as good as every other slowdive album.

this album is so beautiful

Did this turn out to be as brick-walled as the previews sounded? Liked the music, but some of the drum hits sounded like sucked-air rather than a hit, and just one song left my ears fatigued...

i'm not sure, I've only listened to the streaming version (lossless) but via apple tv and my receiver and it sounded fine to me.

Looking at the waveforms, "The Slab" is still brickwalled and some of the other tracks have brickwalled sections; the peaks don't look clipped so there must be some other process at work. The previous reunion album was brickwalled to hell, by the way.

DR of 5

This album is great, this post reunion stuff is so much better then it has any right to be.

Just to say that this is the first album I have listened to from start to end in one go this year. It flows nicely, no filler at all. My favourite is "chained to a cloud" a fitting title to an extraterrestrial beauty of a song. This album is an antidote against the depression which the terrible current state of the world induces.

yeah, i've been listening to it nonstop since it came out. "skin in the game" is still the standout for me. the harmony/ backup vox on that track (as he sings the title) are just outstanding, spooky and beautiful.

beach house is heavily indebted to cocteau twins but maybe even more so to slowdive. slowdive mk 2 is kind of interesting because now they sound a lot like beach house

"This is a sound Beach House stole from 90s us. we're stealing it back"

It's funny how I wasn't too impressed with the singles on their own but hearing the full album totally changed my perception of them. Agree that the whole thing flows so nicely

10 Shoegaze Albums Slowdive’s Simon Scott Thinks Everyone Should Own

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

Thanks for the link, Hideous Lump. Did he get All I Need mixed up with No More Sorry?

I passed on Loop years ago because they called Slowdive and Young Gods "inept", but I should check them out soon.

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, 6 September 2023 20:44 (three days ago)

Perhaps. But it reminds me more of Cali by Ride, the only new era Ride track I can really vibe with

This record is fantastic, Slowdive has it dialed IN.

I’ve wondered if they had Cali in the bag from the early 90s and just never went anywhere with it. I also always hear the bridge from time after time in that little bridge around 2:25 lol

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

Also you can just screw with your friends and send them this song in response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Gg-50RsVQ

not trying to start anything here but saying that they sound like the bands they influenced seems to me an unnecessarily wordy, and mildly malicious, way of saying that they sound like themselves.

"Why should we change our sound? Coldplay is the one who sucks"

Our imago compared "Sugar for the Pill" to Coldplay last time around. There's certainly some shared sonics between the bands, hate it or not

Liking this but wish there were more variety in the vocals. I knew not to really expect Rachel singing lead at this point but Neil seems stuck on his whispered cozy-sweater voice he started when he went solo.

There's certainly some shared sonics between the bands, hate it or not

― Vinnie, Monday, 11 September 2023

No, not really. Even if Imago says so.

I'm liking this new LP. I'm not as keen as others. But it doesn't sound like Coldplay, that's just lazy.

What I do love is some of the guitar tones that are so recognisable from the early EPs and first LP. It's obviously them, despite some of the more mellow changes.

I’ve wondered if they had Cali in the bag from the early 90s and just never went anywhere with it.

Yes, they did. There was a YouTube video where Andy showed how to play it and said it was a riff / chord progression he'd had kicking around back in the original days of Ride but never got round to doing anything with.

Finally properly listening and it's a beaut and a half, long may they thrive.

Separately, a 2017 tape from Simon Scott just got a formal digital release:

https://datworm.bandcamp.com/album/stuk

"kisses" and "sugar for the pill" are both fairly boring as far as slowdive songs go (i would take "chinese sleep chant" over both, sure) but that is the extent that the coldplay comparison makes sense

Love Sugar for the Pill, but I also dug Chinese Sleep Chant during my brief dalliance with taking Coldplay semi-seriously.

it’s not just that they “sound” more like a Coldplay band now… these new songs are more treacly, not enough moody minor chords. also one thing I loved about souvlaki was that it kinda still sounded like an 80s album at times, like zero apologies for turning the chorus pedal way up <3