Classic or Dud: Ride - "Today Forever" EP

My first Ride purchase, and a good one. I had it on 12" but it has mysteriously disappeared since. Geat cover.

When the Today Forever EP came out I found it a bit disappointing: it was all a bit slow, a bit too nice. When I'd got the first EP I'd fallen in love with it straight away: every song on that is a classic, but especially the second side (All I Can See & Close My Eyes - dense layers of wah-wah/phaser guitars and screeching feedback (Chelsea Girl on the first side was good, but better live). I was 16 and I'd just got my first electric guitar and this was exactly the music I wanted to be able to play. The two EPs after that had their good bits (Perfect Time and Dreams Burn Down), but also some forgettable tracks, and the sound seemed to have moved away from FX-pedal heaven to just loads of distortion and reverb. Then the album (Nowhere) came out, and the FX pedals came back, and some of their best ever tunes are there (especially Seagull).

I saw Ride live for the first time on the tour for the album (about October 1990), and it was all about energy. There were hardly any slow songs, or pop songs (considering what pop sounded like at that time), just insane noise attacks and hundreds of people jumping around in total chaos. When Today Forever came out it seemed like a conscious step back from that kind of music. Unfamilar is a great track, but the rest I could quite happily never listen to again. My Bloody Valentine released the Tremelo EP around the same time, which was easily the most experimental thing around, and it seemed odd that Ride seemed to be moving in the opposite direction - towards bland guitar rock.

OTM. They were my favourite band, and then GBA left me scratching my head. I remember interviewing the drummer and kindof making it known in a subtle way that I wasn't all that happy with GBA. He seemed pretty offended and I've never really forgiven myself for that.

I saw them live many times back then both here in the U.S. and abroad. Live they were even better than their records I think, and Seagull live was just such an intense experience that the album version doesn't begin to capture. I've got some live versions of it, but to actually have *been* there was something else again.

Addison Braden - I'd hate to think your next try with Ride would be this EP as I do think opinions were more divided about it's ultimate worth. You'd probably be better off trying Nowhere or the first EP's (compiled as "Smile" in the U.S.) since there's more agreement as to the quality of those.

that's my pointless tuppenceworth for the thread, i guess.

I was more of a fan of Nowhere than Smile though that was just bellow. This EP however is the best 20 minutes they ever had, four perfect songs. I guess I could see the let down but for me, at the time, it was perfect.

-- Ned Raggett

OTM!

I think it really was Ride at their zenith, balanced between the shifting textures of their earlier stuff and the perfect pop of their mid period stuff. (We just don't talk about their horrifying descent into classic rock and Andy Bell's Oasis shame.)

Anyway, in my last post (and this one so far) I haven't really said much about Today Forever, so just quickly: Unfamiliar is fantastic, one of their best tunes; Sennen was a bit drippy - a bit slow/soppy for a group that specialised in pounding guitar attacks, and Slowdive had just started doing this stuff, but better; the one on the start of the second side I can't even remember the name of - pretty forgettable guitar pop filler; Today - given how it was written about in the music press before it came out I was expecting a masterpiece, instead it's just a bit boring, it's trying to being experimental, but there's not enough there really (and as I said before, compared to the Tremelo EP by MBV (which I think came out a few weeks earlier) it's not really that special).

Today Forever is fine, I guess, but that's about it. Listening to it now I feel like it's probably a lot more fun to play than to listen to. I'd rank Nowhere higher.

That said, everyone should seek out the "Grasshopper" B-side from "Leave Them All Behind," as mentioned above. A fucking amazing 11 minutes of guitar squall. I remember reading one of them say that "Dreams Burn Down" was probably their masterpiece, but Grasshopper is just so miuch more.

At the time, I grudgingly rescued "From Time to Time" for a mixtape. Going by iTunes, I seem to have decided that it and "1000 Miles" and "Moonlight Medicine" were keepers. That Creation cover was dire, though.

Oh yeah, "From Time To Time" is good, too.

I can't even listen to Tarantula, but bits of Carnival of Wife were definitely salvagable. They just went to shite when Andy took over and pushed Mark out of the songwriting process and then it just went waaaaay too Dadrock. In the end, Mark *was* the better songwriter, regardless of the lips.

Grimly, I only have stuff on vinyl or cassette, but I can do you a pre-GBA compilation on tape for next time I see you, if you want.

-- pleased to mitya (mitya_il...), June 12th, 2006.

I love you, yes it was the end, the very end.

I remember telling Lawrence that there was a bit in Grasshopper where it suddenly got quiet and then his cymbals came in and it had sounded like a voice to me! He was like "yeah, that's what we want, really that kind of thing..." but it was the end, that song. Jesus, what an end, that song. God bless 'em.

You have hurt my heart

i heard that alan moulder was sceptical when he wanted to double track THE WHOLE drum parts - then they tried it and he locked up perfect, tempo push-pulls, groove, the lot.

for me he sits in the pantheon reserved for keith moon, janet weiss, reni and rob ellis

"Sennen" makes me want to cry.

Loz played with Damo Suzuki? Oh god. Please. Help.

Can I get a recording of that please please please please please please please please please

Bimble you scare me sometimes. Get out of my record collection!

(Also - who hasn't played with Damo Suzuki?)

But did Loz see Damo's wang?

this thread reminded me that I saw solo Mark Gardner open for Pinback a few years ago, and it was awkward seeing an audience that were toddlers when the first Ride album came out. Gardner's set was alright.. he did some old Ride songs, but just not the same solo acoustic.

(for comparison, i saw Ride just once in 1991 open for Lush.)

ah Bimble...
Weirdly I only picked this up now on eBay, although I constantly played the first two albums when they came out. It's funny how you can immediately tell where exactly this fits in their discography, as it sonically stands exactly midway between Nowhere and GBA. Excellent stuff

i heard that alan moulder was sceptical when he wanted to double track THE WHOLE drum parts - then they tried it and he locked up perfect, tempo push-pulls, groove, the lot

Aha! I must have read this post once years ago, and it still makes me chuckle. For all I know it's perfectly straightforward for a decent player; but I can barely play two bars in perfect time so I don't think so.