Isn’t Anything isn’t that great. I still don’t think Souvlaki is really that great of an album either.
I think Slowdive are vastly overrated. The remix cd of Souvlaki is better than the main event (in my view). Just For A Day was dreary and in my view represented the worst of shoegaze at the time (miserable and character free). At least Chapterhouse’s Whirlpool had some verve (ho ho) and vitality to it (though they were equally mocked at the time).
Yes, Nothing’s latest is a poor choice and isn’t even their best album. Would have included Tamaryn and Radio Dept fersure.
Agree about Just For A day. It’s a weak album. I think they wrote it all in the studio apart from Catch The Breeze so that probably didn’t help.
I really like the Drop Nineteens album
Yeah, I agree with some of the points above. Going Blank Again isn’t really in the genre. I really like Nothing, but if anything belongs on this list, it’s GoE. Live, they are much more ballsy and noisey than the records.
I remember shoegaze the first time round, and it feels like people have been revisiting it for so long the revival is going on for longer than the original time it happened.
As an aside, I sometimes don’t like revisiting stuff I loved back in the day, but I found my old Ride collection and put on Unfamiliar (Sennen EP??) and loved it all over again.
ew, the 5 In Mind EP?
I feel like Slowdive are over-rated overall, but still very good. Their first 3 EPs were genuinely great, but their albums never really lived up to that promise: JFAD starts off good, but is fairly boring, Souvlaki is pretty up and down in quality, and Pygmalion sounds like a bit too much fucking around. Pygmalion is pretty firmly in overrated territory now.
I’m mostly annoyed that Slowdive’s increased stature has watered the genre down a bit into non-descript mush.
there aren’t 50 shoegaze albums worth listening to
7 Likes
Listened to Pygmalion on Saturday. It’s a fantastic album in places, Rutti, Crazy for You and Blue Skied an clear. But just those three places…
1 Like
You’re probably right.
Winona is a quality tune for sure.
i don’t think Swervedriver are a strictly shoegaze band (if i understand the term), there was elements there for sure but they were much more ‘American’ in sound then the shoegaze scene, with the grunge elements and the lyrical references to highways/cars etc. still happy to see them get more attention because they’re ace. It was the same thing with the ambient list though, lot of stuff where you’re thinking ‘is this really ambient?’
Surprised not to see Jefre-Cantu Ledesma in there somewhere
this is meant to be a reply to thread
You’re right - Swervedriver weren’t really shoegaze, though lumped in with it at the time. Ejector Seat Reservation (which might actually be their best come to think of it) has none of that about it. And Jefre-Cantu Ledesma I’d stick right in with drone too, not shoegaze.
1 Like
Would probably have The Horrors - Primary Colours in there.
Outside of 2 or 3 tracks, that always sounded closer to Post Punk for me.
1 Like
Yeah, I’d agree…
I’d lump a lot of supposed shoegaze in there - Lost Rivers, A Place To Bury Strangers, Lucid Dream etc.
those you could at least make the case for being very in debt to JAMC and also releasing full length albums of such. The Horrors’ shoegaze moments are much more sporadic.
Whilst I like it, that Chapterhouse album has no business being included in any ‘best’ albums list, unless it’s a list of the best Chapterhouse albums
5 Likes