If GBA isn’t shoegaze, then neither is probably 90% of the albums on that list, and there probably wasn’t even as many as 50 shoegaze albums released during the original era.
What’s more, if shoegaze is being restricted to a Slowdive/MBV aesthetic, then maybe I don’t really rate shoegaze as highly as I always thought I did. While I obviously like those bands (MBV more so than Slowdive), Slowdive’s tendency towards drone excites me far less than bands who wedded their effects-laden guitar sound either to some kind of groove (Curve, Chapterhouse) or brilliant melodies and interesting instrumentation / rhythm guitar-work (Ride, Pale Saints)
This is undoubtedly why a lot of more recent “shoegaze” bands (e.g. Nothing) haven’t really grabbed me all that much. Lots of people criticise the revivalists for being “slavish”. I’ve said it before: I don’t have any issue with bands being slavish, so long as they’re slavishly “reproducing” the best aspects of the right bands: i.e. they’re capacity to produce engaging songs as much as a beautiful effects-laden guitar sound. For this reason, Ringo Deathstarr are easily the best of the revivalists at the moment, even if (or rather because) they’re not of the Slowdive mould of shoegaze.
Where are the new shoegaze bands that are slavishly reproducing the Ride that produced the Today Forever EP?
Might as well round this rant off in true DiS style with some rankings:
Best bits of Curve (most of their stuff) > best bits of Ride (GBA and earlier) > best bits of MBV (Loveless)
Ride: Today Forever EP > GBA > Nowhere (and early EPs)
Slowdive: “Souvlaki Space Station” >>>>>>> everything else they’ve done
I’m thinking mostly/solely Lesser Matters. When that album came out, it was like: at last, someone is reviving the shoegaze guitar sound and combining it with some great songwriting. Admittedly, it’s more the fuzz/distortion than the delay/chorus pedals, and I always thought of them as shoegaze-lite, but the connection was clear enough for the music press to see them as leading the charge in what they called “nugaze”.
As for genre labels and distinctions: these are all pretty much press-invented categories. It seems pointless to me to try to define a narrow sense of the genre, other than “the bands that journalist was specifically referring to when he made up the term ‘shoegaze’ in a fairly cynical move to create copy that would sell magazines”.
I just don’t see how one can argue GBA is shoegaze beyond like 3, maybe 4 tracks at the most. It largely eschews all the guitar effects from their previous work and that more or less defines the other genres. There’s certainly a move towards shoegaze being defined solely by MBV and Slowdive (which has certainly made for a dull as fuck genre), but even by Ride’s own standards, GBA doesn’t belong in shoegaze and more or less finds them in pure jangle pop/brit pop mode.
I have no problem thinking of it as shoegaze for the reason that 1) while GBA is less effects driven than the preceding releases, it’s not a radical divergence from what immediately preceded it; and 2) by virtue of that fact, GBA continued to develop the possibilities of shoegaze in the direction that Nowhere and Today Forever (esp. the latter) had opened up. Its mix of overdriven-guitars over jangle pop, filled out with chorused vocals/harmonies and shimmering cymbals (and occasional keyboards) reproduced the “widescreen” aesthetic in a way that was a bit different from Nowhere, and certainly less effects-driven, but which still — to my ears — sat comfortably with everything else they did.
Prior to reading your comment, I had certainly never considered it in connection with Britpop — though maybe that’s just because Britpop was still at least a year away when GBA came out. GBA came to me and was received by me as a shoegaze album, because 1) Britpop didn’t exist then; 2) Ride were “a shoegaze band”; 3) it had been preceded by the shoegaze anthem “Leave Them All Behind”; and 4) while it was a little less effects driven than their earlier stuff, it was still as rocking and the songwriting had taken another leap forward — I had no reason to be critical of the album, so no reason to think “…but it’s not shoegaze” …?
If there’s room for Giant Steps it’s a shame there isn’t also a space for Moose somewhere. Not that any of their albums are gazey as such. But Giant Steps though?
I used to think exactly the same but I;ve been won round to the whole album as a piece now…something clicked with Tresillaze in a moment of rare relaxation on Brighton beach, the sun on my face, ale to hand and it went from there.
I am going to do that rare thing and praise that list - I think it gives an excellent overview of the key touchstones of the genre and apart from a few placing switches my own list would read very similarly. Too right I think to see the established classics in the upper reaches I think but pleasing to see it mixed with the contemporaries. Its a hard genre to have a cut-off point: Some would argue about Adorable’s inclusion for example - their quintessential shoegaze tune Sunshine Smile isn’t on the LP and perhaps AP’s inclusion is influenced by its release date but I think its rightly there if too lowly ranked. I agree with Quique too as the principle electronic exploration of the genre - Pygmalion also stretched it in similar directions with great success. . I wonder if there might have been a place for the influencers like Galaxie 500 and Cocteau Twins - both of which I’d often rightly hear at a Sonic Cathedral club night. I also think it would be nice to shoehorn Moose’s collection of early EPs - Sonny and Sam into the list.
Just saw this after posting mine…yeah agree fully…I think the early EPs are so great and so era defining that the US release Sonny and Sam gathering them up should have been included somehow. I like X & Y a lot but not sure it would qualify as they’d moved on a bit. Giant Steps is a difficult one - Boo Radleys were definitely a shoegaze act in their infancy and Does this hurt is incredible but I do think this is their defining LP and best by some distance… even if most of the LP is arguably not really typical shoegaze
Take your point definitely but I’ve always found genre labelling broadly helpful in exploring other things I’d like. When someone says something is shoegazey or shoegaze influenced I quickly get an idea that in some regard it might appeal to me. It doesn’t mean the band has to be defined by it and I think this list shows that shoegaze is a label that covers a broad church,
That said I definitely respond to order, categorisation and lists in my life - when the record is playing though most of these shoegazing records are a wonderful way of drifting off and away from that need.
glad Lilys got ‘in because In the Presence of Nothing’ is up there with Souvlaki and Loveless.
LOL at all the people thinking Catherine Wheel et al are as good as Slowdive. You can tell the difference between how Slowdive have been received compared to the rest of the bands of the era.
Only big absences for me are Tamaryn and Ecstacy of St Theresa.
Also the m b v album is rubbish and shouldn’t be in this list.
eh, I find them (along with Astrobrite) to be alright, but ultimately nothing to really write home about. While I was initially disappointed that Ride and Slowdive didn’t really sound that much like MBV, I find the bands that do sound closer to them to be the least interesting that the genre has to offer.
I wouldn’t put m b v as close to the top as Pitchfork did, but I think you guys are being a bit overly harsh. It’s not as good as loveless, but it’s still very good and I’d put it ahead of most any other shoegaze album from the past decade or so.
Agree with this so much. Pitchfork naming it “50 best shoegaze albums” or whatever is arrogant/hyperbolic, but look past the title and it’s a fine list of stuff I would recommend to a lot of people if they asked to hear more of a “loud and blurred dreamy guitar” sort of thing.
i like to play fast and loose with genre categorising as well, but even so. the only real reason swervedriver are associated with shoegaze is they came from the same area at the same time. if they were from america no-one would even suggest it.
I try not to get involved in discussions about whether anything is or isn’t shoegazing, since life’s too short, but I think it’s fair to say that one album (EAF) is more gazey than another (Giant Steps).