Slowdive – Slowdive ★★★★

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2017	Slowdive	Slowdive	★★★★	88	Rock	Shoegaze	Dream Pop

You’ve gotta love it when a band makes their first album in 22 years and it ends up being their best.  Like any good shoegaze album, Slowdive creates dense walls of sound on their 2018 release, where the choruses tower over the verses and bridges, and guitars echo around off each other. 

One of the pioneering groups of the genre back in the early 1990s, of course the band’s new effort isn’t as experimental and loses some of the grunge edge and melodrama that was prevalent in the old days. But with maturity and age comes confidence and a clear vision of what the band’s setting out to do. 

Those heavier moments are replaced with an abundance of modern, ethereal dream pop echoes, vocals that are a bit more dynamic, lines that are more melodic and songs that overall feel warmer, more energized. 

The best tracks here can easily go up against the best of their 1990s run. “Slomo” builds wonderfully from start to finish. “Star Roving” and “Everyone Knows” are catchy, upbeat alternative rock tracks with whaling guitars. “Don’t Know Why” has more of a bright, fluttering guitar part that bounces around and settles in as the song reaches its chorus. 

What Slowdive does well here is add a little diversity to assure the record doesn’t all feel the same, a common pitfall of shoegaze records the band is able to avoid. 

Part of that is the dueling vocal performances by Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, as well as some of the softer tracks. “No Longer Making Time” and “Go Get It” start soft and build to more anthemic choruses.  “Sugar for the Pill,” and “Falling Ashes” are softer,  darker and more reflective, with the less dense production elements allowing a more personalized touch.