Slowdive - Slowdive

Artist: Slowdive
Album: Slowdive
Year: 2017
Rating: 93/100

Ladies and gentlemen, Slowdive are back. No, this is not a drill. After disbanding following 1995's Pygmalion, the Reading, UK, quintet got back together three years ago, primarily to play the festival circuit. Now, they have finally added a fourth album to their discography.

Let me just get one thing out of the way right off the bat: this album is exquisite. It has everything you would expect from a Slowdive album: wall of sound guitars, ethereal vocals from Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead and synthesizers so spaced out that it makes the listener feel a little like they're floating. This feeling is only enhanced when the listener wraps their ears around the album's lead off singles, "Sugar for the Pill" and "Star Roving".

We can only be left to imagine how prolific Slowdive might have been had they not split up when they did. While their self-titled album doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights of their 1993 release Souvlaki, it definitely comes close, and the influence of Slowdive on their modern shoegaze peers is undeniable. Slowdive is a superb addition to an already fantastic canon.

Track listing

1. Slomo
2. Star Roving
3. Don't Know Why
4. Sugar for the Pill
5. Everyone Knows
6. No Longer Making Time
7. Go Get It
8. Falling Ashes