Unfairly maligned dream pop act make quietly beautiful return
More sandal-gaze than shoegaze, Slowdive always existed somewhere in the ether between the slipstream fragility of Pale Saints and the more robust experimentalism of My Bloody Valentine.
And like MBV’s miraculous return in 2013, the Reading band’s first album in 22 years sounds as if they walked back into studio the day after they split in 1995. These guitar reveries are either vaporous or oceanic as those haunting atmospherics ebb and flow over half-heard vocals traded by childhood friends Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead.
The low release of Sugar For The Pill and the excellent Star Roving are like jewels sparkling from the darkness and, with tongues firmly in cheek, there's even a song called Slomo. Slowdive’s not-quite-there quality shifts in and out of focus and it makes them all the more elusive and mysterious.
Alan Corr @corralan
