Star Roving, the epic trailer for the new album, signals a gear shift and bridges into an atmospheric mid-section that includes Souvlaki Space Station, Avalyn and Don’t Know Why, and (via song selection that ultimately works as crafty sleight of hand) overtures the main set’s devastating final third.Īs Neil Halstead teases out the intro to When the Sun Hits, Manchester roars. The band matches the crowd’s generosity: five songs in and we’ve already had Slowdive (that mournful, droning intro forever a wonder), Catch the Breeze and a bruising Crazy For You. The Albert Hall bulges tonight: this is Slowdive’s biggest Manchester show by some distance. Their 2017 variant benefits from a stealthy re-introduction: on-and-off touring while piecing together enough new material to eventually justify these high profile headline shows.
Like their peers Lush (who managed one year back in the limelight before realising that being in a band is actually nowhere near as much fun as it should be), Slowdive were always a deeply capable live act.
Still, here they are, three years after reforming, with an album – Slowdive – worthy of their legacy and a live show that ups the production values but maintains the irrefutable force of their original performances. God only knows what they made of the critical re-evaluation, two decades on, that saw a host of savvy acts namecheck them for their legwork and hold up their 1993 second album Souvlaki as an under-appreciated masterpiece. 'They say we’re great!' 'Oh, hang on – no, we’re not.' During their short-lived heyday, when every gushing Melody Maker piece celebrating ‘ The Scene That Celebrates Itself’ became diluted with bitter rejoinders from other sections of the press, you could forgive the Reading five-piece for feeling confused. In 2014, the band announced that they’d reunited and more new music would follow.Slowdive, more than perhaps any re-emerging survivor of the early 90s Brit indie scene, have caught the bouquets and dodged the brickbats. In the 22 years of their virtual disappearance, compilation albums have been released and the core members of the group have gone on to join other musical endeavors. Their debut album, Just For A Day, was released in 1991 by Creation Records, and was followed by the band’s now revered 1993 album Souvlaki and 1995’s Pygmalion before they disbanded.
Slowdive is Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Christian Savill (guitar), Nick Chaplin (bass), Rachel Goswell (vocals) and Simon Scott (drums, electronics). The video for “Sugar For The Pill,” product by in/out, takes its inspiration from the Slowdive album artwork, which is itself a still from Harry Smith’s cult classic animation Heaven and Earth Magic – the vast spiritual narrative that has influenced so many artists since it was originally released back in 1957. For us, that flow re-started with us playing live again and that has continued into the record,” notes principle songwriter Neil Halstead. “When you’re in a band and you do three records, there’s a continuous flow and a development. Throughout, the group dynamic was all-important. These eight new tracks, simultaneously expansive and the band’s most direct material to date, deftly swerve away from any “trip down memory lane.” They were birthed at the band’s talismanic Oxfordshire haunt, The Courtyard, and mixed at Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Sound by Chris Coady (Beach House). Slowdive’s stargazing alchemy is set to further entrance the faithful while beguiling a legion of fresh ears. The stream will go live at 4:10 pm Eastern here: /slowdive. UK shoegaze pioneers Slowdive are pleased to announce their self-titled fourth album, out May 5th via Dead Oceans, and the beautifully understated new single, “Sugar For The Pill,” which follows the release of “Star Roving.” Additionally, Slowdive announced a live stream of a surprise show tomorrow, March 29th at London’s The Garage, the venue in which the band played their final London show in their original incarnation in December 1993.
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