Slowdive Everything Is Alive

Description

Exquisite songs from the comeback kids of shoegaze.

The band perfected their blend of dreamy guitar noise washes and indecipherable lyrics decades ago, and the latest example has plenty of haunting beauty.

After being hailed as shoegaze pioneers in the early 1990s, a mix of subsequent critical brickbats, the onset of Britpop and being dropped by Creation Records ensured that Slowdives young career was over by the middle of the decade. The original lineup reactivated in 2017 having been discovered by a new generation, and simply picked up where they left off.

This second album of their second phase continues to do pretty much the same as theyve ever done, but is all the lovelier for it. There are trademark washes of guitar noise and echo, and songs that judiciously sculpt Rachel Goswell and Neil Halsteads quiet voices on the precipice between melancholy and ecstasy. Prayer Remembered is a hauntingly beautiful instrumental; Chained to a Cloud builds around an electronic loop to emerge sounding sepulchral and hymnal. The exquisite Kisses could be a classic early New Order single reimagined through a dream-pop haze, while The Slab would make a brooding partner to Mogwais outstanding Les Revenants soundtrack.

The production values are higher than in the 1990s there are some electronics now, and the bands experience means theyre able to really craft a tune and finesse a song idea. Most of the lyrics are enigmatic and indecipherable, but the album is dedicated to Goswells mother and drummer Simon Scotts father, who both died in 2020, and the title possibly reflects a quiet determination to stay positive. Either way, the band deserve much credit for sticking to their guns and proving a lot of people wrong. (via the Guardian)

The fifth album from shoegaze giants Slowdive contains the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings.everything is alive is transportive, searching and aglow, the work of a classic band continuing to pitch its unmistakable voice to the future. Six years after the groups monumental self-titled album, everything is alive finds Slowdivevocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, guitarist Christian Savill, bassist Nick Chaplin, and drummer Simon Scottlocating evermore contours of its immersive, elemental sound.

The new record began with Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, Halstead originally conceived of everything is alive as a more minimal electronic record. Slowdives collective decision-making ultimately drew the group back towards their signature reverb-drenched guitars, but that first concept seeped into the compositions. As a band, when were all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material, Halstead says. Weve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle. The convergence of five unique characters has made the sound. Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts, Goswell adds. Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.

The groups projected studio sessions for everything is alive, in April 2020, were naturally scrapped, and when the group finally did meet up, six months later, at Courtyard Studio, where theyve historically recorded, the mood was jubilant. (Finally, they had a proper reason to leave the house.) That was the beginning of a multi-year recording process, which moved from Oxfordshire and into the Wolds of Lincolnshire and back to Neils own Cornish studio before extending into February 2022, when the band brought in mixer Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, SZA, Alvvays) to mix six of the records eight tracks.

Owing to their deep history, theres a palpable familial energy to Slowdive in 2023. everything is alive is dedicated to Goswells mother and Scotts father, who both died in 2020. There were some profound shifts for some of us personally, Goswell says. Those crossroads are reflected in the many-layered emotional tenor of Slowdives music; everything is alive is heavy with experience, but each note is poised, wise, and necessarily pitched to hope. Its unique alchemy subtly embodies both sadness and gratitude, groundedness and uplift. Reflecting on kisses, which may be Slowdives surest pop moment yet, Halstead said, It wouldnt feel right to make a really dark record right now. The album is quite eclectic emotionally, but it does feel hopeful.

everything is alive, is exactly what the title suggests: an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. Spanning psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating 80s electronic elements and John Cale inspired journeys, the album lands immediately as something made for the future; which figures, as their fanbase has grown younger and younger as time has gone on, and their influence on forward thinking musical artists continues to prevail.

For a genre that is often thought of as divisive, and often warrants introspection, here Slowdive show their craft as the masters of it by pushing it outwards, beyond the singular; the end result being a record which feels as emotional and cathartic as it is optimistic. (via Label)

Label: Dead Oceans
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2023
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Shoegaze

File under: Alternative / Indie / Rock