Pitchfork's Top Fifty Shoegaze List

Too kind!

This list goes a long way toward relieving my fear that no one cares about Catherine Wheel anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Q7CcINC8M

CW didn't even peak with the albums in this list!

You like Be Here Now

is this how it's gonna be

ahahahah

http://66.media.tumblr.com/6a4139b9b5af4ef27f242a77b560f585/tumblr_mw08upqgEV1rijwyno7_1280.jpg

Good on that guy for including Alison's Halo and Sianspheric. I'd include Polar/Con Dolore albums which is definitely dreampop but maybe not quite gazey enough. I'd definitely put on the first Teenage Filmstars album, the next two albums have amazing tracks but tend to go downhill in the second half.

Pluramon's "Dreams Top Rock" is sort of a shoegaze/glitched out electronic hybrid (with Julee Cruise on vocals). Love that one.

That was sort of my only real problem with the list, that shoegaze crosses so many wires with dreampop and honestly, in the case of Catherine Wheel, straight on hard rock without the codpiece and goat horns starter kit.

If nothing else, the list led me to this fantastic Morr Slowdive tribute thing, so it was all worth it. Thanks, Bateau!

Oh hell yes! :D That is awesome.

i am on deck to do ILM's Shoegaze album and EP's and think i will do this next summer if someone doesn't take from me now.

spoiler alert: my number one is Nowhere with, i think, Whirlpool coming in second. some omissions besides Moose are Revolver's Cold Water Flat, Ladies and Gentleman... and have always felt Gish should qualify for shoegaze?

The absence of Smashing Orange (unless I missed it) is insane, as they were actually of the time, played in England (though from America), had great UK reviews, and were great. The correct Swirlies album was chosen.

I would have put Underground Lovers' Leaves Me Blind above at least half of the listed albums. I feel HEALTH should be there too.

Wow, the French guy's list has not one but three shoegazing bands from Texas

The first Pitchfork list where I own 60% of the titles.

Notable omissions:

A.R.Kane - Lolita EP (1987) practically invented the genre
Medicine - Shot Forth Self Living (1992) or Buried Life (1993) arriving at 'gaze from psych
Closedown - Nearfield (1994) an early Slowdive inspired US band
Third Eye Foundation - Semtex (1996) if one wants to play up how 'gaze flows like viscous lava into other genres, in TEF's case claustrophobic drum n'bass
Pluramon - Dreams Top Rock (2003) Mentioned above. Loveless itself was composed on a sampler. Get over yourselves, technophobes.
Fleeting Joys - Despondant Transponder (2006) and Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip (2011) not ageless art, but closer to their mark than In the Presence of MBV
No Joy - Wait to Pleasure (2013)
Pinkshinyultrablast - Everything Elses Matters (2015) the last two genre bands I've really dug.

Shot Forth Self Living is number 29 on the Pitchfork list.
Good call on Ringo Deathstarr.

What AltJ albums made the list?

Ah, French guy does have Nightblooms. That's another pretty major omission. I didn't notice if he had Texas Shoegazers Experimental Aircraft on his list, but their "Love For The Last Time" is also probably better than a few things on the Pitchfork list.

Secret Shine's Untouched is a pretty big omission as well.

Speaking of Texans, both Pitchfork and the French dude left off Should's (née Shift) A Folding Sieve, which is amazing.

*coughs* Folks, I love you all. HOWEVER:

This wasn't an infinite list. This was a specific list of 50. That means there was a thing called a 'cutoff,' meaning that Many Different Albums could be and were nominated, but after the votes were tallied, did not in fact make it into the top fifty.

They weren't "left off," they weren't "notable omissions," they *did not win enough votes.*

Clear? Not hard to understand? Very good. I thank you all.

we're just trying to flash our shoegaze cred, it's not about the list

lol at "the french dude"

You'd be surprised given some of the other reactions I've seen!

keeping waiting for some kind of Catherine Wheel reissues, really want Ferment and Chrome on vinyl

Really disappointing to not see Wait To Pleasure in there. One of my favourite albums of this decade so far.

xp they have so many bsides, i hope they do eventually do deluxe versions

Ned, an internet list does not exist until everything left off of it has been listed.

lol

You might be listing a while there.

what's time to an ILXor?

Ok, not to take this overly seriously, but Smashing Orange were probably the first US group to tour as shoegaze, get reviewed in the UK papers that invented shoegaze, etc. It's a little silly, historically, to leave them out, given that they're touring the UK in 1990 supporting Lush and put out a bunch of amazing stuff by 1991. Nightblooms basically ditto but from Holland, substitute 1991 for 1990. I love Flying Sauce Attack to death, and Further is an amazing, incredible album and one of my favorite things on this earth, but it doesn't really belong on this list.

Nightblooms are shoegaze?

I mean, it's not like we're trying to get get Flyying Colours on the list (even if they are great). But you should probably have some respect for history...

xpost: Evan, you've heard their first album and earlier singles, right?

Oh maybe not. I'm a big fan of 24 Days At Catastrofe Café though.

I love that album too. Like top 10, actually. The one before is shoegaze to the max (I saw them touring it) and also very good, in a different way. Check "1000 Years" as a nice compromise between their pop and noise instincts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=dC0v-yOuEUA

Thanks! By the way the strongest attribute of Catastrofe Café for me is the guitar heroics. Kind of like how they're almost at odds with the shy indie pop side.

That was a very unexpected strength of that band. Like MBV had Brian May on guitar, but nobody knew...

CW didn't even peak with the albums in this list!

― imago, Tuesday, 25 October 2016 21:44 (two days ago) Permalink

Agreed! May "Adam and Eve" beat "OK Computer" on some future top 50.