ILM's Best Shoegaze / Dream Pop / Post-rock TRACKS poll - RESULTS THREAD

First time I've ever heard Adorable. I can see how they fit, and that song's alright -kind of like a vaguely shoegaze Molly Half Head?- but there's this tradition of indie gobshite singers that yer man there fits right into and basically makes me want to punch him in the face forever.

Algerian Goalie did you vote? I nommed Jesu basically as bait for you (if you're who I think you are).

Neil Halstead interviewed in The Guardian in December 2008 as he reemerges as a folk artist

Guess which quote gets used in the third paragraph?

Where are you 'Christine'? :(

― Harrison Buttwhistle (NickB), Friday, October 29, 2010 3:54 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

It will place. In my heart I know that to be true.

I did not vote, no. More an albums guy. Plus I only liked a few shoegaze bands really. And I wasn't into shoegaze when it was actually around apart from those 2 MBV albums. I didn't feel qualified enough to vote.

xxp

Hope you're right! Wondering why I didn't nom 'Shine On' now. xp

The problem is that most of the criticisms leveled at Slowdive in that article (OMG, they are middle claaaaarrrrssss STOOODENTS with volumes of POETRY under their floppy fringes!) make them sound like they're actually something I would like. And the problem with Slowdive wasn't that they were middle class or students or artsy fartsy or like poooooetry but actually just that they were really rather boring. The British press of that period really didn't do themselves any favours either, really...

lol@ teenage fanclub somehow getting invited to the shoegaze party.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2008/12/09/NeilHalstead276.jpg
Mein Gott!

WTF's that, the Biffy Clyro memorial ride?

Jim Morrison: 'BMX Riders On The Storm'

Is he the new Compo?

Adorable I see as a continuation of the sort of thing that The House of Love did well, conveniently appearing right around the time that the THOL level of quality-control took a sharp decline. As far as their being appropriate for this poll is concerned, I believe the "dreampop" qualifier can absorb and compensate for any perceived deficiencies of gaze.

Of course, they only had one good album in them (+ surrounding singles & eps). Everything after Against Perfection was complete shit.

I sometimes wonder what guys like Piotr do after their brief tilt at indie fame? Did he just get a normal job in 1993, in freight admin or something, and has been working his way up to Regional Manager ever since?

Posed for a whole lot of Liz Peyton paintings is one of the things he did, that's for certain.

I have to admit this last Sundays song is miles better than the other ones I heard down there.
― Moka

I disagree. I order them like this

1) The Sundays - Skin & Bones (mesmerizing pop with hooks even in the vocals)
2) The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends (classic pretty pop song)
3) The Sundays - Can't Be Sure (the most shoegazey of the 3 - the most sleepy of the three (imo))

I gave 10 songs 20 points and 1 song 30 points - 'Here's Where The Story Ends'
I gave 4 songs 40 points - 2 of them have made it so far:
85. THE SUNDAYS "Skin and Bones" (1990) [101 points, 3 votes]
51. M83 "Don't Save Us From the Flames" (2005) [130 points, 4 votes]

I'm pretty sure one of the other two will make it to the top 20. Hopefully, the other will make it as well.

you're probably waiting for the same one I am waiting for...

I think I should of gave "Loomer" more points since I had points to spare

Great to see 'You Set My Soul' place so highly. I love that song (and that album), but have rarely come across anybody else who does. It was googling the Telescopes that first led me onto ILM more than six years ago.

― Running the Gantelope (Nasty, Brutish & Short)

This makes me very happy, heh.

I'm guessing that's the last Telescopes track to place, though? Glad to see they got some props, but it would've been awesome to have Flying or something in there as well. Not sure who said it, but surprised that upthread someone said they didn't think the 'Scopes were very shoegaze - I think the only person who thinks that second album isn't shoegazing is Stephen himself!

Sundays: search "Goodbye"

I said it. Granted, I've not heard much from The Telescopes, but "You Set My Soul" really doesn't have a lot in common with shoegazing touchstones like furious drum fills, walls of guitar fx and obscured vocals. Not much in common with dream pop either, which is crisp and airy and, dare I say, heavenly. Post-rock? Nope. I'll say it again...that song comes out of the British Folk tradition. It's not quite as fundamental at Fairport Convention, but it sounds flat and obvious compared to a lot of what else is in this poll.

xxp: see, I always thought there was a lot of consensus on "Flying" being their best track. I certainly know I feel that way. Maybe I have lost touch with the people..

I think there is a good chance it will place, actually.

Johnny, I don't think 'You Set My Soul' as a track is particularly shoegaze, no, but it comes straight out of a very 'gaze album.

I'll have to hear the rest of the album.

re: Flying. I found something on Youtube called "Flying (2005)" which may just be strangely labeled, because the footage looks early '90s. Anyway, that's their best track? It's just a drone.

Would love to see 'Like A Daydream' in there too but I doubt it will place.

All of my Ride points went to LAD. In my mind it always seemed like their most perfect single, although it's conceivably far too Byrds-with-bonus-distortion to gel with all this Slowdive, Curve and Disco Inferno et al.

Similarly, Boo Radleys would be very lucky to place again, no? With likely vote-splitting, so many of their contenders are also hopelessly impure in terms of 'gazy-ness.

Expect to see Lazarus, didn't vote for it though (or any Boo Radleys).

re: Flying. I found something on Youtube called "Flying (2005)" which may just be strangely labeled, because the footage looks early '90s. Anyway, that's their best track? It's just a drone.

― Johnny Fever

Can't vouch for whether or not that's the same song (if it's labelled 2005 it might be from the re-worked re-release of the album) but, uh, if "it's just a drone" is your idea of an insult then maybe you're on the wrong thread?

[If you now go and tell me you're one of the people who voted for The Sundays I will just accept that there is a vast, vast gulf between us that can never be reconciled and that we should probably stop the discussion]

Lazarus is a lock.

but, uh, if "it's just a drone" is your idea of an insult then maybe you're on the wrong thread?

New display name levels of truth bomb. ;-)

trax from my ballot which I'm fairly certain won't place at this point:

Blur - Oily Water
Catherine Wheel - Crank
Mercury Rev - Meth Of A Rockette's Kick
Secret Shine - Loveblind
Seefeel - Plainsong

Only ever heard their early stuff (7# Disaster etc) so I always lumped the Telescopes in with the likes Loop and Spacemen 3 and maybe Thee Hypnotics. Kind of fucked-up Stoogey bad vibes music. Ought to get around to hearing the later stuff.

If you now go and tell me you're one of the people who voted for The Sundays I will just accept that there is a vast, vast gulf between us that can never be reconciled and that we should probably stop the discussion

I was probably the most vocal supporter for their inclusion on the nominations thread, so...haha, yeah.

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

I just don't hear a song here. Not one that's worthy of being in a Top 100 of anything, anyway.

Oh shit, I'm down with that :)

Okay, I've actually plugged in my headphones and had a listen. That is a completely re-done version from 2005, around the time when they were getting really into experimental drone, ha. Love it, but this is the version that people would have been voting for (and relistening to it has made me wish I'd put it higher in my list):

http://vimeo.com/1249565

Okay, I'm definitely down with the original version. Very nice!

Ought to get around to hearing the later stuff.

Yes you should. If anything good comes out of this thread, maybe people will finally put down their Boo Radleys albums and listen to this instead

All this talk of whether or not "Sunshine Smile" is shoegaze is basically missing the point (I never thought of it as shoegaze in '92, FWIW). If they were trying to crib from shoegaze, then they basically took the swarm of guitars and left the rest. While bands like Slowdive were busy floating in the clouds, Adorable were going full-on teenpop gone RAWK, the blast of noise in the chorus kicks my ass and the lyrics are fumbling, awkward, and altogether much too sweet, like something written by a socially stunted character in a Smiths song. I love this song so much -- it was my #1 (40 points). And it's definitely not "britpop grunge", that would be Radiohead's cover of "Sunshine Smile, except they retitled it "Creep", perhaps you've heard of it?

Re: Slowdive's debut, I think the critics were right at the time -- it's nowhere near as good as their early EPs. There's not a song from JFAD that would be in my top 20 Slowdive songs.

tbh I always thought Sunshine Smile WAS shoegaze, at the time and now, although I can see most of their other stuff wasn't really.

xpost really? You have a top 20 Slowdive songs and Catch The Breeze isn't in it?

Missing Bimble on this poll

I wish I would've remembered to nom "All Good Things" by Medicine. I probably would've been its only vote, but whatever. Surprised there's been NO Medicine at all, though.

i'd have 4 or 5 tunes from JFAD in a slowdive top 20 i reckon - 'catch the breeze', 'brighter' and 'primal' in a heartbeat.

xpost

Right, I forgot about "Catch the Breeze" ... that would probably be around #15. There's nothing else even close though.

also (and this making my blood boil a bit), since when is nicky wire an authority on good music? comes across as a loud-mouthed, opinionated hack to me.

The top 15 would have most of "Souvlaki" and stuff like "Morningrise" and "Avalyn".

xpost

Not even Celia's Dream or Waves or Brighter?

It's quite sad actually I ended up going to Reading University partially due to Slowdive & Chapterhouse, it's all very embarrassing but I assumed because of shoegazing & the Reading festival that Reading must've been a cool town, of course since I started uni in '94 it was all over by then anyway. Well, that and me not getting good enough grades to get into UCL.