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

Best song about having a runny nose ever.

So that's what it's about! Had been wondering for the meaning of it for years now.

The thing I see as JAMC's primary contribution to shoegazing is the guitar-feedback as an essential component of the sound. Sure, others had utilized feedback before, but never anywhere even close to as consistently & confrontationally. It was JAMC's wall of feedback, filtered through MBV, which developed into arguably the most central characteristic of shoegazing in general.

"Never Understand" and Ride's "Chelsea Girl?" Not so fundamentally different when you think about it.

http://imgur.com/iZV0z.jpg
11. Boo Radleys - Lazarus (10 votes, 250 points)
Lazarus (1992)
Youtube

TOO LOW

I AGREE

isn't the fact that i wanna be adored seems to be now perceived as a shoegazing classic a tiny bit interesting, rather than infuriating? i can honestly say i didn't see that coming. isn't purism a little misplaced in a what amounts to a bandwagon that all the key players leapt on and off at will? would it be a problem if sunny sundae smile (1986) were on this list? anyway, i haven't participated in this so maybe i should just piss off. is there any chance big city will be in there? i suppose not

I am bummed that the Cocteau stuff I like is completely unrelated to the Cocteau stuff everyone else likes

I don't care much for 'Lazarus' the song, but that intro is really special

xpost: Sunny Sunday Smile got nommed and voted for... didn't make it to the top 100... I think it placed around place 170 or so.

Hi dere: any examples?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/MyBloodyValentineLoveless.jpg
10. My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep (10 votes, 266 points)
Loveless (1991)
Youtube

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_499wVdW8GZY/SsTepI4zD8I/AAAAAAAAAvQ/d-xrVjnrEXM/s320/Christine+%5Bfront%5D.jpeg
9. House of Love - Christine (8 votes, 280 points)
Christine (1988)
Youtube

Well, if you were to have a "shoegaze" poll using only the strictest historical parameters, we would be polling well under twenty bands b/c it once applied to a specific group of bands from a specific town iirc. "The Scene that Celebrates Itself," right? Nowadays its more like "dream pop" or "post rock" - generalized and no longer retricted by date or geography. So then you've got three amorphous genre tags w/ to apply to a styles of music which are themselves, by necessity, amorphous. So, you know, fuck it.

"Wax and Wane" and "Violaine" were two of my votes, but also stuff like "Serpentskirt", "Blood Bitch"... basically their first album and their last album (ha)

Did not necessarily expect When You Sleep. Could Come in Alone also Place? That would mean that we'd have four more MBV tracks coming up.

Christine is just about right where it belongs imo.

xp (whereas everyone else seems to be all about the middle albums, which I find largely intolerable aside from Heaven or Las Vegas)

xxpost: Ok I'm not supposed to share these results until it's over but Wax and Wane almost made it (#125 3 votes, 75 points) Violane placed (#139 2 votes, 64 points.)

Serpentskirt and Blood Bitch didn't got nommed. Would have voted for the former myself.

http://imgur.com/76BLS.jpg
8. Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic (9 votes, 290 points)
Black Metallic (1991)
Youtube

great song this one, forgot to vote for it, could have helped it place a couple numbers higher.

Well, if you were to have a "shoegaze" poll using only the strictest historical parameters, we would be polling well under twenty bands b/c it once applied to a specific group of bands from a specific town iirc. "The Scene that Celebrates Itself," right?

'The Scene That Celebrates Itself' overlaps with 'Shoegazing', but wasn't quite the same thing. The former was the groups who were going to each other's gigs around London in 90/91, so includes Blur, but doesn't include northern groups like the Boo Radleys or Pale Saints.

isn't the fact that i wanna be adored seems to be now perceived as a shoegazing classic a tiny bit interesting, rather than infuriating? i can honestly say i didn't see that coming. isn't purism a little misplaced in a what amounts to a bandwagon that all the key players leapt on and off at will?

Couldn't agree more fwiw - getting some idea for where other people perceive this stuff to be and to have come from is fascinating. And what it all looks like now. If you want to be all purist then perhaps the poll thing isn't for you - just laminate your own list and go by that, maybe?

"Black Metallic" is nothing special, imho.

I agree.

xpost: I never thought of Catherine Wheel as particulary impressive. Hadn't heard this song in years but has been stuck in my head all week due to this poll.

wth is that sleeve?

Ok maybe I overreacted, not great but still good.

It's the sleeve to the Black Metallic EP which came a year before Ferment.

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51TVUdU0C-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
7. Ride - Vapour Trail (12 votes, 298 points)
Nowhere (1990)
Youtube

Some awful Sixth form poetry lyrics but the guitars, the melodies, the drumming. The lovely cello at the end (even if it is out of
tune (is it?)). Man. I adored this song. It was probably my stock response to a question of my favourite song well into the second year of university. I first heard Vapour Trail sharing a pair of earphones with my school friend Mike – we sat in the quad at break time and it enchanted me all through the following HE class and then forever more. Magic doesn’t come into it.

- kraudive.

RE: Black Metallic - My vote went to Crank. Like this track, but it is WAY overrated imo

Gee, I voted for most of the tracks since about 17. How very amusing now that I was prematurely mourning the likely non-appearance of "Like a Daydream" yesterday. Boy, is my face red.

"Black Metallic" was on my ballot until the very last moment when I went to refresh my memory.

'Black Metallic''s okay I suppose - haven't heard it since it came out, was expecting something a lot rockier for some reason.

Nice chorus though, always a good asset for a 'gaze track.

Yes kraudive, love the punchy drums on 'Vapour Trail'

Vapour Trail #7

The day the music died.

I will say that Black Metallic, performed live, was a completely different animal. They made it sound soooo EPIC.

If it were for me the following song would have winned this poll:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Never_Understand.jpg
6. Jesus & Mary Chain - Never Understand (12 votes, 309 points)
Never Understand (1985)
Youtube

Very pleasantly surprised at this.

It's just anachronistic as hell to call a single from 1985 part of genre that wasn't even coined until what, 90, 91?

But I give up. I think people just voted for things they recognised without thinking if they should even be on the list.

no, I voted for things I recognized that I thought fit my own personal ideal of/taste in shoegaze/dream pop, which in terms of shoegaze tends to veer more towards dronerock and heavy fuzz and less towards stuff like Lush, and in terms of dream pop tends to veer more towards '80s 4AD/Chameleonsy stuff. Fuck genre purism imo

.. And honestly I wouldn't have minded seeing it win overall, being that it is the origin point for the entire genre an all.

All the drums on every Ride track are fabulous, really.

I'm confident of three of the top five now, have a pretty good idea of a fourth, and one total mystery.

How very amusing now that I was prematurely mourning the likely non-appearance of "Like a Daydream" yesterday. Boy, is my face red.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Saturday, October 30, 2010 1:11 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Same here.

'Vapor Trail' is probably in the right spot. So maybe this means 'Dreams Burn Down' will be coming up?

If that cello *is* out of tune, it can't be by much.

Too much MBV coming up for this to be terribly surprising.

OS, S or YMMR for the win? Or will it be an upset victory?

.. And honestly I wouldn't have minded seeing it win overall, being that it is the origin point for the entire genre an all.

― so imagen what we can do with the rest of our brain...right buddy's?? (Pillbox)

Yes, precisely!

All the drums on every Ride track are fabulous, really

yup

Next song is... a weird surprise. Or not so much considering it's an ILM poll.

Forgot OS - three MBV, either one or two Ride, and one or no Verve I reckon.

The drummer in Ride was a monster. He carried that band quite a bit.

So anyone wants to take a guess on the next one?