Pitchfork's Top Fifty Shoegaze List

ha yeah it gives me that same "brain shake" feeling as some Disco Inferno stuff

great to see Drop Nineteens in there but the real 'Woah!' moment was saved for Chapterhouse, an incredible record that never really got the props it deserved bitd.

It didn't? From what I've seen they don't seem as overlooked, relatively.

Obviously the definition of shoegaze being used here is pretty ... blurry. But it does allow the list to explore various detours and hybrids. Liked seeing Seefeel and Curve in there (Toni is still married to Alan Moulder, right?). Was AR Kane in there anywhere?

Don't think I've ever heard of lovesliescrushing, excited to explore.

is fennesz in this list? makes more sense here than in the ambient list in which he did appear iirc

was nice to see the adorable album in there.

that said, i still think 'ejector seat reservation' is the best swervedriver album.

(lack of love could be due to it getting lost and not getting a full USA release?!)

fennesz is influenced by shoegaze but it really belongs to the grand tradition of laptop farting a la mille plateaux etc

'laptop farting' : haha ..

Fennesz wouldn't make sense on this list imho. It's not shoegaze in the traditional sense, at all. Fennesz is post-shoegaze. Much like the magnificent Morr Records compilation 'Blue Skied 'n Clear', where Morr artists like Schnauss, Manual, ISAN etc take shoegaze into the 21st century by covering Slowdive, Possibly my most treasured cover album ever.

no moose is weird

re Moose: ...XYZ probably doesn't quality and their three EP's is a complication called Sonny and Sam., i can see them not voting for it for that reason. same goes for the Boo Radleys Learning to Walk.

need to digest this list a bit.

Very happy to see A sunny day in Glasgow included!

This is a genre I never really paid enough attention to at the time, so I'm psyched to explore this list.

That teenage filmstars song is dope.

I guess those genre/regions lists are going to pop up a lot now on Pitchfork? I welcome it, it's a very efficient way of discovering new music.

Disappointed to see no School Of Seven Bells on the list. Disconnect From Desire should be up there.

You know, now that you mention it!

Love having some new to me stuff to explore. Asobi Seksu best discovery so far.

Literally no one - even Ned - needs this many shoegaze albums.

I like that they didn't take the obvious 1986-1996 approach to this and I'm really glad to see that Asobi Seksu album in there.

Dream-pop list next please, would make a good triangle point with the ambient list and this.

This knowldgeable french guy (not me) has a top150 and he says it's better and I'm inclined to believe him.
http://www.senscritique.com/top/Les_meilleurs_albums_du_shoegaze/951994

i've got a list of 500 but it's shit
500: alexei sayle "ullo john gotta new motor?
499: dexy's midnight runners searching for the young soul rebels
498: mortopsy brown light at the end of th etunnel
497: SSQ - synthecide
496: a theme tune ( news? / nationwide? tomrrow's world? can't remember how it goes)
495: brown girl in the ring
497: tijuana taxi
498: the carpenters close to you
499: clive dunn - grnadadddad
500: batman -batman theme (prince)

That French list is good with some cool inclusions like Levitation, Th' Faith Healers and Coaltar of the Deepers. Omits Ulrich Schnauss presumably on the grounds of anti-electro snobbery

no tom heasley either presumably due to an irrational hatred of tuba players

fifty consecutive shoegaze reviews, sure yeah i'll read this

No Moose is mainly weird because the term shoegazing was, I believe, coined in a review of one of their gigs. You'd think they'd get at least a passing mention! This is Wikipedia levels of research here.

Literally no one - even Ned - needs this many shoegaze albums.

i don't really need any swervedriver albums. i tried back in the day but the vocals kinda kill it for me. like a mix of kevin shields and seattle.

Ned's Nineties was like 50% shoegaze haha (any plans to do a sixteen-years-on reboot? with even more shoegaze?)

It definitely was gaze heavy. I have absolutely no plans for a reboot or for any similar effort, ever.

I would have tried very hard to get Emma Ruth Rundle included in this if I'd been involved. Also Venera 4.

how else will a generation of young web nerds discover Experimental Audio Research now ;_;

web nerds need neds words

Very glad that one made the cut. Still remember that blowing my mind across the room upon original release.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, October 24, 2016 6:01 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I looked at Allmusic for the first time in a long time and just noticed you wrote the blurbs for both Bloweyelashwish and Xuvetyn :) Like a lot of good shoegaze stuff I noticed it works when listened to both very quiet and very loud, but in a totally different way for each.

yeah venera 4 is a good call. and locals pale sun cause i like the album that much.

did a ctrl + f for Fleeting Joys and didn't find anything. Despondent Transponder is a pretty perfect extension of Loveless era MBV. as is the case with all of these sorts of lists, I'd like to see more of what was pushed but didn't make the cut.

Ned's words are awesome, I love them. Thanks Ned. If that makes me a web nerd I'm down with that.

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.

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.