Slowdive - Everything Is Alive

This album is great, this post reunion stuff is so much better then it has any right to be.

Just to say that this is the first album I have listened to from start to end in one go this year. It flows nicely, no filler at all. My favourite is "chained to a cloud" a fitting title to an extraterrestrial beauty of a song. This album is an antidote against the depression which the terrible current state of the world induces.

yeah, i've been listening to it nonstop since it came out. "skin in the game" is still the standout for me. the harmony/ backup vox on that track (as he sings the title) are just outstanding, spooky and beautiful.

beach house is heavily indebted to cocteau twins but maybe even more so to slowdive. slowdive mk 2 is kind of interesting because now they sound a lot like beach house

"This is a sound Beach House stole from 90s us. we're stealing it back"

It's funny how I wasn't too impressed with the singles on their own but hearing the full album totally changed my perception of them. Agree that the whole thing flows so nicely

10 Shoegaze Albums Slowdive’s Simon Scott Thinks Everyone Should Own

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

Thanks for the link, Hideous Lump. Did he get All I Need mixed up with No More Sorry?

I passed on Loop years ago because they called Slowdive and Young Gods "inept", but I should check them out soon.

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, 6 September 2023 20:44 (three days ago)

Perhaps. But it reminds me more of Cali by Ride, the only new era Ride track I can really vibe with

This record is fantastic, Slowdive has it dialed IN.

I’ve wondered if they had Cali in the bag from the early 90s and just never went anywhere with it. I also always hear the bridge from time after time in that little bridge around 2:25 lol

a friend did kind of ruin Kisses for me by saying it sounded like Coldplay

Also you can just screw with your friends and send them this song in response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Gg-50RsVQ

not trying to start anything here but saying that they sound like the bands they influenced seems to me an unnecessarily wordy, and mildly malicious, way of saying that they sound like themselves.

"Why should we change our sound? Coldplay is the one who sucks"

Our imago compared "Sugar for the Pill" to Coldplay last time around. There's certainly some shared sonics between the bands, hate it or not

Liking this but wish there were more variety in the vocals. I knew not to really expect Rachel singing lead at this point but Neil seems stuck on his whispered cozy-sweater voice he started when he went solo.

There's certainly some shared sonics between the bands, hate it or not

― Vinnie, Monday, 11 September 2023

No, not really. Even if Imago says so.

I'm liking this new LP. I'm not as keen as others. But it doesn't sound like Coldplay, that's just lazy.

What I do love is some of the guitar tones that are so recognisable from the early EPs and first LP. It's obviously them, despite some of the more mellow changes.

I’ve wondered if they had Cali in the bag from the early 90s and just never went anywhere with it.

Yes, they did. There was a YouTube video where Andy showed how to play it and said it was a riff / chord progression he'd had kicking around back in the original days of Ride but never got round to doing anything with.

Finally properly listening and it's a beaut and a half, long may they thrive.

Separately, a 2017 tape from Simon Scott just got a formal digital release:

https://datworm.bandcamp.com/album/stuk

"kisses" and "sugar for the pill" are both fairly boring as far as slowdive songs go (i would take "chinese sleep chant" over both, sure) but that is the extent that the coldplay comparison makes sense

Love Sugar for the Pill, but I also dug Chinese Sleep Chant during my brief dalliance with taking Coldplay semi-seriously.

it’s not just that they “sound” more like a Coldplay band now… these new songs are more treacly, not enough moody minor chords. also one thing I loved about souvlaki was that it kinda still sounded like an 80s album at times, like zero apologies for turning the chorus pedal way up <3

that album is from 30 years ago, imagine comparing Souvlaki to an album released in 1963

someone's gotta tell me which coldplay record sounds like this

New stuff sounded a bit stilted to me at the Toronto gig, but it was the first night of their tour so. Crowd was SOOO excited, huge age range, and typically diverse for a show here, thankfully not just a bunch of old white dudes like me nursing a beer.

yeah, i want to know which excellent Coldplay records I've been missing out on!

I was also at the Toronto show and was also pleasantly surprised at the diversity of the crowd

The only Coldplay similarity I’m hearing is that the new also contains arpeggios on the guitar

*stuff

Friend’s boyfriend forgot he had a one-off show so she offered me a free ticket for the Philly show tomorrow night. Pretty stoked!

Full Webster Hall show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW2XW-sqmVA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb8pMcAqdss

they were excellent in Philly last night

the new stuff was good, too— “Prayer Remembered” particularly beautiful

folks on twitter still discussing Slowdive appeal on tiktok but also noting they reunited before tikkok love and have long had legacy rock coverage

Just saw their show tonight at a bowling alley in Cleveland (actually it was Lakewood but never mind). I’m really not much of a concertgoer in my old age but goddamn this band puts on a great show! Sounds amazing, great sounds, perfect acoustics, great tunes… if only I had somewhere to sit! Fuck, they make you stand up the whole time! Hmph!

Meantime, want to hear a show I was at in 1993? Of course you do.

https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/730258076121415680/slowdive-the-roxy-los-angeles-california

Can't wait for next week!

Ned's the guy talking throughout the whole show 😆

but seriously, very psyched to have weaseled my way into the denver slowdive show this week ... cannot wait.

Oh wow. I was at that 93 show at the Roxy!

Oh wait , that might be a different show as they were not supporting Catherine Wheel when I saw them. Did they play twice at the Roxy behind Souvlaki?!

I actually didn't make that Catherine Wheel and Slowdive show because I saw Slowdive the night before. They played a solo show on top of a store front on Hollywood Blvd but could have been Sunset. This wasn't a normal concert hall, it was some restaurant without anything in it. Never saw another show there as the whole things did seem unusual. My girlfriend at the time, Amy, actually had a few moment with Rachael. She just told me afterwards that Rachael was so in love with Neil, lol. Yes Raaderonixx, I saw Slowdive at the Roxy but not sure which tour. I have seem them a lot, along with Mojave 3 and maybe around 20 times give or take. Why I'm so bummed about missing this tour when they come to LA next week. It will be the first time that I will miss a tour. Checked Saturday Night tickets today and they were $250.

I saw Adorable at the Whiskey the night before this Slowdive show. That was probably the best show of 1993, I thought they were going to be massive.

Found it: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/slowdive/1993/hollywood-auditorium-los-angeles-ca-73d1dea1.html

Yeah, the venue was only used 12 times.

Found it baaderonixx, they came back for this tour and played the Roxy April 11, 1994:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/slowdive/1994/the-roxy-west-hollywood-ca-7bd1dec4.html

I was also at that show.

Yeah that was the 94 tour where they played a separate show at Cal State Fullerton and I went to that instead as it was closer.

I saw Adorable at the Whiskey the night before this Slowdive show.

Argh, THAT show I wish I saw because IIRC Underground Lovers opened on the back of Leaves Me Blind. Still wish I had seen them live around then.

https://images.kerrangcdn.com/Sick-New-World-2024-poster.jpeg?auto=compress&fit=crop&w=1008

we see you hiding down there, Drop Nineteens

(hmv update: piles of the new lp in store on Saturday, probably because it is in some sort of chart. a pound cheaper than my copy too)