Ride 'Nowhere' Poll

for ages Taste was my fave, but now I prefer Vapour Trail.

Scik Mouthy vaguely OTM in the sense that with both albums, it comes down to a coin flip between two songs (here it's "Vapour Trail" vs "Dreams Burn Down"), with everything else on the albums being left in the dust.

wrong

I never really liked Vapour Trail that much. The last 3 songs shouldn't really be there (including bonus tracks in album polls - C/D?)

I vote Dreams Burn Down.

How do you define a bonus track though?

These songs were on all the standard CD editions, right?

oh sorry, I see they were just on the US edition

Nope, they were on the UK CD as well. But they were all on "Fall", which is where they belong.

Then I don't really see the difference. Just bacause a song appeared on an EP or a single, it shouldn't be included as a real album track?

As I said, the original album - vinyl / cassette - was "Seagull" through to "Vapour trail", and the original CD had the 3 extra tracks tagged on the end so really they aren't on the album. It's just that over time nobody remembers the vinyl / cassette editions and the CD has become the dominant music carrier so I don't blame you for the questions.

Maybe I'm just being purist and anal by ignoring them in this poll - certainly when I play "Nowhere" I don't switch the CD off after "Vapour trail", I let it play and love the 3 extra songs, but for me they are of a piece as part of the "Fall" EP - that's how I heard them first, that's how I feel they belong. "Dreams burn down" works in both places - on the EP and the LP.

I'm thinking too much about this now, aren't I?

Hmmm, I guess this question could be its own thread, but I feel that extra songs included on the CD edition are not bonus if they were there on the original edition (ie. not added for some re-release), esp. at a time when CD was already clearly the dominant format. Same goes for, say, the Cure's 'Disintegration'.

Agree it comes down to 'Vapour Trail' or 'Dreams Burn Down'. I'll go with 'Dreams...' as that chiming guitar riff gets me everytime.

bah, this is some CD reissue, Taste was ne'er on that album.

First, to clarify: Going Blank Again is a stone cold classic from start to finish.

So is Nowhere, of course, and this is partiularly hard for me because I've listened to it so regularly for such a long time, that my "favorite" track has alternated variously among "Seagull," "Kaleidoscope," "Polar Bear," "Dreams Burn Down" & "Taste." "Vapor Trail" is nice as well, but I never understood why people thought it towered so highly over the rest of the album. In the end, I'm going to cheat a bit and vote "Seagull" just for how fucking tremendous it was when played live.

It's a shame Britpop had to come along and quash Ride's aesthetic. It was nice while it lasted.

I heard Mark and Andy on the radio a couple of years back doing some reminiscing. They were asked what the best thing they'd done was, and they said 'Dreams Burn Down' without a moment's hesitation. I'd never paid that much attention to it before, but I put it on and it was immediately obvious that they were right.

"Dreams burn down" is one of those songs where I can remember precisely where I was when I heard it for the first time - sat at my old PC in my bedroom at my parents, Peel on in the background - I was completely blown away by it. I'd loved the first two EPs and was anticipating something good for the third single but not THAT good. I remember noting in my diary that night that it sounded like "slow motion Felt with distortion pedals set to stun".

can you recommend any Felt that sounds a bit like that?

not really into ride, but the trespasser's william cover of "vapour trail" is amazing.

Electricsound OTM - I don't feel like those last three "bonus" tracks belong on the album proper because they were from the earlier "Fall" EP.

I'd love to choose Seagull but almost any live version of that song shits all over the album version, so "Vapour Trail" is the clear choice.

though it's not a part of the album, really... "Nowhere" wins for me

GBA is a piece of piss, because the opening track is the best thing Ride have ever done, the second song is OK, and the rest of it is shite.

Pretty damn well OTM, Nick.

this whole debate about what is and isn't on this album is a no brainier for me. i bought this on release date on CD in the US, poll is right it has all 11 of these songs on that CD.

i don't think i could love an album more than i did with this one at that time. i was so obsessed with this album that my friends and i sat there one night and tried to figure out the lyrics. that ended up being an impossible task and very unrewarding. we couldn't finish but ended up getting the lyrics at a British type of club in Los Angeles some nine months later.

"Polar Bear" fwiw, but can go in about seven different directions.

baaderonixx, i imagine Rob was thinking of earlier, cherry red era felt, perhaps specifically primitive painters, which could be seen as their proto gaze moment, the guitar lines on dreams burn down do recall Maurice Deebank's a bit. Felt really aren't about getting trapped under collapsing walls of molten feedback though.

Just to weigh in to a couple of the debates rather late in the day: GBA = mostly poor, but LTAB is really good & yes, I only think of Nowhere as consisting of the eight tracks that were on the vinyl record because that's what I bought. Was CD really the dominant format in 1990? I didn't get a CD player till Xmas 92.

I meant to follow that up with my vote, but work suddenly banned ILM for 'violence' (whatever that means).

'Seagull' is absolutely excellent, probably my favourite Ride track. As 1990 had progressed and Ride moved through the Ride EP, then Play EP, then Fall EP, they seemed to be phasing out the wah-wah assaults and just going for a kind of reverb & distortion type of sound, which I was a bit disappointed at. I bought the album the day it came out and when I heard the opening track I just thought 'great - the wah-wah's back'. They usually closed with this or played it as an encore and it was just made to jump around like a madman to.

'Kaleidoscope' is a great pop song (in the loosest sense of the word 'pop', because it didn't sound remotely like anything in the charts at that time) that has been largely overlooked and never got played live that I know of. I was going to go through track by track, but I loved this album at the time and it's difficult to find a weak spot. Maybe 'Dreams Burn Down' hasn't aged so well (perhaps because that whole quiet-noise-quiet thing got overdone by Nirvana in the years to follow) and the singing/lyrics on Vapour Trail lack a certain something.

Those first couple of bars of 'Dreams Burn Down' though ... it's shoegazing's 'When The Levee Breaks'

i love this album to bits, and i'm actually going to vote for a song that shouldn't actually be listed: 'here and now'. such a gem that one.

major props to all the other tracks though, particularly 'seagull', 'dreams burn down' and 'paralysed'.

Argh. Those last three tracks are gonna skew things no matter what we do!

'polar bear' was my favourite song in the entire world for a very long timen.

^^^this.

So a Disintegration poll shouldn't include "Homesick"?

Ride really owned the world for a few months back then, didn't they?

my fave Ride track (and, in fact, the only one I still listen to semi-regularly) is "Drive Blind"...but I'll take "Dreams Burn Down" here, it's the only song listed above that I can still hum...

Jumping back into the 8 tracks v 11 tracks debate, I can remember a review of 'Nowhere' (in either Sounds or MM or NME) bemoaning the fact that it had an already-released E.P. track on it (i.e. 'Dreams Burn Down'). If CDs had been seen as the dominant format (in the Indie market) at that time then that review would have bemoaned the fact that the *whole* Fall EP had been tacked onto the album.

Yeah, it's kindof a testament to how common EP releases were in the indie world at the time, too. They weren't seen as just "singles" from an album with b-sides, but respectable in their own right.

The Disintegration comparison, although interesting, isn't quite apt simply because to my knowledge, Homesick wasn't previously released at the time the album came out. I think it would be fine to include Homesick in such a poll, but perhaps someone who bought the vinyl would feel differently. *shrugs*

SEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULLSEAGULL

(Also, those last three tracks aren't technically Nowhere songs)

I'm relistening to the album now and it's pretty surprising how LOUD the drums are.

Yeah, I don't necessarily have the best ears for that sort of thing, but it seems like the mix is sorta wacked-out. Drums and vocals are too far up front. Where are the guitars hiding-- this is "shoegaze", etc.?

Also, I feel like this record has not dated as well as it might have; possibly b/c those guys were too young at the time to craft a "classic" record? But, with that statement I'm verging into rockist territory, perhaps, as well as risking instigating a whole debate about how being in yr early 20's in the 60's or 70's was a different thing from being that age now or back in '91 or so.

That being said, my kneejerk vote is for "Vapour Trail"; although re-visiting "Polar Bear" definitely gave me some goosebumps today. THing is, it's one of those records that I have trouble listening to without an overload of sentimental associations coming up

baaderonixx, i imagine Rob was thinking of earlier, cherry red era felt, perhaps specifically primitive painters, which could be seen as their proto gaze moment, the guitar lines on dreams burn down do recall Maurice Deebank's a bit. Felt really aren't about getting trapped under collapsing walls of molten feedback though.

-- cw, Wednesday, 28 May 2008 11:54 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Thanks - that was exactly what 19 yr old Rob was thinking at the time. Your last line made me laugh for about five minutes today.

Regarding "Dreams burn down" again, I keep finding the intro drum popping up in odd places - I always heard "In my place" by Coldplay as being in awe of "DBD" and then the last song on the recent Trembling Blue Stars album had the exact same drum pattern as well. As someone else said, it's the indie "When the Levee Breaks".

Regarding the 8 to 11 track debate - all the reviews at the time in the UK press considered "Vapour trail" to be the closing track, and certainly the MM review (can't remember if it was Reynolds or Chris Roberts) went nuts over it as a closer.

No more 'regardings' from me.

Hmm, my copy of this also contains tracks 12-15. Where are they from?

I've voted for Vapour Trail too.

12-15 are from 'today forever'

Pound for pound, the 'Today Forever' EP alone is better than (the 8- or 11-track) Nowhere, easily.

The MM review was Chris Roberts, who slagged off the first side (tracks 1-4). There is something about Felt's 'Splendour of Fear' that reminds me of early Ride. Not literally obv, but a there is a definite feeling of some kind of defeated optimism in both.

Pound for pound, the 'Today Forever' EP alone is better than (the 8- or 11-track) Nowhere,
I think I agree with this. The singles and b-sides from Going Blank Again are also better than the lp. In my opinion, of course.

Pound for pound, the 'Today Forever' EP alone is better than (the 8- or 11-track) Nowhere, easily.

Yep.

'Taste' narrowly edging out 'Polar Bear' and 'Vapor Trail' for me - good memories from a study abroad year in Canterbury - I came back to the states and basically thought US rockist guitar bands sucked for a good couple of years.

"Seagull" is still one of the only songs I can think of that channels The Byrds and Hawkwind so explosively at the same time.

Yeah, that's a good way to describe it, Mackro. Did you ever witness it live?

Pound for pound, the 'Today Forever' EP alone is better than (the 8- or 11-track) Nowhere, easily

I can't agree with this at all. I found it disappointing at the time, apart from 'Unfamiliar'.

I saw Ride on the "Today Forever" tour, with Slowdive as the support band. That was March or April 91. It was like shoegazing heaven. Ride were awesome live, and it was a dream set list (except for the lack of "Here and now"). Those strobes during the noisy bits of "DBD"! The sheer sonic assault on "Seagull"! Fantastic night. Slowdive in comparison were a poorly mixed sludge of reverb and noise.

Yeah, I saw them then too. I'm pretty sure it was March. I saw them in Kilburn and they were absolutely amazing. I saw them six times in total, but that was the best one.

Also this has been a really fun thread. And thanks for the sorta off-the-cuff Pink Floyd/Cardiacs exchange, LJ!

Okay hey this is really weird. I'm getting flashbacks about the bass player of Ride. No shit. I was there for the soundcheck in '91 in an empty club when they toured with Lush or whatever because my friend was gonna interview Lush I think. Anyway, I just remembered that he (bassist of Ride) played the riff for Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song" for a little bit during the soundcheck. Also...another weird thing is on this Coming Up For Air EP he does the bass riff for The Damned song "Neat Neat Neat" and he ALSO does the bass riff for Felt's "Primitive Painters" at the beginning of the "Performance" part. I completely and totally respect him for ripping these things off, is the funny thing. I mean how any bassist could really compete with what was going on with the guitars & drums on that is beyond me, so he was wise to just sit back and enjoy the Ride.

Alright last post on this thread tonight until someone else posts:

I don't think anyone has yet made it clear on this thread yet, but anyone who knows Grasshopper and appreciates it MUST hear the Coming Up For Air EP. It's that place beyond Grasshopper. Not quite as good perhaps, but then think how many times you had to play Grasshopper before you felt you knew the whole thing?

Damn u polar bear h8rtz!

not really into ride, but the trespasser's william cover of "vapour trail" is amazing.

Coming Up For Air EP
1 Soundcheck #1 4:20
2 Soundcheck #2 1:26
3 Performance 30:51

is what I need. Does anyone have a link? I've acquired quite a bit of shoegazism from the Tremelo100 site before. Coming Up For Air is listed there, but the link doesn't work. Gah!

Here's a link.

having some of that thanks

Merci monsieur Bimble.

Sire, I am in your debt.

Oh my god...I just heard the beginning of Polar Bear in my head.

Holy jesus. I'm playing it now.

I feel so sorry for people who never saw them live, I really really do. I hate to say that. But they were absolutely the best thing ever live. I can't erase those memories, they are a heavy part of me, those gigs.

I don't think I saw them 6 times like Nasty, Brutish & Short did, but it seems to me I probably saw them about 5 times. I can't forget what Leave Them All Behind sounded like outside at the Belgian festival. It wasn't even available for sale yet. They were poised to conquer the world and then...a fall from grace. But I've accepted this now, you know. It's history.

DECAY = GOTH SHOEGAZE

Bimble is still more goth than you.

VAYPOOR TRAYLE

TASTE

HERE & NOW

NOWHERE

best sequence of Ride songs ever outside of Grasshopper/Today Forever EP.

Cannot wait

p4K:

Ride don't get treated with quite the same hushed reverence as their shoegaze peers My Bloody Valentine, but they sat comfortably in the top tier of late-80s/early-90s effects-pedal abusers. This year, their landmark 1990 debut album Nowhere turns 20. On December 21, Rhino will release an expanded double-disc reissue of the album.

The new edition includes a remastered version of the original album's U.S. edition, as well as the 1991 EP Today Forever and an unreleased 1991 live show. It'll come packaged as a hardback book, along with a 40-page booklet featuring photos and an essay by critic Jim DeRogatis. Check out the tracklist below.

Nowhere: 20th Anniversary Edition:

CD1 (Nowhere and Today Forever):

01 Seagull
02 Kaleidoscope
03 In a Different Place
04 Polar Bear
05 Dreams Burn Down
06 Decay
07 Paralysed
08 Vapour Trail
09 Taste
10 Here and Now
11 Nowhere
12 Unfamiliar
13 Sennen
14 Beneath
15 Today

CD2 (Live at the Roxy, 1991):

01 Polar Bear
02 Seagull
03 Unfamiliar
04 Dreams Burn Down
05 Like a Daydream
06 Vapour Trail
07 In a Different Place
08 Perfect Time
09 Taste
10 Nowhere
11 Chelsea Girl
12 Drive Blind

I think I might already have that Roxy set & if it is what I am thinking of, it is one of their best live recordings. I would certainly invest in a remaster of the same show.

♡_♡

Okay, up for that. Twenty years old though - when Nowhere came out, Abbey Road was only a year older than that.

shhh..

Woahhh

jeepers thats an amazing stat/fact.

Yeah that would definitely be the same Roxy set that's partially circulated for a while; seven songs from it were on a promo single.

so is this out then? can't find it listed on any of the online retailers

Future ILX poll: The original 8 songs on Nowhere or the 7 bonus tracks?

So is this not being released in Europe??
can't imagine I'm the only one interested in this

Turned thirty years old this week. Yes you're old. Burbled this just now:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-coping-42820529

CLASSIC, great driving album.

Ride, along with The Charlatans are playing live tonight in Los Angeles and I'm not going. 😒

I love this album to death as I have been recently proclaiming.

Voted "Polar Bear" and still comfortable with that choice but also...

My brother-in-law once admiringly described them as “the best school band you ever heard”. Re-reading Dave Cavanagh’s book about Creation (recently reissued in paperback) and it all goes tits up when Twisterella isn’t a big hit like everyone is expecting. It’s a pretty sad story after that. Blows my mind how much bigger Slowdive are nowadays. I’m glad they came back and made it work, saw them in Manchester last year on the Nowhere anniversary jaunt, still great.

Saw them over the summer and they were great. Read an old Nitsuh review of the Field Mice that noted a surprising sonic connection between the bands.

"Seagull" really is the best opener of any shoegaze album isn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy44DgD_F6g-