Sugar for the POLL - The Shoegaze Reunion LPs + EP 2013-17

Slowdive for me but I’d also vote Souvlaki over Loveless.

Slowdive for me but I’d also vote Souvlaki over Loveless.

Me too!

I'd probably vote Pygmalion over Loveless, but I've never really gotten into Souvlaki.

Slowdive's album is closer to their 90's peak than the MBV album was to theirs. Between that and the recency bias, it's almost enough for me to pick Slowdive. If it had been a four track EP then I probably would have. The Lush EP did nothing for me, Ride's album is a nice listen but fairly forgettable, and I haven't heard the Swervedriver.

itt: people grumbling at my objections to the slowdive album, then voting without hearing all the options ;)

(it's really striking how much better than expectations the swervedriver album was, and nobody's really talking about it, which seems weird. it deserves votes here)

Of these I've yet to hear the Ride or Swervedriver albums, but then I haven't heard any Swervedriver albums after Raise anyway (for unknown reasons really, I like Raise) and expect Ride to be shit given their previous 2 albums and post-Ride careers. Swervedriver also the only reunion tour I haven't seen.

I guess I'd probably go with MBV over Slowdive. The Lush EP was good, I like all the songs on it, but there's only 4 songs and the others are all albums.

the new MBV was, incredibly, worth the wait. love that album so much. gonna listen to it again today...

the new slowdive is really nice and perfect for a sunny morning but the MBV has those solos that go into distorted ectstasy, really works for me

someone might feel like throwing a bottle or something at me for saying this but i’ll admit you’re right imago: I haven’t even heard the swervedriver and ride albums but to be honest their 90’s output never resonated with me so I’m not interested in hearing what they have to say now.

Interesting how in music (at least true for rock music) we place more value in youth over whatever wisdom the artist has acquired aging.

At least for me concerning those two, if I didn’t relate to their style and content when they were young (and in their prime according to this rock crux) I don’t think they have anything to interest me now.

The Slowdive and MBV albums sound like more like a logical progression in their careers after their last albums than reunion albums. I was always a bigger Slowdive fan, yet for some reason I knew I had to vote for the MBV which I am pretty sure I like more than Loveless (my favorite of their original run).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Slowdive always resonated more with me and I’d take Souvlaki over Loveless any day. However -despite how much both bands stayed true to their original sound- I gotta vote for mbv. I can admire Slowdive’s new one but it leaves me kinda cold. Maybe I’ve moved on

mbv

The mbv album was my greatest letdown of the decade, probably. I only gave it a few spins, though; may need to re-listen. Loved the Slowdive album from this year instantly.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That was closer than I thought it'd be, even though I voted Slowdive.

Yo to my fellow Swervedriver voter.

Also wanted to mention that Secret Shine continue to be great in the '10s. There is Only Now is the new one. I feel like they belong in this conversation even if they don't quite match the timeline of the other bands.

Yeah, I listen to the Dreamscape compilation on Kranky and Secret Shine's Untouched far more than anything by MBV.

Yo to my fellow Swervedriver voter.

― geoffreyess, Saturday, October 14, 2017 10:23 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hey there

Somebody said something upthread about consistency. Personally, I don't really care if an album is consistent or not as I hardly ever listen to anything as an album any more, just picking tracks or using playlists through itunes, so it's more important to me that the best tracks are really good. I would agree that the Slowdive album is the most consistent of them here*, but it doesn't really have any standout tracks for me. I don't dislike the album, but I haven't found myself desperate to listen to it - it's just quite good. Similarly with the Lush EP - it was just alright, but a bit forgettable. The Ride album is much more patchy. I liked them so much back in 1990-92 and I really wanted their new stuff to be good, but was worried it was going to be shit. On the whole, it's much more in a 'rock' direction than my taste, but it has its moments. I think Cali is a brilliant slice of Pixies-style pop, I'm happy enough to listen to Charm Assault, All I Want and Lateral Alice and White Sands is interesting (and doesn't sound like anything else they've done). Some of the rest of it is a bit rubbish or dull (definitely not a fan of Impermanence, which seems cruel as it's about the death of his father, and keep getting distracted by the "but if you've got to go, I want you to know..." bit sounding like "the men from the press said we wish you succcess, it's good to have the both of you back"). I wouldn't say I like everything on mbv, but for me Only Tomorrow and If I Am are right up there with anything else they've ever recorded and better than anything else in this poll.

*I haven't heard Swervedriver, but was never actually into them back in the day anyway

Really wish Chapterhouse had done a new one but if they really didn't want to I guess it's probably for the best. Their output is really small so it seems odd they didn't have more left to say.