Slowdive – Slowdive (CD)

Deftly swerving what co-vocalist/guitarist Rachel Goswell terms a trip down memory lane, the eight tracks of 2017’s Slowdive are simultaneously expansive and the shoegaze pioneers’ most direct material to date.

Birthed at the bands talismanic Oxfordshire haunt The Courtyard It felt like home, enthuses guitarist Christian Savill their diamantine melodies were mixed to a suitably hypnotic sheen at Los Angeles famed Sunset Sound facility by Chris Coady (perhaps best known for his work with Beach House, one of countless contemporary acts to have followed in Slowdives wake).

Its poppier than I thought it was going to be, notes principal songwriter Neil Halstead, who was the primary architect of 1995s previous full-length transmission Pygmalion. This time out the group dynamic was all-important. When youre in a band and you do three records, theres a continuous flow and a development. For us, that flow re-started with us playing live again and that has continued into the record.

Tracklist:
01. Slomo
02. Star Roving
03. Don’t Know Why
04. Sugar for the Pill
05. Everyone Knows
06. No Longer Making Time
07. Go Get It
08. Falling Ashes