In these days I am probably going to post some shoegazing bands, and I'll start today with one of my favourite, Slowdive, and with their best effort, the debut album "Just for one day". The so-called shoegazing scene was a brief flame in the history of music (or UK music), that burned out at really fast pace mainly because not even its top band (My Bloody Valentine) achieved success, and partly because -or at least that's what I think- there were too many copycat versions in the biz. Unlike these, Slowdive showed some peculiarities, and de facto survived the fisrt 90's carnage of these bands, going on under another name (with 3/5 of Slowdive they chose the new name Mojave 3, and they are still alive and kicking, though they have been through varios shifts and changes: Neil Hamstead became the lead vocalist, and they started anew as an almost country-rock ensemble, only to return these days with their new LP "Puzzles like you" to a more pop-rock oriented thing).
Sure, still there are many resemblances between this album and MBV's ones, but it is also hard to think of Kevin Shields' band playing something like Ballad of sister blue, a dense and vaporous waltz, or Erik's song (a minimalist instrumental drone), an hommage to XI-XX century pianist and composer Erik Satie.
INFO:
Slowdive on Wiki.
Just For A Day
Sure, still there are many resemblances between this album and MBV's ones, but it is also hard to think of Kevin Shields' band playing something like Ballad of sister blue, a dense and vaporous waltz, or Erik's song (a minimalist instrumental drone), an hommage to XI-XX century pianist and composer Erik Satie.
INFO:
Slowdive on Wiki.
Just For A Day
3 comments:
Great album, thanks! Do you remember that when this Slowdive LP came out (I think 1991) My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" was reviewed in the same Rolling Stone issue?
Here's the thing: Rolling Stone gave "Loveless" 4 stars, but only gave "Just For a Day" 2 or 2 1/2 stars, I forget which.
I bet they feel stupid all these years later, since "Just For a Day" is about as classic as "Loveless."
I was only a kid then..Anyway, I have found the articles
Here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/mybloodyvalentine/albums/album/231754/review/5941869/loveless
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/mybloodyvalentine/albums/album/231754/review/5941869/loveless
By the way, I think that it is very easy to think so(about loveless/just for a day): Shields'wall of guitars (and the whole "loveless" production...in fact it quite bankrupted Creation! It took the Oasis to save mcgee's label...) was really something, and something new.
Mojave 3's debut is a great album indeed but is obvious as well that it could never have the impact that Loveless had (or had to have, since how it flopped in the charts).
Bye!
I like Souvlaki more than JFAD or Loveless.
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