Line #13 Music/Slowdive


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20051025-slowdive_zillo_nov1991_5820.jpg]]
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3	Slowdive are a British DreamPop[=/=]{{Shoegazing}} band, originally active from 1989 to 1995 and reunited in 2014. They are [[TitledAfterTheSong named after]] the Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees song "Slowdive", and next to Music/MyBloodyValentine, they're considered one of the best examples of their genres. The band consists of Rachel Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine), Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar) and Simon Scott (drums).
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5	The band was formed by childhood friends Goswell and Halstead, with Chaplin and Savill joining shortly thereafter. They signed to Creator/CreationRecords with only one demo, having caught the attention of an Creator/{{EMI}} A&R at a show they played with the band Five Thirty, while the average age of the band members was 19. Their first release, a self-titled EP, got them critical praise in the British press. Sustaining their momentum with two more [=EPs=], they then released their first album, ''Just for a Day'' in 1991. They quickly got compared to My Bloody Valentine, and while they were an influence, Slowdive never fit in completely with the shoegaze aesthetic, owing more to the Music/CocteauTwins.
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7	Their second album, ''Souvlaki'', contains some of their most popular songs, such as "Alison", "Machine Gun", "40 Days", "Sing", "Souvlaki Space Station", "When the Sun Hits" and "Dagger". With time, it has also found a place in the canon of landmark shoegaze albums next to MBV's ''Music/{{Loveless}}'', Music/{{Ride}}'s ''Nowhere'', and Music/{{Lush}}'s ''Split''. An additional EP that year, ''Outside Your Room'', saw them experiment with influences from ambient techno and country. However, the shoegaze fad in the UK was dying down around this time and even earning HypeBacklash; also, US distributor SBK Records' attempts at promoting their albums in the midst of {{grunge}} were incredibly incompetent and stupid. [[FromBadToWorse Additionally]], SBK pulled funding, forcing the band to finance two 1994 US tours themselves.
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9	A week after the 1995 release of their third album ''Pygmalion'', which [[NewSoundAlbum departed from the band's previous albums in favor of an experimental sound]] with {{electronic\|Music}} and PostRock influences, they were dumped by Creation. Halstead had been threatened that their relationship with the label would end unless they delivered a "pop album", and predictably, [[WriterRevolt he completely ignored them]]. Slowdive broke up around this time; Chaplin and Savill left, while Goswell, Halstead and [=McCutcheon=] regrouped as Mojave 3 and signed to Creator/FourADRecords. With Mojave 3, they instead focused on combining DreamPop, electronic experimentation and country influences.
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11	A Website/{{Twitter}} account and website in the band's name were launched in January 2014, sparking reunion buzz. Sure enough, it was announced to much fanfare that Slowdive had reunited to play the 2014 Primavera Sound festival. A summer world tour was also announced shortly after. On 12 January 2017, they released "Star Roving", their first single since 1994; the same year, on 5 May, they released their [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled]] fourth album to even greater fanfare. On 1 September 2023, they released their fifth album, ''everything is alive'', which reached the top 10 in both the UK's Official Albums Chart and the ''Billboard'' Top Album Sales chart.
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13	Slowdive has actually done more for their genre than they're given credit for -- unsurprisingly, considering shoegaze bands other than MBV suffer from severe OvershadowedByAwesome. Their mellower sound stood out like a sore thumb amid the shoegaze scene's ear-shattering loudness, and alongside the Czech band Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (who moved into ambient and {{techno}} soundscapes), they helped innovate shoegaze's electronic aspects. Whereas MBV provided the blueprint for the monstrous instrumental form of shoegaze, based around a combination of brutally loud guitars and soothing melodies, Slowdive's copious use of [[EchoingAcoustics reverb]], ''very'' slow songs and overall spaciness made bands like Music/{{M83}} and A Sunny Day in Glasgow possible.
14	----
15	!!Classic line-up:
16	* Neil Halstead - Vocals, guitar, keyboards
17	* Rachel Goswell - Vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine
18	* Nick Chaplin - Bass
19	* Christian Savill - Guitar
20	* Simon Scott - Drums, guitar, electronics
21	----
22	!!Former members:
23	* Adrian Sell - Drums (1989)
24	* Neil Carter - Drums (1989–91)
25	* Ian [=McCutcheon=] - Drums (1994–95)
26	----
27	!!Studio discography:
28	* ''Slowdive'' EP (1990)
29	* ''Morningrise'' EP (1991)
30	* ''Holding Our Breath'' EP (1991)
31	* ''Just for a Day'' (1991)
32	* ''Outside Your Room'' (1993)
33	* ''Souvlaki'' (1993)
34	* ''5'' EP (1993)
35	* ''Pygmalion'' (1995)
36	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Slowdive]]'' (2017)
37	* ''everything is alive'' (2023)
38	----
39	! ''Tropes close and feelings flow'':
40	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Just for a Day'' is a lyric in "Celia's Dream".
41	* AllLowercaseLetters: The song titles on ''everything is alive'', such as "kisses" and "skin in the game", are stylised in lowercase letters.
42	* BreakupSong: ''Souvlaki'' has a few, since Neil and Rachel's relationship ended before it was recorded. "40 Days" and "Dagger" were written from Neil's perspective, while the lyrics to "Souvlaki Space Station" came from Rachel's.
43	* BetterAsFriends: Neil and Rachel at the end of it all, as it seems. The two never seem to hold any ill will to each other following their breakup, even forming Mojave 3 together (with Rachel only leaving due to health reasons).
44	* ButtMonkey: ''Hoo boy''. With the treatment of their label and reviews ''mocking them'' simply because of the backlash shoegaze received, they got this status... until being VindicatedByHistory[[invoked]] kicked in and reviewers who mocked them began to praise them and are now a staple within shoegaze that ''isn't'' Music/MyBloodyValentine. Furthermore, ''Souvlaki'' is now sometimes considered to be just as good, if not ''[[https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/01/five-reasons-slowdives-souvlaki-trumps-loveless.html better]]'' than ''Music/{{Loveless}}''.
45	* TheCameo: Music/BrianEno adds keyboards and treatments to "Sing" and "Here She Comes" on ''Souvlaki''.
46	* CoverVersion: "Some Velvet Morning" by Lee Hazelwood and Music/NancySinatra was added as a bonus track to the USA version of ''Souvlaki'' (one of the ''few'' good things SBK Records did) and came out on a separate EP in the UK. "Golden Hair" by Music/SydBarrett was part of a Peel Session and later bundled with the remastered two-disc edition of ''Just for a Day''.
47	* DreamPop: DreamPop and {{Shoegazing}} go hand-in-hand, but they're unanimously considered one of the dreamiest bands in the latter genre.
48	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Having spent much of their existence receiving lukewarm reviews and being treated as a scapegoat by the press, their reunion in TheNewTens was greeted with a glowing reception.
49	* EchoingAcoustics: They used this a lot, bringing their sound closer to the middle between DreamPop and {{Shoegazing}}.
50	** Averted in "andalucia plays," where Halstead's vocals show up front and center without any treatment.
51	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: The first vocals on "Avalyn I" show up some 100 seconds in. "Slomo" and "Falling Ashes" are pretty much {{instrumentals}} until the second minute.
52	* EpicRocking:
53	** ''Just for a Day'': "Spanish Air." "Avalyn" and "[[Music/SydBarrett Golden Hair]]" are played extended live.
54	** ''Outside Your Room'' EP: "Moussaka Chaos"
55	** ''Pygmalion'': "Rutti", "Crazy for You", "Trellisaze", "J's Heaven", "Blue Skied an' Clear"
56	** ''Slowdive'' (2017): "Slomo", "Go Get It", "Falling Ashes", "30th June"
57	** ''everything is alive'': "andalucia plays," "chained to a cloud"
58	* FaceOnTheCover: The cover of ''Souvlaki'' is just a picture of the band.
59	* GriefSong: Played with; while ''everything is alive'' is dedicated to Goswell's mother and Scott's father who both died in 2020, the band decided for a brighter sound.
60	* IAmTheBand: ''Pygmalion'' is more of a Neil Halstead solo album, [[WordOfGod by his own admission.]][[invoked]]
61	* IndecipherableLyrics: A ''lot'' of lyrics websites get their lyrics wrong, thanks to the EchoingAcoustics.
62	* {{Instrumental\|s}}:
63	** "Avalyn II" is basically "Avalyn I" without lyrics and twice as long. "Moussaka Chaos" is an instrumental version of "Souvlaki Space Station."
64	** Half of their ''5'' EP is composed of electronic instrumentals.
65	** "Prayer Remembered" is a mellow instrumental.
66	* {{Irony}}: Simon Scott left the band during the recording of ''Pygmalion'', mainly because of the more {{ambient}} direction it took. Nowadays, it's the primary type of music he makes in his solo career. Neil Halstead even said in a Pitchfork [[https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1484-slowdive-on-their-first-album-in-22-years-and-why-shoegaze-came-back/ interview]] that "he still says that's the record he wished he was involved with, because that's more of where he's at musically these days." This is clearly evident with the largely electronic percussion in their post-reunion material.
67	* LampshadeHanging: The title of ''Holding Our Breath'' is a reference to the critical pasting they expected (and received) after ''Music/{{Loveless}}'' prompted some HypeBacklash from critics. Their work has since been [[VindicatedByHistory/{{Music}} Vindicated by History]].[[invoked]]
68	* LoopedLyrics: Of the single-sentence variety, we have "Crazy for You", where Neil repeats "crazy for loving you" for five minutes (the last two syllables are [[IndecipherableLyrics practically inaudible]].) When played live, he and Rachel sing it as "crazy for love, for love, for love."
69	* MinimalisticCoverArt: The cover for ''Slowdive''; its just a very sparse black-and-white photo.
70	* NewSoundAlbum:
71	** ''5'' resembles nothing the band put out before or since, but foreshadows their turn towards the electronic with ''Pygmalion'' two years later.
72	** ''Souvlaki'' is notably brighter-sounding and dynamic than ''Just for a Day'', whilst ''Pygmalion'' ditched shoegaze altogether for PostRock and {{Ambient}} territory.
73	** The 2017 self-titled album provides a happy medium between the styles of the previous three records.
74	** ''everything is alive'' goes for a sparser sound that resembles a lusher ''Pygmalion'', trading their wall of guitars for arpeggiated notes and electronics.
75	* OneWomanSong: "Alison"
76	* OvershadowedByAwesome: Just like Music/{{Ride}}, Music/{{Lush}}, Music/CatherineWheel, Music/TheBooRadleys, Music/KitchensOfDistinction and Music/PaleSaints were by Music/MyBloodyValentine.
77	* {{Scatting}}: Rachel does this at the end of the live versions of "Slomo".
78	* {{Shoegazing}}: One of the best-known bands in this genre.
79	* SelfTitledAlbum: They have two, their debut EP which dates back to 1990 (which has a TitleTrack that makes you wonder if the entire record crosses into InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt territory) and the 2017 LP.
80	* ShoutOut: ''Souvlaki'' was named after a Jerky Boys sketch where a main character claims that his wife will "suck your cock like souvlaki".
81	** The album cover for ''Slowdive'' is from Harry Everett Smith's 1957 film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_and_Earth_Magic Heaven and Earth Magic]]''.
82	* TitledAfterTheSong: Rachel Goswell suggested naming the band after a Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees song.
83	* WordSaladLyrics: Par for the course for {{shoegazing}}.
84	* WorkingWithTheEx: See BetterAsFriends above.

Context Music / Slowdive