Ride are a shoegazing band from Oxford, England. They were active from 1988 to 1996, made a one-off appearance in 2001, then reunited in 2014 for a 2015 tour in Europe and North America, and are still going today. They were part of the wave of popular shoegazing bands that arrived in the wake of My Bloody Valentine, such as Slowdive and Lush. While not having My Bloody Valentine's monstrously imposing sound, Slowdive's Dream Pop tendencies, or Lush's spaciness, they distinguished themselves mainly through a more aggressive, faster-paced sound that drew from classic rock and Punk Rock, and their all-male lineup (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Lush have/had at least one or two female members).
Their first two albums Nowhere and Going Blank Again have been enshrined in the canon of essential shoegazing albums, with the former sometimes being considered the genre's second best effort after Loveless, and the latter toning down the shoegaze tendencies in favour of influences drawn from Grunge (the band-members admit to being inspired by Nirvana's Nevermind while recording), Power Pop and classic rock, giving it a sort of proto-Britpop sound. Once shoegaze collapsed, the band tried to stay relevant by reinventing itself as a full-on Britpop act with Carnival of Light, which gained them some positive notice but no chart success, and increasing tension between songwriters Bell and Gardener led the band to break up during the recording of Tarantula. During their break-up, Andy Bell formed Hurricane #1 and later served as Oasis' bassist.
On 21 February 2017, "Charm Assault" premiered, their first new single since 1996's "Black Nite Crash", and first new song in 21 years. The next day, they released another single, "Home Is a Feeling". Their fifth album, Weather Diaries, was released on 16 June. In March 2019, the band announced that they had already finished their sixth studio album, This Is Not a Safe Place, with the producer of Weather Diaries, Erol Alkan; it was released 16 August 2019. On 23 April 2019, the song "Future Love" was released as a single; on 2 July, the song "Repetition" was the second single to be released.
Members:
- Andy Bell – guitar, vocals
- Mark Gardener – guitar, vocals
- Steve Queralt – bass
- Laurence Colbert – drums
Discography:
- Ride (EP) - 1990
- Play (EP) - 1990
- Fall (EP) - 1990
- Nowhere - 1990
- Today Forever (EP) - 1991
- Going Blank Again - 1992
- Carnival of Light - 1994
- Tarantula - 1996
- Coming Up for Air (EP) - 2002
- Weather Diaries - 2017
- Tomorrow's Shore (EP) - 2018
- This Is Not a Safe Place - 2019
- Interplay - 2024
Acid troping hunchback apparition:
- Cover Version: Carnival of Light has a cover of "How Does It Feel to Feel?" by The Creation.
- Doo-Wop Progression: The verses to "Twisterella" utilize the I-vi-IV-V variant of the Doo-Wop Progression.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: "Cali" has an extended instrumental portion that ends the song.
- Played with for "Time Machine", which takes just over half of its 6-minute runtime for any vocals to come in.
- Epic Rocking: Several of their songs exceed 6 minutes, "Leave Them All Behind" exceeds 8 minutes, "Grasshopper" is almost 11 minutes, and "Performance" (from Coming Up for Air) is over half an hour of improvisation.
- "Seagull", if the vocals are ignored, pretty much serves as an Epic Instrumental Opener for Nowhere.
- Fish-Eye Lens: The cover photograph for Carnival of Light.
- Four More Measures: "Dreams Burn Down"
- Limited Lyrics Song: "Mouse Trap" and "Not Fazed".
- Local Reference: The title to "OX4" is a postal code for the band's hometown, Oxford; the song's lyrics are about the band's desire to return home.
- Long-Runner Line-up: Type 3.
- Lyrical Tic: Hearing "aah"s in their songs is quite common.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: Nowhere; its just a picture of an uncrested wave.
- New Sound Album: To a certain extent Going Blank Again, practically Carnival of Light.
- Non-Appearing Title: Several examples, including "Seagull", "Polar Bear", "Chrome Waves", "Mouse Trap", "Cool Your Boots", and "OX4".
- Sampling: The intro to "Cool Your Boots" samples a bit of dialogue from the film Withnail and I ("Even a stopped clock gives the correct time twice a day").
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Tarantula's cover art is a revolver pointed at the "camera", showing how listening to the album feels like.
- Shout-Out: The ending of "Twisterella" interpolates the chorus from the song of the same name that was featured in the film Billy Liar.
- Spelling Song: "Cali", just before the ending instrumental part; "C-A-L-I, summer is gone".
- Step Up to the Microphone: Loz Colbert, on "Rocket Silver Symphony" from Weather Diaries.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: "Seagull" swipes the bassline from "Taxman" by The Beatles; "Chelsea Girl" nicks the guitar melody from "Ticket to Ride".
- Textless Album Cover: Nowhere, depending on the printing. Some earlier, rarer prints have the album and band name on it; nearly all vinyl copies do.
- Title Track: Played straight with Weather Diaries and the song of the same name. Averted with Nowhere and Going Blank Again; the song "Nowhere" was originally released on the Fall EP, while the song "Going Blank Again" was released on the "Twisterella" single.
- Vocal Tag Team: Vocals are split pretty much evenly between Mark Gardener and Andy Bell.
