SLOWDIVE レコード& CD

Review: Having just performed their first ever Glastonbury set this summer, Reading shoegaze pioneers Slowdive are set to unveil their much anticipated fifth full-length Everything Is Alive. Following on from 2017's exceptional self-titled return to form, marking their first new material in over two decades, fans have been eagerly awaiting a continuation of the group's second wind since revealing in 2020 that work was under way for yet another full-length. Promising more minimal electronic based soundscapes as opposed to the ethereal dream-pop of its predecessor, as well being directly influenced and reflective of the passing of both vocalist/guitarist Rachel Goswell's mother and drummer Simon Scott's father, prepare for yet another reshaping of melancholic grandeur in the atypical incomparable Slowdive fashion.

Review: The return of Slowdive has been one of the minor miracles of the 21st century thus far - having originally split up in a mist of disinterest and press opprobrium in the Britpop-damaged mid-'90s, the band have watched their profile and reputation slowly rise to the extent of them now being regarded as scene pioneers and innovators. True to its eponymous name, this album is the sound of these Thames Valley charmers re-asserting everything that made them magical in the first place a full quarter century on, not to mention a dizzying collision of ethereal harmonies, heavenly guitar cascades and opiated dreamstates possessed of a timeless allure.