Slowdive’s artistry is as alive as ever…
After a 22-year-long ‘intermission’, shoegaze luminaries Slowdive are well into the next phase of their once-childhood band. Still teenagers at the time, Slowdive were signed onto Creation Records alongside giants like Primal Scream and later Oasis. With the music press ultimately favouring the Britpop movement, however, the band seemed to quietly fizzle away in 1995.
But they were back with a 2017 self-titled record, picking up where they left off – they were at last granted the admiration that had been kept from them two decades before. Tracks like ‘Sugar for the Pill’ saw the band in a reflective state of mind – and on their newest record everything is alive, this is all the more clear. It’s trademark Slowdive but in the best of ways…
The opening tune ‘shanty’ had me hooked with a dark pulsating synth loop. Almost a minute later you’re engulfed by the band’s signature washes of guitar and synth. Childhood friends since age five, Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell’s vocals are barely comprehensible through the immersive mix, but as always there is a vital connection between the two.
‘prayer remembered’ is a purely instrumental track and probably the most melancholic moment of the record. It’s very restrained in many ways. Having understood that Goswell’s mother and drummer Simon Scott’s father passed away in 2020, it’s clear that there is a highly mournful element to everything is alive.
The record’s third tune ‘alife’ leans into more of an indie, almost poppy sound, especially in its chorus. But it also builds on the band’s reflections – “Down where the river runs through the town, there’s a memory of you”. Additionally, lines like “Time has got me somehow” seem to refer to the surprising but necessary effect that time and age has had on the group.
Neil Halstead’s words almost come out as frail whispers on ‘andalucia plays’. This combined with synthesisers at the forefront makes for one of the starkest and most haunting tunes in Slowdive’s entire discography.
The record’s lead single ‘kisses’ comes next. When released, the track seemed to further establish and inspire a ‘new generation’ of Slowdive listeners, something likely to do with the sedative but poppy nature of the instrumentation or the overtly hopeful themes – “Maybe there’s a car there, driving away from here, taking all the ghosts, the hurt”. Either way, it’s the perfect song for a nighttime drive.
‘skin in the game’ sees a return to the record’s stripped-back approach. It’s again a departure from the vivacious, overdriven tracks like ‘Star Roving’ from the band’s 2017 comeback effort. But for good reason: everything is alive simply wants to adopt a more tender and intimate sound.
Something else noteworthy is Slowdive’s embrace of electronics. ‘chained to a cloud’, along with its hypnotising arpeggios, perfectly encapsulates the ambient flavours of 1995’s ‘Pygmalion’.
Suddenly ‘the slab’ snaps you back into a sense of structure with its cutting drums and its wistful but hasty riff. It’s pure shoegaze and an emotive and impassioned end to the record.
Slowdive have crafted something mature, pensive and beautiful in everything is alive. Creating a good-sounding shoegaze record is probably quite simple provided you have all the kit and production: but every corner of everything is alive feels like a genuine and affecting reflection of the band and where they are now, both as individuals and as a group of once childhood friends.
9/10