Slowdive - Slowdive
Critic Score
Based on 35 reviews
2017 Ratings: #79 / 940
Year End Rank: #15
User Score
2017 Rank: #71
Liked by 355 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Young Folks

With just eight songs, Slowdive has proven that they have not lost their ability to make compelling, gorgeous music. Slowdive is an aural delight, and not a single one of its eight tracks feels weak or out of place.

100
The Skinny

Slowdive represents an awareness of legacy, and the importance of not pissing all over it; to that extent, it’s an essential addition to canon.

91
Consequence of Sound

Slowdive delivers nearly everything their fans desire in a return: familiarity, innovation, and vast atmospheres to get lost in.

90
Drowned in Sound

A majestic return that doesn't just fill in the gaps, but points unflinchingly towards future horizons.

90
Albumism
Although more accessible than previous efforts, Slowdive stay true to their long-established aesthetic.
90
Crack Magazine

Slowdive’s fourth LP contains a vitality that, in places, leaves you breathless.

90
Clash

Released in an era laced with shoegaze imitators, ‘Slowdive’ finds reinvigoration by simply ignoring them.

90
Exclaim!
It certainly was a long wait, but finally Slowdive have given us the album that we have been dreaming about for the last 22 years.
90
Tiny Mix Tapes

An album that sounds both expectantly familiar and not exactly like any of their previous releases. The songwriting on Slowdive is strong, as if the best ideas they’ve had over the last 22 years were held back for this release ... condensing some of the most compelling aspects of their catalog into a cohesive whole.

86
Pitchfork
This is an album as thoughtful as it is beautiful.
85
Spectrum Culture

Slowdive are a hungry band, and this album is the work of a band with something to prove. Not content to rest on any laurels, Slowdive is an album that makes its creators’ presence known and points listeners to what may come further down the road instead of patting them on the back for going along for the ride.

84
Sputnikmusic

Slowdive is a triumphant return for the shoegaze veterans, being a victorious blueprint for how a band should return after a long hiatus. It introduces new possibilities for their sound while still sounding familiar enough to fit in comfortably with the rest of their discography.

83
Pretty Much Amazing
Whatever band you most hope reunites, you can only hope they do it like Slowdive. Not rushed, not cash-grabbing, but focused on relationships and on furthering the legacy of the band.
80
PopMatters

While traces from each of their previous efforts show up throughout the album, Slowdive is resolutely its own animal. It is more gentle and peaceful than anything since their debut, but carries a subtle bitterness that belies its airy palette.

80
FLOOD Magazine
On their first album in twenty-two years, Slowdive prove that, despite its introverted nature, shoegaze possesses the possibility for truly anthemic gestures.
80
The Observer

Slowdive ... now sound powerful, confident, the band they always wanted to be.

80
Prefix

Like most of the best reunion albums, this one plays like the band not just wanted to make it, but needed to, and took its time doing it. The resulting album is fantastic and, despite being so deliberate, feels fresh and immediate throughout.

80
GIGsoup
“Slowdive” teaches us some valuable lessons. Never write off musicians just because they were in a momentarily hip genre twenty-two years ago. Long songs can hold your attention if you let them.
80
musicOMH
This is an album comfortably on a par with the work of most of the younger artists they’ve influenced; compelling proof that the original shoegazers have stood the test of time remarkably well.
80
Mojo

Slowdive is a surprisingly joyously return to the fray.

80
Uncut
The gauzy, indistinct vocals of Neil Halsted and Rachel Goswell continue to weave their shoey magic.
80
The Guardian

Shoegaze is rarely affiliated with overwrought emotion, and yet it’s difficult not to feel moved by the expanse of the group’s oceanic comeback.

80
Loud and Quiet
Returning to Slowdive’s latest album is like plunging back into the pool after a long hot bake in the sun.
80
The Line of Best Fit

Rather than relying on what they knew to be “shoegaze”, a genre very firmly rooted in time and place, they’ve applied this newly transformed sound to their existing skillset.

80
DIY

The band’s new, self-titled album sees them ageing gracefully, but not without tweaks, even if reinvention is too strong a word.

80
The 405

On Slowdive there are moments when they create this inter-galactic grace as well as they ever have, but sometimes their desire to reinstate their ethereal prowess can seem a little prescriptive.

80
Under the Radar
This is one of the strongest comeback albums in recent memories. Let's hope they stick around for a while longer this time around!
80
The Arts Desk
Where revivals can be overwhelmingly about sad attempts to relive the past, this one is a tapping into a unique wellspring, and that is a very wonderful thing.
76
Paste

Slowdive, the band’s first album in 22 years, is here, and it’s good in that pleasingly familiar way. The record does not pick up where Pygmalion left off. If anything, it sounds as though it could have been recorded in 1993.

75
A.V. Club

Slowdive is not a quantum-leap record, nor does it slavishly replicate past successes. Rather it’s another collection of thoughtfully written songs, filled with evident joy for the band’s reformation.

70
AllMusic

It will comfort fans of the band, both those who loved them at the time and those who have discovered them in the intervening years, by being very much a Slowdive album. One that feels modern enough, but also very classic at the same time.

70
No Ripcord

The laconically titled Slowdive adapts to what Slowdive are capable of sounding in 2017: there’s no need to reinvent because doing that once is enough, so why not apply what they know best and try to adapt to a different, more current environment.

60
Record Collector
Rightly dominating the mix here are the effects-laden layers of guitar which shimmer, sigh and caress body and soul. Along with the melodic, melancholic vocal mumblings and minimalist drum beats, the overall atmosphere is that of a hazy, underwater dream.
40
The Needle Drop
Slowdive's first album in over two decades finds the band's once heavenly wall of sound turning anemic.
40
Q Magazine
There's too little oomph to suggest they'll bother the scorers.
elitimesfour
100

The morning sun rises on a cold misty morning, highlighting the mildew in waves as the beams peer through the dense forest of willow coating the sky above. A faint birdsong breaks the silence as the wildlife of the night takes cover, letting the ecosystem of the day take shape once again. A pathway marked with the faded footprints of a being long gone line the worn down grass, leading the way towards an unknown with an insatiable allure.

As I make my way down the withered road, the echoes of ... read more

Dax_Wilder
94

I am a certified Shoegaze Slut

God I wish I checked this out sooner. Slowdive have become one of my fav bands ever after discovering them a couple years ago and Souvlaki completely changed the way I heard music. It's now my 2nd fav album ever, and the shoegaze genre as a whole might just be my fav genre period. I get this sort of melancholic bliss from the genre that I almost never get from anything else, and I've almost never disliked a shoegaze project I've checked out. Now I love ... read more

SnowyFighter
82

This album really does sound like a slow dive into space

With this being Slowdive’s most recent album to date, I feel like a lot has changed in their sound. On Souvlaki their sound was a bit more unique and experimental with sound, where here it is a lot more dream pop focused, and less harsh in some areas. And honestly, this is great for a dream pop focused record. Hearing their take on some music like this really is interesting, considering their roots, and they pulled it off well. My ... read more

IanLikesMusic04
95

Yeah, I know... I'm biased.

Yes, I know I shouldn't like this as much as I do, but come on... It's fucking Slowdive! And while it's not as good as Souvlaki, It still is pretty fucking stellar in both it's production and sound. I mean, those guitar melodies tell a story of their own. Enchanting and overwhelming beautiful, that it will leave you in a state of pure and utter bliss! Also, while this album isn't ground breaking or anything, and is probably one of the few reasons that this isn't a ... read more

ShagMusicMaking
45

Went hard on fifa

Cmrv
91

With Souvlaki being one of my favourite albums ever made, expectations were beyond high for this record to deliver something decent. Safe to say that this record did deliver.

Whilst it does not really come close to Souvlaki, it is still an incredible record front to back. It is simplistic Shoegaze with this record just being so incredibly easy to listen to. The record does fall off a bit towards the end (last two tracks), with those tracks being really drawn out and a bit boring to be honest. ... read more

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Track List

1Slomo
6:53
90
2Star Roving
5:38
94
3Don't Know Why
4:36
88
4Sugar for the Pill
4:30
90
5Everyone Knows
4:22
88
6No Longer Making Time
5:48
90
7Go Get It
6:09
83
8Falling Ashes
8:00
81
Total Length: 46 minutes
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Added on: March 28, 2017