Thirty years after Slowdive’s Souvlaki helped define the shoegaze movement, Everything Is Alive, the band’s fifth studio album and second since regrouping in 2014, finds them trading their signature tremolo-soaked guitars for crisp, modulated synths, resulting in an uncharacteristically polished sound. Flashes of unrefined haze still manage to work their way into the songs, though, pointing to the album’s primary theme: the duality between old and new.
There’s always been a superhuman quality to Slowdive’s music. Rachel Goswell’s and Neil Halstead’s vocals meld so harmoniously that they often sound like they’re coming from a single person—“I know you dream of snowfields/Floating high above the trees,” they sing on “Kisses,” yearning for new beginnings—while Christian Savill’s guitars constitute a voice all its own. Bassist Nick Chaplin and drummer Simon Scott introduce a layer of tonal depth and texture, and this collective dynamic is what makes Slowdive’s music so unique.
Some aspects of the group’s music may never change. While associations with nature aren’t uncommon in shoegaze, Slowdive has always leaned into that in creative, if sometimes obvious, ways. The aptly titled Everything Is Alive is no exception: The fluctuations in volume on opening track “Shanty” mimic the undulating patterns of ocean waves, and “Chained to a Cloud” has a distinctly airy quality, with bristles of light guitar and electronic elements.
Slowdive’s unrelenting attention to detail is most apparent on the immersive “Andalucia Plays,” whose delicate ambient sounds are sharp rather than obscured in an amorphous haze, accentuating every contour of the song’s melody. By contrast, the melodic repetition on “Kisses” and “Skin in the Game” conjure what feels like a state of narcosis, while closer “The Slab” is just that—a slab of sound that lacks any definition but masterfully creates a sonic dream state.
Everything Is Alive may not boast the lo-fi grit of Slowdive’s earlier work, but the band’s skill for scrupulous melodies is undiminished here. The album evolves Slowdive’s well-established sound with more electronic textures, creating a conceptual sonic landscape that buzzes with life.
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An album I want to like more than I do, especially considering how fantastic their self-titled 2017 release.
But I’m too old to pretend a 6 is a 9, and I’m not into using pretentious adjectives to describe something that failed to wow me after several 2 AM listens, driving down quiet roads.
The more I listened, the less I appreciated. Everything has a few very good songs, but only the lead-off is fairly memorable (and there are NO instantly memorable melodies, NONE.)
I’m not disappointed as I didn’t expect Slowdive 2.0, but I was hoping for their version of Ride’s “This Is Not a Safe Place” following their nice “Weather Diaries” comeback. It just ain’t happening; Mojave 3 return, anyone?