Customer Reviews

Catch the Breeze

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not sure if you like Slowdive? This collection of songs, unlike most compilations does a wonderful job of showing you who this band is. In other words, If you don't like this collection you probably do not like Slowdive. This is Slowdive at there best, While it does lack a few great songs, overall it is pretty amazing. If you do like this set a lot, as a huge Slowdive fan I recommend hunting down all the CD's and EP's you can find. It may be difficult but if you like this material you will love just about everything you hear by Slowdive. In all my searches I have not found another band that even comes close to being as amazing as Slowdive. Most fans of Shoegaze music will tell you My Bloody Valentine is the best of the genre, while they are the originators of this style, Slowdive has perfected what they started. I am a big MBV fan but they just do not touch Slowdive. I highly recommend this album for new listeners of Slowdive, and also long time fans, as there is a lot of hard to find material on this album, and a live peel sessions version of Golden hair that will give you the chills. This music is so good it, it almost doesn't seem human. If your looking for more material by slowdive I would highly recommend these other albums:

1. Souvlaki (My Favorite)
2. Pygmalion (Out of print, but worth trying to hunt down. Try Ebay)
3. Just for a Day (not represent that well on this compilation)
4. Blueday (Also out of print, but this collection has most the songs)

While Slowdive sadly no longer exists, most of the members have some great side projects, but none are quite as amazing as Slowdive. Check out The Monster Movie, Neil Halstead, Mojave 3, Rachel Goswell. Get this CD and get into the greatest, underated band ever!

(P.S. Souvlaki Space Station is the best Song you'll ever hear!)

Far too many "best of" compilations have a few of the bands hits and a disproportionate number of tracks from later, less popular albums that nobody really likes (perhaps in a futile attempt to persuade people to buy those albums). This collection definitely seems to have been put together by a fan of Slowdive, as it features most of their classics (almost the entire Souvlaki album is here) and quite a few obscurities and rarities. Admittedly, in Slowdive's short career there were very few tracks that aren't worthy of inclusion on a "best of" compilation :)

If you're a fan of the band you probably have nearly all these tracks anyway, though the live cut of Golden Hair isn't something I've seen before - but it probably isn't worth $30 to me so I guess I won't be getting the compilation. If you're not a fan of the band, then this compilation is a pretty good place to start, or to fill in some of the gaps with ep/single only tracks - but if you don't own any Slowdive at all, you're probably best of picking up Souvlaki for much less $ and taking it from there :)

A comprehensive collection was long overdue for this enigmatic shoegazer group. A double disc complition seemed almost like a guilty indulgence. Unfortunately, this anthology falls short of perfection due to two mistakes.
First, there are not near enough rare or unreleased tracks, especially for a 2 CD collection. The only rarity here is track 8: "Golden Hair (bbc Peel Session)". A few recommendations would be to add the Locust mix of "Shine" found only on the Splendor soundtrack, and perhaps a track from the "I am the Elephant You are the Mouse" soundtrack.
The second vital mistake was to completely omit most tracks from the "5EP". This release bridged the gap between the accessible "Souvlaki" CD and the abstract ambient "Pygmalion". It is unthinkable to leave off tracks like the Cocteau Twins-like "In Mind" and the beautiful instrumental "Good Day Sunshine", especially since earlier tracklistings for this 2CD compilation included these songs.
Getting past these two flaws, the collection showcases most of Slowdive's brilliance. Many of the tracks from this "best-of" (9 out of the 10 tracks from the British version) are pulled from their tragically ignored CD "Souvlaki" indisputedly the summit of the group's career. Tracks like "When the sun hits". "Forty Days", "Alison", and "Machine Gun" are all among Slowdive's best, shying away from the "wall-of-sound" of their earlier tracks. The last five songs are taken from the out-of-print CD "Pygmalion" which will be a rare treat for anyone without that CD in their collection (and unable to pay the ridiculous Ebay prices for it).
After "Pygmalion" the group sadly fractured, and core members Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell formed Mojave 3, a British country music group.

Slowdive is mainly known for their classic "shoegaze" albums "Just For a Day," "Souvlaki," and the less widely heard "Pygmalion." Great as they are, to my ears the band's early EP's contain their best music, and this compilation is the closest most people are ever going to get to those rare discs unless they're willing to spend a fortune on e-bay for the originals or can track down the recent import releases of "Just For a Day" and "Souvlaki" which contain all of their EP releases, plus the Peel Sessions, on bonus discs. Their early sound is heavier, with more reliance on overdriven guitars, controlled feedback, and occasional forays into beautiful, uncontrolled noise than their later stuff. Those who find their studio albums to be a little too soft and subdued will find little to complain about when listening to songs like "Slowdive" "Avalyn I" "Albatross" "So Tired" and the two versions of "Golden Hair" contained here. Not that you're getting speed metal. What you are getting is the most molten, blissed-out, wall of noise, floating-on-a-cloud sounds this side of heaven. Worth the price, in my opinion, for the first disc alone. Get it even if you have their full-length studio albums.

I'm a latecomer to this band and discovered them through this album. It sounds very different, but seems to stem from the same creative ethos, as that which motivated the great Progressive bands of the early 70s. If you're a 40 something guy like me who loves early King Crimson and Genesis, and more recently Future Sound of London, MBV, Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond type stuff, and you haven't heard Slowdive, you MUST give this a try.

I love all things shoegazing and, indeed, Slowdive perfected the sound. MBV might have technically started the engine (in some ways) but Slowdive really did it justice with lush, lush harmonies and gauzy, dream-like guitars and keys. All else under the moniker "shoegaze" is merely a shadow of their sound. That said this collection is a great overview of the band. (The one caveat here would be the exclusion of "Primal" from "Just For a Day". Even though the album wasn't as critically successful as "Souvlaki Space Station", "Primal", I believe, is the ideal shoegaze form. . .but no matter. . .) I do think that there is too much reliance on using the studio material from--especially their first two--full-length LPs. This is most prevalent on the second of the two-disk set. I would have liked more b-sides and rare material, but overall--and especially if you need to invest in one Slowdive album as an introduction--this is an excellent gem. Beautiful.

Was it really a good idea to make this compilation in the first place? It should be known that Slowdive is a wonderful band and there really needed to be some kind of introduction for new fans, but why make it two disks when the band had so little material? This includes nine out of ten tracks on the original release of Souvlaki, barely anything from Just For A Day, and half of Pygmalion, as well as a lackluster selection of rarities from some early EPs. To be quite honest, this is unnecessary and poorly compiled, and anyone who is interested in Slowdive after buying this will want the rest of their stuff for the sake of completion, making this even more frustrating. What we really needed was a rarities collection, a compilation of all the hard to find EPs that include other songs that fans really want to hear but can't bear to spend tons of cash in different places for. Which brings me to yet another problem with this, the price. It's an import, so it's going to cost around twenty five in the States if you can even find it, because it's rare. This is really only for hardcore completionists who want the art and liner notes, but for anyone else the recent re-releases of the studio LPs that round up all of the officially released goodies on their bonus disks is more than enough and does more good than this does. On one hand all of this music is great, so I can't really bear to give this a horrible rating, but as a purchase this is really stupid.

While I admit I don't have this album, I have heard almost everything on here (Barring the Peel version of Golden Hair).

While the material on here is obvious good, it omits huge gaps of material. While Souvlaki is a good album, 9 of the original ten tracks are repeated here in favor of only one track from Just for a Day, one from the Morningrise EP, and ZERO from the 5 EP. Not to mention that the Souvlaki tracks are out of order.


So while this collection would be decent for new fans, older fans would probably prefer a reissue of all their old material. Is this disc a test-run to gauge the possibility of a Reissues series? We'll see...