Raise

Swervedriver | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 8, 1991)
• Original Release Date: October 8, 1991
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000002GK3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,511 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Limited edition digitally remastered and expanded digipak edition of this 1991 album from the British Shoegazing legends featuring four rare bonus tracks ('Hands', 'Andaluc¡a', 'Kill The Superheroes' and 'Over') and additional liner notes from the band. 16 tracks total. Sony/BMG. 2008. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very best bands of the 90s, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Raise (Audio CD)

"Raise", Swervedriver's freshman album, caused genuine -and strangely unanimous- excitement among British and American critics and caught a fire with a midsize but devout fanbase. Their sophomore and junior efforts generated even stronger praise, but for me the first is the most gripping of their records. Nobody, except perhaps St. Johnny with "Speed is Dreaming" made such a combination of vibrant colour and texture with crackling power in their guitar attack. The owners of many, many effects pedals, Jimmy Hartridge and Adam Franklin trade scattering prismatics of feedback, instrumental and amp noise, woven with picked melodies into tremendous, cascading guilloches. The rhythm section pounds with a thick elasticity, and accentuates the uncanny dynamics in the songwriting, while Franklin's smoky vocals merge a moody lethargy obliquely with the speeding traffic of the blurry guitars. The Swervies rev with power and chunk while other British "shoegazer" bands lacked the force and verve to give their guitar textures bite. The resulting tension, going nowhere fast, is highly evocative of... one can never say quite what. Swervedriver are daydreamers in a rainy England of Constable lanscapes, flying saucers, cathedrals and political discontent, if you know what I mean.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lo-fi shoegazing at its best, August 24, 2003

By 

J. Young (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Raise (Audio CD)

Swervedriver is, simply put, an amazing band. "Raise" is alternatingly their best or second best album (along with "Mezcal Head") depending on my mood. This one I love for its true shoegazing sound. It is muddied and dreamlike, and full of guitar work that one can only truly appreciate if they see Swervedriver or Adam Franklin (Toshack Highway) live.

This is full of so many great songs I don't even know where to begin. Perhaps most importantly, the album has a great flow to it, similar in that regard to both XTC's "Skylarking" and Radiohead's "OK Computer" (even though the music is much, much different for all those bands). For fans of old Dinosaur, MBV, or Sonic Youth, this CD is a must, as is "Mezcal Head" and any assortment of early Swervedriver b-sides that you can find. Swervedriver's b-sides are second to nobody's, not even the better Cure b-sides.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I remember when....., April 6, 2000

By 

J. Joseph "jakejoseph" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Raise (Audio CD)

I remember when this album was first released and the song "Son of Mustang Ford" was used for the kickball scene in a Pete and Pete show. It kicked me in the head then, and it still does now as I listen to it. These guys are guitar heroes that should have been infinitely more popular than they are. If you like hard hitting rock, this band does it more tunefully and intellegently than many of the other artist of the genre.