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Upfront advice:
Anyone who is fond of 90s shoegaze and today's nu-gaze will almost certainly find a lot to love in this album. Swervedriver is still the consummate shoegaze band, and their sound is just as great today as it was 17 years ago.
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Detailed musical musings:
In the late 80s and early to mid 90s, the American popular music scene had pretty much been subdivided into a few key genres. Grunge and hip-hop ruled the day, along with a wildly oscillating American "alternative" style that had seemingly dozens of few-hit bands orbiting around stalwarts like REM, NIN, and RHCP. More conventional Top 40 pop was, as always, the other big part of the balance. On the less popular front, EDM and house were gaining momentum outside of dance clubs, abetted by occasional high visibility acts like Dee Lite and crossover work by Madonna. Electro-lounge and chill were taking off because young adults were discovering Ibiza. The UK had a bit of a second invasion with Britpop and electronica-influenced indie acts such as Oasis, Blur, Garbage (partly UK), and Radiohead. Glam metal was on the rocks, and sliding into the water, though alternative metal styles were being held afloat by the likes of Metallica, Anthrax, and RATM. Crossover country was on the rise. It was a time of real musical flux.
In the midst of all this was shoegaze, aka "The Scene that Celebrates Itself". It was a hard genre to define, because it encompassed a lot of different musical influences. Irish and British in origin, it wrapped up sounds from rock, dream-pop, Madchester, and psychedelic in a glorious wall-of-sound style. Big, lush arrangements of multiple guitars, pedal and amp effects, electronics, and haunting vocals drove the sound that was behind thoughtful, often poetical lyrics. The sound could range from blistering to dreamy and even ambient, and often in the same song. If you were between 15 and 30 at this time, and had any interest in indie music, shoegaze was on your radar. For me, it displaced grunge handily as the defining music of the time.
The whole scene was dominated by a few main players: My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel, and Swervedriver. I have many of the albums from the total discography of these bands. For some, I have all their work. I can't think of a bad or even mediocre one among the bunch. By the late 90's, all these groups had either disbanded or gone quiet. A few years later, the sound became revitalized, mostly by new acts twenty years younger than the original players, who payed homage to the pioneers with so-called nu-gaze. Opting more for the dreamier side of shoegaze, nu-gaze (at least what I've heard of it) seems to avoid the harder edge that many of the original shoegazers could artfully weave with their etherial sounds.
Now after a 17 year absence, a real shoegaze pioneer returns to recording. Swervedriver's "I Wasn't Born to Lose You" is the real deal, every bit as authentic as anything published in the 90s. This is not an adapted, or evolved sound. It's Swervedriver, as pure as it gets. The songs are artfully constructed, and meticulously played, just as they were in 1995. For those of us who lived that time, and loved this music then, it's excellent nostalgia. For those of you new to the genre, I hope you will see how unique and thoughtful this music is, especially taken alongside the extremely monotonous fare that has become popular music. This is especially true if you are a devotee of modern nu-gaze and lo-fi -- this album gives you a chance to hear where your favorite acts got their inspiration.
Listen to the samples (try Eye Tunes for longer cuts) to see just how good uncompromised indie music can be. And if you are a newcomer to this sound, and it strikes you well, give a listen to the other original shoegaze pioneers I mentioned above.
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- MarianoReviewed in Italy on March 26, 2015
The return that I have dreamed more than all
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