I typically sit in my cubicle most of the day waiting to be told to do something eagerly anticipating lunch or the time I get to leave. But somedays I get ideas and today I will act on one of those ideas.
I love the musical genre of shoegaze. The typically British (Americans just never did it as well) musical genre that is defined by walls of distorted guitar, hazy atmospheric passages, breathy (often) unintelligible vocals, and feedback. This genre was huge in the late 80’s early 90’s before grunge came along and apparently it was uncool to shoegaze any longer. There was no good reason for these genres not being able to coexist. They both grew from many of the same influences and were very much guitar oriented. In fact, the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream album was one of the few albums that meshed the loud guitars and angst of grunge and integrated lucid dreamy shoegaze influences. Why this genre died out or lost legitimacy, I will never understand. Maybe the artists that were the pillars of the genre believed they had pushed it as far as it could go. My Bloody Valentine has yet to follow the masterpiece Loveless, Ride went away from shoegaze for a more traditional rock sound and broke up, Catherine Wheel went more hard rock and it was not good, and countless other bands disappeared into the annals of music history. So, maybe shoegaze went away too soon and maybe it had enjoyed it’s fifteen minutes. All I know is that I find the sound of a good shoegaze album irresistibly dreamy and wonderful. I still hold out hope that I will hear the successor to Loveless one day.
Here are 15 shoegaze tracks (in no particular order) to listen to. Some favorites like the Cocteau Twins etc. I did not include because I was unsure they were ‘shoegazery’ enough. Let me know if I missed anyone! *Albums are listed in parentheses. Buy them.
- My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise (You Made Me Realise EP)
- My Bloody Valentine - Honey Power (Tremolo EP)
- Ride - Dreams Burn Down (Nowhere)
- Ride - Leave Them All Behind (Going Blank Again)
- Slowdive - Slowdive (Just For a Day)
- Slowdive - Alison (Souvlaki)
- Catherine Wheel - I Want to Touch You (Ferment)
- Chapterhouse - Beather (Whirlpool)
- Lush - Lovelife (Split)
- Kitchens of Distinction - Railwayed (Strange Free World)
- The Verve - Already There (A Storm in Heaven)
- Spiritualized - Shine a Light (Lazer Guided Melodies)
- Swervedriver - Blowin’ Cool (Mezcal Head)
- The Telescopes - Perfect Needle (Singles Compilation: 1989-1991)
- The Swirlies - Jeremy Parker (Blonder Tongue Audio Baton)
