ONE OF MY FAV ALBUMS OF ALL TIME LETS GOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I meant to ask this on the Master of Reality Vinyl Monday, you should definitely review Sleep's Holy Mountain (from 93). Super heavy with some awesome tracks. More shoegaze would also be cool, but you have been killin it with the youtube hustle!!!!
I bought "Just for a Day" on a whim when it released. I had never heard it...I just loved the cover and bought it solely on that premise. I was enamored and became a shoegaze freak. Not sure why that album got so much hate. But, then when Souvlaki came out, it became my greatest album ever. To this day, I still get chills listening to it. And as a Brian Eno fanatic, it seemed like a true winner to me. Took 20+ years for people to realize what a gem this album was. I shall celebrate by doing another re-listen.
I fell in love with Slowdive from the start. Indie Music fans were aware of how the music press operated, so their assesments were more like entertainment than any kind of pointer to good music, in my experience. I love that Slowdive got their due thanks to younger listenees discovering them, though, their latest albums are beautiful, and even better they are touring again!
Slowdive has long been one my favorite bands, but damn, the juevos on Neil to just call up Brian Eno out of the blue and ask him to produce the album. That makes me love the guy even more.
This is my favorite album of the 90's. My ears never fully recovered from the seeing them on the tour promoting it. The title track & Dagger 🗡 are my favorites & unlike Abigail I love Melon 🍈 Yellow ..it's so loud !! 💿 version has their cool cover of Some Velvet Morning ! Neil & Rachel meet Lee & Nancy. Awesome review 👍
19:29 "I don't know how not to feel this album..." I moved away from Austin, Texas, after college in the summer of 2000. I made my way to seattle sight unseen on an epic road trip with my college buddy and his girlfriend at the time. Someone had mentioned Slowdive to me a few months prior, and at a record store in Tucson, Arizona, I found the U.S. release* on CD. When we left Tucson the following morning, 'Souvlaki' became a desert soundtrack. It would become my rainy autumn soundtrack that September, and a bleak northwest winter soundtrack in in early 2001. It's fair to say that I discovered 'Souvlaki' three times and was blown away each time in three different ways. The band was broken up by then, but when they announced a reunion tour in 2014, I discovered 'Souvlaki' a fourth time in November of that year; the feelings were different on the back side of my thirties, but just as intense as they ever were. Now, it's all still there, but... different, somehow. The people with whom I'm currently playing music are preparing to have a band night on Slowdive's 2023 tour stop here in seattle, and I am still blown away by 'Souvlaki' in my mid-forties, and feeling just as lost in the reverberation of their latest single, "Kisses". I don't know how not to feel this album. **** **** **** *Regarding their U.S. release... for the longest time, I didn't realize that the album's official final track was "Dagger", so it just feels incomplete to me without "Some Velvet Morning", "Good Day Sunshine", "Missing You", and "Country Rain". Maybe that makes me a weirdo fan or something but it was the only way I knew 'Souvlaki' for YEARS. **** **** **** I stumbled upon your channel by complete accident but thoroughly enjoyed this video. I responded to your posted comment about my favorite album of the nineties ('The Bends' by Radiohead... criminally underrated and overshadowed by their 1997 release) and considering the missive I just composed, it's only fair and true that I like, comment, AND subscribe. 😊 Plus, you've already covered my favorite album of all time: 'Wish You Were Here'. I should go watch that, next. **** **** **** 22:45 ABSOLUTELY. I just can't with Fleetwood Mac.
It’s hard to imagine just how influential the music press were back then; the amount of wonderful music I missed out on from around 87 to 95 is criminal.
It is a trip seeing Slowdive gain acknowledgment during the last 14 years? I remember following them as each e.p. came out. The masses loved yucky grunge music (I had just come out of hardcore) at the time and so I didn't meet anyone outside my circle who knew Slowdive. I also remember my buddy lending them a guitar amp for one of their LA shows during their self-financed tour for Souvlaki. There were probably about 300 people there.
that buddy has cool points forever!! i gotta admit i didn't know there was a tour at all, let alone that slowdive foot the bill themselves. creation was very hot and cold with the band it seems
@@abigaildevoe Yeah - It was essentially them playing Souvlaki at Cal State Fullerton and a small hole in the wall on Hollywood Blvd (with no stage) called the Auditorium. We met up with Neil, tested the Jazz Chorus 120 amp, gave him some mixed tapes and he got loaded (thanks to my buddy, LOL). I also saw them during earlier "proper" shows opening for Ride's " GBA" and Catherine Wheel's "Ferment" tour. Something to note is that shoegaze music had a tiny audience at the time. It was rare meeting folks who had the means to encounter the genre.
Nice in depth history and review. This album is a grower and frankly, the British press was immature and unprofessional. How in the world can anyone honestly say this album lacks emotion? One of my favorite things about this band is that following the critically panned Souvlaki, they said fuck it and recorded Pygmalion which they knew would piss of their label, critics, possibly fans but made artwork regardless. Their legacy has only grown and now they have a whole new generation of fans whereas most Britpop groups are in the dustbin of has been’s. Every song is a delight but “40 Days” and “Machine Gun” are just next level. Good job
12 minutes in I took a look at some live Slowdive vids and a few studio releases, and kinda liked them. Thanks for turning me on. I’m 73 year-old rocker but still like hearing new music ~ at least new to me. Thanks again!❤️🎶
I still prefer Pygmalion (an all-timer), but this was an excellent album upon release. But Abby deserves MAJOR kudos - knocked May out of the park! Two more things: - MM's "foot fetishists" came from the shoegaze tag - Mainstream music press sucked in the 90s (and 80s... and the 2000s... and...). Thanks to the internet, they no longer would have a stronghold on sharing music criticism.
I stopped everything when I saw this notification! This album for me is one of the hardest albums for me to listen to as I was listening to it in the midst of a relationship that I knew was ending but I was refusing with every fibre of my being to believe it, I think she was doing the same now looking back at it. We were unintentionally and unknowingly hurting each other and this album was the soundtrack to that period of my life. It’s a time capsule that is so beautiful yet so painful that every time I listen to it (or attempt to) it genuinely hurts 😂 I am preying for the day that I can see Slowdive live, if I never do then I will forever thank them for this album And thank you Abi for this video! 🖤
I bought this album on a trip to Italy in 2014. The depth of the guitar layers, the bass sound, the hypnotic rythm of the drums, the lovely voice of Rachel, everything is perfect in Souvlaki.
Well Abby, this has become one of my favourite albums, I just love the drifty flowing sound stage, it’s just an amazing lost gem and I am now covered in vine roots 😊 You are an amazing young woman dragging these out from the dark past, long, long before you was born.
everything is alive - “andalucia plays” specifically - had me in the fetal position crying. neil halstead brewed that thing in a lab with the specific intent to make me cry. what a record!
@@abigaildevoe Slowdive is beginning to get essential for me now: that Vinyl Monday review did it. Music made by human beings for other human beings who know .
Thank you so much for covering this. I first saw Slowdive in July 1991, a gig at the Town & Country Club, London with Chapterhouse. I went as a Chapterhouse fan and left as a lifelong Slowdive fan. I was prompted by your review to dig out Souvlaki and enjoy it all over again. What a record! I’m 68 years old now and still loving them.
Love that album ❤ Slowdive is a great band. I'm a big Alternative Music fan, you know, but the Shoegaze sound have something unique, like Dream Pop and Darkwave. Also like their members other bands and side projects: Mojave 3, Monster Movie and Minor Victories. * Don't pay attention to what most music critics say or what music magazines says about your favorite bands and albums, the only opinion that really matter is your own.
I adore Souvlaki! I have difficulty getting into Slowdive's other records, but it doesn't matter because Souvlaki is that good! I learned how to play "Alison" on acoustic guitar to the delight of no one.
I genuinely think the reviews over this record are the reasons why bands like Lush took the britpop direction, no one wanted their albums brutalised by critics to the point of disbanding
The British music press were notorious for building up bands and genres and then tearing them down for something new. It seems like they did it for fun and self aggrandizing.
Never heard of this band before, but now I have to take a listen to it. If the June 1, 1993 release date holds true, then by the strangest of coincidences that’s the day of the 30th wedding anniversary to me and my still current husband. Thanks for the recommendation.
Thank you, Abigail. My two favorite albums are Blue and Blood on the Tracks. They were the break-up albums that gave me such solace. I can't wait to hear Slowdive's Souvlaki.
thought it wouldn't happen but got to see slowdive live in 2017, they are my age roughly (1972), and it was great to see them looking young and cool, closing in on 50. The kids in the crowd went crazy with souvlaki space station.
Excellent as always! I was 19 when this came out and I thought it, along with the debut albums from the Verve and Adorable that came out the same year, were just about the greatest thing ever. Still love it today but thankfully don’t feel the heartbreak that runs through the record much anymore. Except on Dagger, that one still gets me. Would love to see your take on the self-titled Slowdive LP. For my money, it’s their best. And that’s amazing, considering it was a reunion record.
i liked the self-titled LP! pays respect to the OG discography in a big way, but also displays growth that only spending 20+ years apart could award. slomo could go toe-to-toe with anything they released in the 90s
Thanks, Abby, for exposing an old geezer to another album band/album that I was utterly unaware of (even 30 years ago) because, as my wife is so fond of reminding me "You're so stuck in the past!" So when looking up the Wikipedia page for "Souvlaki" I find that the U.S. edition included a bonus track of..."SOME VELVET MORNING"! From the era I'm stuck in. It all goes 'round.
yes they demo'd some velvet morning for souvlaki! i mentioned that in an early draft of the script but it got cut. a syd barrett cover appears as a bonus track on the first LP, and there's an adorable demo of 16/17-year-old neil and rachel singing stephanie says by VU. so many subtle callbacks to the 60s with slowdive
Thanks for an informative mod month. Before today, I thought shoegaze was something you did while shopping at Foot Locker. I enjoyed the May videos. But I look forward to the return to status quo next week.
This is Melon Yellow erasure and I simply will not stand for it. btw Abby is the best friend a person could ask for and I love her to bits :) Souvlaki is the MVP of Vinyl Monday!
Hello Abby,there was a great scene for music here in UK from about '88 to around '97. The Verve's Urban Hymns was the last great Britpop album. Madchester followed by acid and Britpop all came out then. Stone Roses are the best,pity about their issues with their record label. Too many bands to mention but Definitely Maybe by Oasis is my favourite.
Just look at how cool they look in those photos. If you'd never heard this band before and saw that cover, you'd just have to be like, "heeeeey now, what do they sound like?"
I found your channel after your video about *Siamese Dream* was suggested to me. It made me want to watch more of your videos and I must say: I love you....ehm....love _your videos!_
I literally commented about looking forward to see more dream pop reviews on the last video, this is my favorite album oat, this is awesome 😭😭 incredible channel
Great outfit, not as I noticed of course 😊 Anyway, yet another group that has passed me by, this is a real mix of sounds and it really reminds me of a group, but can’t place it. Just listened to the album on a music site and something has really grabbed me, so I have just ordered a copy of this. You are starting to cost me money now 😂 I’m nearly three times your age, but a novice to the detail you dig into 😳
Your reviews are really expressive, passionate and genuinely fun, it's really interesting to listen to your thoughts or how you talk about album history. Damn, I wish I found your channel earlier! Also love this album to death, but I already wrote this Stumbling across your channel on yt shorts was one of the best things that happened to me on this website
So many favorite albums o' the '90s to choose from. Here are a few: Sundays-Reading, Writing And Arithmetic (1990)...favorite song: My Finest Hour. Crowded House-Woodface (1991)...favorite song: She Goes On. Cardigans-Life (1995)...favorite song: Sick & Tired. And finally a favorite album from any decade-Barry Adamson-Oedipus Schmoedipus (1996)...Every track is amazin'. Here are 3: Vermillion Kisses, In A Moment Of Clarity 'n Something Wicked This Way Comes.
First off, my favorite 90s album ( although NOT an easy decision ), The Colour and the Shape by the Foo Fighters. Absolutely epic work by Dave and the crew. But I’m psyched that you’ve done an episode regarding the British Shoegaze scene. I’m really into the Cocteau Twins, Boo Radleys, Lush, MBV and Catherine Wheel. However I’ve definitely considered adding Slowdive into the mix. What little I’ve heard of them, I enjoyed their drifty, dreamy edge. And I’ll have to listen to the entirety of “ Souvlaki “. Sounds encouraging. Thanks Abby for your valuable insights !
if you dig slowdive, the Neil Halstead Extended Musical Universe will be a most fulfilling journey. piecing together that it was the same guy singing in all these projects was mindbending lol
Similarly to you, this soundtracked a personally very rough breakup. I was exactly the same age the band were when they released the record, and was in a relationship for a similar amount of time as Neil and Rachel. I didn't realise why it resonated with me so absolutely perfectly until I dived deep into the history of the band (at which point I cried for maybe 4 nights in a row). I haven't listened to as much Slowdive since then. I haven't needed them to the same extent. But I'll always appreciate them for when I did, and I'll keep coming back.
A very great and deserving (revival) review to this such endearing album and band. I have to admit though I was a teenager and in my early 20's back in the 90's though I was south of the border still was the other side of the pond and just like the US, grunge was what getting broadcast and what people were listening to. I've discovered this band a little later back in 1996 through a friend who I shortly later fell in love with but sadly couldn't feel the same way just after I confessed it to him. So I guess I was also just another one who this break up album, as well as the great other next one (Pygmalion), really "soundtracked" the desolating hurt and pain was going through. And that's why I find it so unconceivable that AH critics like that Melody Maker's Dave Simpson's dared to call this album "soulless and devoid of pain, anger, feeling, or concern when actually that was this album was all about. Saying the singing is mumbling (though I really think his rationing was the one thing what was really mumbling), that the record is dull, and even "foot-fetishist" (wtf!) can be arguable. But lacking emotion is the greatest BS someone can ever tell. I really admire and find it so lovely that someone like you Abby who didn't live those years from the 90's and much less the 60's and 70's can be so fond of its music and collecting its vinyl records. I love your reviews which I so can relate to them. Keep the good work! 👍
Ok now you are legally obligated to do a Vinyl Monday on Loveless. Loveless and Souvlaki are like the yin and yang of shoegaze. Loveless also has similarly intense lore regarding how it was made.
Aww. I like Melon Yellow. 😅 I'd say 40 Days, Melon Yellow, and Country Rain (song on the album version with bonus tracks) are my favorite. Souvlaki Space Station was my favorite, but I no longer listen to this album while indulging in hallucinogens. 🤷
Souvlaki is a beautiful album, I think I prefer Loveless but looking back they are both key records from Shoegaze. It is also great to listen to the Dream Pop that came before Shoegaze with bands like the Cocteau Twins and seems to be coming back around again (including Cigarettes after Sex whose S.T. Album is brilliant), and also to the bands that came after like Mogwai.
I love this album I own the music on vinyl pressing as well when the sun hits and Alison are my favorites on the album back in 2021 my ex girl friend just broke up with me and soulvlaki was on my turntable for a while great video keep it up abby my favorite album of the 90s is probably loveless but it's tied up with in utero by nirvan and Gish by the smashing pumpkins
I think the US reception was a bit better overall. I bought all three albums upon release and my college friends also liked Slowdive. It was probably the college radio thing that was happening in the US in the early 1990s that gave a better voice, as opposed to the UK where britpop (AKA Blur, etc) was becoming more mainstream and expectations were more in line with top 40 music. They were one of the "big three" shoegazer bands along with Ride and MBV in the US. I remember Pygmalion being shit on but i really enjoyed it at the time and it holds up really well. I think it was definitely ahead of its time as far as experimental electronic music goes. And though it's barely a "Slowdive" album, I like the direction better than Ride took when they bcame janglepop. After Slowdive I was a big Mojave 3 fan, though the best stuff was before Rachel left.
@@abigaildevoe yeah 2021 they released a few all analog vinyl copies. I couldnt really afford one at the time but had to have it anyway. Everything else was remastered to digital in 2012. Is it better? I dunno, maybe it really captured the authentic vacuum cleaner
slowdive was absolutely the underdog of the scene. but they played the long game: they got back together again after 22 years, releasing new music, and are rocking in their 50s
So very "psyched" for next week's episode. EVERY track is great, not just the 2 tracks everyone knows: "WR" & "STL" (using code here to not spoil it for those guessing). As a matter of fact, since they have been so overplayed, by now they are probably my least favorite tracks on the album (even though they are still very good tracks).
Lol.....I was listening to Rumours in the car earlier today. 😮⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My 1st exposure is maybe reminiscent of Comfortably Numb..... in that, I was at the dentist to get some fillings, he had a pretty awesome hifi and that record, which he played for me with headphones while doing them. I got every filling I now have on that day.....I had none before that and I was in my mid teens. I now understand why his office was located on top of the hill overlooking the ocean, in the expensive suburb of town, and with a awesome hifi....or maybe I’m just being cynical 🤷♂️😉🙏
How can one pick a favorite album of the 90s, when the decade was stacked with classics like this? Nevermind and In Utero by Nirvana, Ten, Vs and Vitalogy by Pearl Jam, Badmotorfinger and Superunknown by Soundgarden, Core, Purple, and Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop by Stone Temple Pilots, Ladies and Gentleman we are Floating in Space by Spiritualized, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, Rage Against the Machine, OK Computer by Radiohead, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Goo by Sonic Youth, Soft Bulletin by Flaming Lips. It was a damn good decade for rock.
I haven't come across anything remotely as good as this talking about popular music, Neil Macdonald's Revolution in the Head ok that's an achievement. A reminder with this argument that human beings make music and that human beings listen to it. So much to say instead I'll just watch and listen again. And because I am a human being, B-Roll Abby she's a star, she is she is.
For whatever reason I identify Shoegaze as being closer to the 90’s garage rock revival than Brit Pop. The low fidelity ofThe Mummies or Teengenerate and later stuff like Coachwhips offered a wash of noise almost as an additional instrument so even in description it was probable enough to consider.
Adding to the release date question: in the '90s, release dates were on Tuesdays in the US and Mondays in the UK. So, in 1993, Souvlaki very well might have been released on June 1 in the States. However, it was *not* released on the 1st in the UK. (May 31 perhaps?) It definitely wasn't released on May 15, which was a Saturday. So yeah - probably a June 1 release Stateside. No idea when it was released on the other side of the ocean, though.
slowdive themselves acknowledged the june 1st date for souvlaki's 30th anniversary, a few days after this video went up. whichever day it was, it's safe to say it wasn't may 15th haha
@@abigaildevoe exactly! lol Ohhh you asked fave 90s albs in the other post - no idea, too many years. 😎 Let's say 1990 Goo, 91 Loveless, 92 everybody's gonna be about Nevermind and AFTP so I'll say Henry's Dream, 93 Midnight Marauders or Rid of Me, 94 Bee Thousand, 95 Makers s/t or Inhalants s/t, 96 After Murder Park, 97 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (hon. mention Dig Me Out & Either/Or), 1998 look I'm not gonna say Aeroplane dammit it's Moment of Truth by Gang Starr, and 99 I See a Darkness (because I'll always be a sadboi at heart) with a hat tip to the first White Stripes album and the last Auteurs album. Sorry, I lived this shit. 🤣
Slowdive never needed redemption, in my eyes, but their late career renaissance and seeing them being appreciated as they should have been for more than 30 years is certainly heart-warming. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm more attached to Mojave 3 and I'd love to someday see another record and/or tour by them though I don't think they get a similar amount of love and respect.
Oh Jesus, I know that Jerky Boys phone call. Not gonna quote or explain it here because it's nasty. "Pablo Honey" is also a reference to a Jerky Boys call. lol Yeah, here on the west coast you would never ever see Slowdive albums on vinyl. Imported 12" singles if you were lucky. The first two albums were released on CD (bonus tracks on Souvlaki) stateside and those were no problem at all to find. Thanks for doing this, I have always maintained that Souvlaki is my favorite Slowdive album, though some of my friends were more partial to Just For A Day
if i had a nickel for every time a 90s alt rock album was named after a cultural reference that's totally lost on me ok i'd actually have a lot of nickels
Not sure if I have a favourite but I think KMFDMs "Angst" is up there. "A drug against war", what a great song. Also Pigface's, "Welcome to Mexico Asshole". Another highlight.
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i’m still not sorry for weezering you all. anyway. what’s your favorite album from the 90s? comment below!
loveless by my bloody valentine for sure
ONE OF MY FAV ALBUMS OF ALL TIME LETS GOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I meant to ask this on the Master of Reality Vinyl Monday, you should definitely review Sleep's Holy Mountain (from 93). Super heavy with some awesome tracks. More shoegaze would also be cool, but you have been killin it with the youtube hustle!!!!
The first 4 PJ Harvey records...
First that's jumped into the frame is Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie ambition writ large
This one ..narrowly over the follow-up Pygmalion.
So...fall in love, get dumped, don't die, read lyrics, appreciate Slowdive. Got it.
Bro that's literally how I started appreciating the band. I knew them but I didn't understand..... UNTIL
As a 47 year old man who lived through the 90s obsessively through music, I missed Souvlaki. Thank you for turning me onto this gem!
me too...no idea how I missed slow dive!! Im now busy making up for lost time.
I bought "Just for a Day" on a whim when it released. I had never heard it...I just loved the cover and bought it solely on that premise. I was enamored and became a shoegaze freak. Not sure why that album got so much hate. But, then when Souvlaki came out, it became my greatest album ever. To this day, I still get chills listening to it. And as a Brian Eno fanatic, it seemed like a true winner to me.
Took 20+ years for people to realize what a gem this album was. I shall celebrate by doing another re-listen.
Album art makes a difference! I've found a lot of great bands/ albums purely from purchasing a record because of the interesting art
I fell in love with Slowdive from the start. Indie Music fans were aware of how the music press operated, so their assesments were more like entertainment than any kind of pointer to good music, in my experience. I love that Slowdive got their due thanks to younger listenees discovering them, though, their latest albums are beautiful, and even better they are touring again!
They look so cute in the insert photo😭
Slowdive has long been one my favorite bands, but damn, the juevos on Neil to just call up Brian Eno out of the blue and ask him to produce the album. That makes me love the guy even more.
Neil said he didn't really know a great deal about who Eno was.
This is my favorite album of the 90's. My ears never fully recovered from the seeing them on the tour promoting it. The title track & Dagger 🗡 are my favorites & unlike Abigail I love Melon 🍈 Yellow ..it's so loud !! 💿 version has their cool cover of Some Velvet Morning ! Neil & Rachel meet Lee & Nancy. Awesome review 👍
experiencing this sound at home, over a stereo system is one thing. experiencing it in person would be another matter entirely!
Dagger is a wicked tune
This is a top 5 album for me and it has been for many years. I'm lucky enough to be seeing them live next Feb. 🙏
i saw them last month, they sounded amazing!
19:29 "I don't know how not to feel this album..."
I moved away from Austin, Texas, after college in the summer of 2000. I made my way to seattle sight unseen on an epic road trip with my college buddy and his girlfriend at the time.
Someone had mentioned Slowdive to me a few months prior, and at a record store in Tucson, Arizona, I found the U.S. release* on CD. When we left Tucson the following morning, 'Souvlaki' became a desert soundtrack.
It would become my rainy autumn soundtrack that September, and a bleak northwest winter soundtrack in in early 2001. It's fair to say that I discovered 'Souvlaki' three times and was blown away each time in three different ways.
The band was broken up by then, but when they announced a reunion tour in 2014, I discovered 'Souvlaki' a fourth time in November of that year; the feelings were different on the back side of my thirties, but just as intense as they ever were.
Now, it's all still there, but... different, somehow. The people with whom I'm currently playing music are preparing to have a band night on Slowdive's 2023 tour stop here in seattle, and I am still blown away by 'Souvlaki' in my mid-forties, and feeling just as lost in the reverberation of their latest single, "Kisses".
I don't know how not to feel this album.
**** **** ****
*Regarding their U.S. release... for the longest time, I didn't realize that the album's official final track was "Dagger", so it just feels incomplete to me without "Some Velvet Morning", "Good Day Sunshine", "Missing You", and "Country Rain". Maybe that makes me a weirdo fan or something but it was the only way I knew 'Souvlaki' for YEARS.
**** **** ****
I stumbled upon your channel by complete accident but thoroughly enjoyed this video. I responded to your posted comment about my favorite album of the nineties ('The Bends' by Radiohead... criminally underrated and overshadowed by their 1997 release) and considering the missive I just composed, it's only fair and true that I like, comment, AND subscribe. 😊
Plus, you've already covered my favorite album of all time: 'Wish You Were Here'. I should go watch that, next.
**** **** ****
22:45 ABSOLUTELY. I just can't with Fleetwood Mac.
It’s hard to imagine just how influential the music press were back then; the amount of wonderful music I missed out on from around 87 to 95 is criminal.
It is a trip seeing Slowdive gain acknowledgment during the last 14 years? I remember following them as each e.p. came out. The masses loved yucky grunge music (I had just come out of hardcore) at the time and so I didn't meet anyone outside my circle who knew Slowdive. I also remember my buddy lending them a guitar amp for one of their LA shows during their self-financed tour for Souvlaki. There were probably about 300 people there.
that buddy has cool points forever!! i gotta admit i didn't know there was a tour at all, let alone that slowdive foot the bill themselves. creation was very hot and cold with the band it seems
@@abigaildevoe Yeah - It was essentially them playing Souvlaki at Cal State Fullerton and a small hole in the wall on Hollywood Blvd (with no stage) called the Auditorium.
We met up with Neil, tested the Jazz Chorus 120 amp, gave him some mixed tapes and he got loaded (thanks to my buddy, LOL).
I also saw them during earlier "proper" shows opening for Ride's
" GBA" and Catherine Wheel's "Ferment" tour. Something to note is that shoegaze music had a tiny audience at the time. It was rare meeting folks who had the means to encounter the genre.
Nice in depth history and review. This album is a grower and frankly, the British press was immature and unprofessional. How in the world can anyone honestly say this album lacks emotion?
One of my favorite things about this band is that following the critically panned Souvlaki, they said fuck it and recorded Pygmalion which they knew would piss of their label, critics, possibly fans but made artwork regardless. Their legacy has only grown and now they have a whole new generation of fans whereas most Britpop groups are in the dustbin of has been’s.
Every song is a delight but “40 Days” and “Machine Gun” are just next level.
Good job
12 minutes in I took a look at some live Slowdive vids and a few studio releases, and kinda liked them. Thanks for turning me on. I’m 73 year-old rocker but still like hearing new music ~ at least new to me. Thanks again!❤️🎶
hey that's really cool to hear! i'm glad i can introduce you to some newer groups
I still prefer Pygmalion (an all-timer), but this was an excellent album upon release.
But Abby deserves MAJOR kudos - knocked May out of the park!
Two more things:
- MM's "foot fetishists" came from the shoegaze tag
- Mainstream music press sucked in the 90s (and 80s... and the 2000s... and...). Thanks to the internet, they no longer would have a stronghold on sharing music criticism.
looks like i found my favorite music channel
I stopped everything when I saw this notification!
This album for me is one of the hardest albums for me to listen to as I was listening to it in the midst of a relationship that I knew was ending but I was refusing with every fibre of my being to believe it, I think she was doing the same now looking back at it. We were unintentionally and unknowingly hurting each other and this album was the soundtrack to that period of my life.
It’s a time capsule that is so beautiful yet so painful that every time I listen to it (or attempt to) it genuinely hurts 😂
I am preying for the day that I can see Slowdive live, if I never do then I will forever thank them for this album
And thank you Abi for this video! 🖤
Literally was listening to the album this morning lmao
I bought this album on a trip to Italy in 2014. The depth of the guitar layers, the bass sound, the hypnotic rythm of the drums, the lovely voice of Rachel, everything is perfect in Souvlaki.
Well Abby, this has become one of my favourite albums, I just love the drifty flowing sound stage, it’s just an amazing lost gem and I am now covered in vine roots 😊 You are an amazing young woman dragging these out from the dark past, long, long before you was born.
i’m so glad i could introduce you to souvlaki!
Slowdive Everything Is Alive!!
I'm thinking this heartfelt review can only have aided their renaissance.
everything is alive - “andalucia plays” specifically - had me in the fetal position crying. neil halstead brewed that thing in a lab with the specific intent to make me cry. what a record!
@@abigaildevoe Slowdive is beginning to get essential for me now: that Vinyl Monday review did it. Music made by human beings for other human beings who know .
Thank you so much for covering this. I first saw Slowdive in July 1991, a gig at the Town & Country Club, London with Chapterhouse. I went as a Chapterhouse fan and left as a lifelong Slowdive fan. I was prompted by your review to dig out Souvlaki and enjoy it all over again. What a record! I’m 68 years old now and still loving them.
This is GREAT!!! I never tire of hearing the story of Souvlaki. Thank you for doing this, love the effort.
Love that album ❤ Slowdive is a great band. I'm a big Alternative Music fan, you know, but the Shoegaze sound have something unique, like Dream Pop and Darkwave. Also like their members other bands and side projects: Mojave 3, Monster Movie and Minor Victories.
* Don't pay attention to what most music critics say or what music magazines says about your favorite bands and albums, the only opinion that really matter is your own.
I adore Souvlaki! I have difficulty getting into Slowdive's other records, but it doesn't matter because Souvlaki is that good! I learned how to play "Alison" on acoustic guitar to the delight of no one.
I genuinely think the reviews over this record are the reasons why bands like Lush took the britpop direction, no one wanted their albums brutalised by critics to the point of disbanding
The British music press were notorious for building up bands and genres and then tearing them down for something new. It seems like they did it for fun and self aggrandizing.
Same with Blur and The Verve
Also Curve.
Same with ride
When I tell u I stopped everything I was doing when I saw the notif lmaoo
Never heard of this band before, but now I have to take a listen to it. If the June 1, 1993 release date holds true, then by the strangest of coincidences that’s the day of the 30th wedding anniversary to me and my still current husband. Thanks for the recommendation.
Nice job on matching lipstick and outfit...... good work right there..
Thank you, Abigail.
My two favorite albums are Blue and Blood on the Tracks. They were the break-up albums that gave me such solace. I can't wait to hear Slowdive's Souvlaki.
layla and other assorted love songs also ends with a sad acoustic song i love when rock albums do that
I will admit that I didn't care for Mellon Yellow as much as the other tracks at first, but it really grew on me. To me, it anticipates Dagger nicely.
in the months since making this vid i’ve re-warmed up to melon yellow too. it used to be one of my faves, i guess i forgot why!
@@abigaildevoe yeah I can't believe you panned that song...not my favorite but I love it nonetheless.
thought it wouldn't happen but got to see slowdive live in 2017, they are my age roughly (1972), and it was great to see them looking young and cool, closing in on 50. The kids in the crowd went crazy with souvlaki space station.
Great Comeback album with Sugar For The Pill & No Longer Making Time my favorites.
oh that had to be so cool! shows with multiple generations of fans in the crowd are a good time
"a tuna casserole where his soul should be".. ❤
i've been using that line since about the 4th grade and i will never stop!!
Excellent as always! I was 19 when this came out and I thought it, along with the debut albums from the Verve and Adorable that came out the same year, were just about the greatest thing ever. Still love it today but thankfully don’t feel the heartbreak that runs through the record much anymore. Except on Dagger, that one still gets me. Would love to see your take on the self-titled Slowdive LP. For my money, it’s their best. And that’s amazing, considering it was a reunion record.
A Storm In Heaven by Verve was my 2nd favorite of the 90's .. Fantastic & some great singles preceding it. John Leckie with great production.
i liked the self-titled LP! pays respect to the OG discography in a big way, but also displays growth that only spending 20+ years apart could award. slomo could go toe-to-toe with anything they released in the 90s
Great content. Very impressed with the research. Love Rachel’s voice.
Thanks, Abby, for exposing an old geezer to another album band/album that I was utterly unaware of (even 30 years ago) because, as my wife is so fond of reminding me "You're so stuck in the past!" So when looking up the Wikipedia page for "Souvlaki" I find that the U.S. edition included a bonus track of..."SOME VELVET MORNING"! From the era I'm stuck in. It all goes 'round.
yes they demo'd some velvet morning for souvlaki! i mentioned that in an early draft of the script but it got cut. a syd barrett cover appears as a bonus track on the first LP, and there's an adorable demo of 16/17-year-old neil and rachel singing stephanie says by VU. so many subtle callbacks to the 60s with slowdive
This is the first and greatest shoegaze review of this channel, hands down. 🫡
there won't be a shoegaze album review on this channel better than souvlaki so why bother?
@@abigaildevoe 😑
Thanks for an informative mod month. Before today, I thought shoegaze was something you did while shopping at Foot Locker. I enjoyed the May videos. But I look forward to the return to status quo next week.
This is Melon Yellow erasure and I simply will not stand for it.
btw Abby is the best friend a person could ask for and I love her to bits :) Souvlaki is the MVP of Vinyl Monday!
:') GIVE IT UP FOR JACK EVERYBODY WOOOO (he makes all the our swear memes!!)
speaking of which...
Been saying it for years, slowdive is under rated!
Love it, an amazing shoegaze band. This caught me as a pleasant surprise Abbie ❤
Hello Abby,there was a great scene for music here in UK from about '88 to around '97. The Verve's Urban Hymns was the last great Britpop album. Madchester followed by acid and Britpop all came out then. Stone Roses are the best,pity about their issues with their record label. Too many bands to mention but Definitely Maybe by Oasis is my favourite.
slowdive is just so good, definitely my favourite shoegaze album :))
I want to thank you for this one. I've never paid attention to this record, and I like it - going to have to score a copy.
Music is the greatest time machine.
Just look at how cool they look in those photos. If you'd never heard this band before and saw that cover, you'd just have to be like, "heeeeey now, what do they sound like?"
it's a damn good album cover
Hi . I watched all of this....thanks. ..Love it...I call it Surf Music.
I found your channel after your video about *Siamese Dream* was suggested to me. It made me want to watch more of your videos and I must say: I love you....ehm....love _your videos!_
Low's I Could Live in Hope, still one om my Top 10 ever.
Thank you very much for this video! 🥹🎸
I literally commented about looking forward to see more dream pop reviews on the last video, this is my favorite album oat, this is awesome 😭😭 incredible channel
yes i remember! you could not have had more perfect timing with that comment, souvlaki was already in the schedule for a long time by then
Always interested in what you are wearing each week
Great outfit, not as I noticed of course 😊
Anyway, yet another group that has passed me by, this is a real mix of sounds and it really reminds me of a group, but can’t place it.
Just listened to the album on a music site and something has really grabbed me, so I have just ordered a copy of this.
You are starting to cost me money now 😂
I’m nearly three times your age, but a novice to the detail you dig into 😳
Your reviews are really expressive, passionate and genuinely fun, it's really interesting to listen to your thoughts or how you talk about album history. Damn, I wish I found your channel earlier! Also love this album to death, but I already wrote this
Stumbling across your channel on yt shorts was one of the best things that happened to me on this website
thank you so much! i'm glad you found this channel too
So many favorite albums o' the '90s to choose from. Here are a few: Sundays-Reading, Writing And Arithmetic (1990)...favorite song: My Finest Hour. Crowded House-Woodface (1991)...favorite song: She Goes On. Cardigans-Life (1995)...favorite song: Sick & Tired. And finally a favorite album from any decade-Barry Adamson-Oedipus Schmoedipus (1996)...Every track is amazin'. Here are 3: Vermillion Kisses, In A Moment Of Clarity 'n Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Love just about everything Brian Eno touches (except Coldplay) and I've got to give this album a try.
wait, eno worked with coldplay??
@@abigaildevoe he produced Viva La Vida
First off, my favorite 90s album ( although NOT an easy decision ), The Colour and the Shape by the Foo Fighters. Absolutely epic work by Dave and the crew. But I’m psyched that you’ve done an episode regarding the British Shoegaze scene. I’m really into the Cocteau Twins, Boo Radleys, Lush, MBV and Catherine Wheel. However I’ve definitely considered adding Slowdive into the mix. What little I’ve heard of them, I enjoyed their drifty, dreamy edge. And I’ll have to listen to the entirety of “ Souvlaki “. Sounds encouraging. Thanks Abby for your valuable insights !
if you dig slowdive, the Neil Halstead Extended Musical Universe will be a most fulfilling journey. piecing together that it was the same guy singing in all these projects was mindbending lol
@Abigail Devoe
Sounds very intriguing Abby ! Thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks for doing a Rumors review! Didn’t think that was ever going to happen on a VM.
hahaha maybe with some incentive i’ll do one for real
Similarly to you, this soundtracked a personally very rough breakup. I was exactly the same age the band were when they released the record, and was in a relationship for a similar amount of time as Neil and Rachel. I didn't realise why it resonated with me so absolutely perfectly until I dived deep into the history of the band (at which point I cried for maybe 4 nights in a row).
I haven't listened to as much Slowdive since then. I haven't needed them to the same extent. But I'll always appreciate them for when I did, and I'll keep coming back.
Hi, Abbi. That was a great record, I used to listen to it all the time.
A very great and deserving (revival) review to this such endearing album and band. I have to admit though I was a teenager and in my early 20's back in the 90's though I was south of the border still was the other side of the pond and just like the US, grunge was what getting broadcast and what people were listening to. I've discovered this band a little later back in 1996 through a friend who I shortly later fell in love with but sadly couldn't feel the same way just after I confessed it to him. So I guess I was also just another one who this break up album, as well as the great other next one (Pygmalion), really "soundtracked" the desolating hurt and pain was going through. And that's why I find it so unconceivable that AH critics like that Melody Maker's Dave Simpson's dared to call this album "soulless and devoid of pain, anger, feeling, or concern when actually that was this album was all about.
Saying the singing is mumbling (though I really think his rationing was the one thing what was really mumbling), that the record is dull, and even "foot-fetishist" (wtf!) can be arguable. But lacking emotion is the greatest BS someone can ever tell.
I really admire and find it so lovely that someone like you Abby who didn't live those years from the 90's and much less the 60's and 70's can be so fond of its music and collecting its vinyl records. I love your reviews which I so can relate to them. Keep the good work! 👍
I'm gonna miss when you covered the modern releases
me too! it was fun while it lasted. i'm sure there will be more sprinkled in here and there
Ok now you are legally obligated to do a Vinyl Monday on Loveless. Loveless and Souvlaki are like the yin and yang of shoegaze. Loveless also has similarly intense lore regarding how it was made.
i fear that you’re right about me having to cover loveless
Great album 👌. Abby your look amazing in red velvet and matching lipstick 💄 😍 ❤️ 💕. Love your show it rocks 🪨 🎸 ❤️
An amazing album that defines shoegaze.
Stumbled upon your channel. I. Love. It.
It's a fricking GEM, I can't believe I didn't found it earlier
Aww. I like Melon Yellow. 😅
I'd say 40 Days, Melon Yellow, and Country Rain (song on the album version with bonus tracks) are my favorite. Souvlaki Space Station was my favorite, but I no longer listen to this album while indulging in hallucinogens. 🤷
Souvlaki is a beautiful album, I think I prefer Loveless but looking back they are both key records from Shoegaze.
It is also great to listen to the Dream Pop that came before Shoegaze with bands like the Cocteau Twins and seems to be coming back around again (including Cigarettes after Sex whose S.T. Album is brilliant), and also to the bands that came after like Mogwai.
Slowdive came up with the Souvlaki title because they were frequently visiting a Greek restaurant near the studio.
I love this album I own the music on vinyl pressing as well when the sun hits and Alison are my favorites on the album back in 2021 my ex girl friend just broke up with me and soulvlaki was on my turntable for a while great video keep it up abby my favorite album of the 90s is probably loveless but it's tied up with in utero by nirvan and Gish by the smashing pumpkins
Their new single kisses sounds superb
yes! can't wait to see it live in september
@@abigaildevoe have a great time at the gig
Great album
slowdive live at roundhead available on youtube now. nice quality .'bout 20mins 4 songs.
Abigail! good show as usual. that was some good swearing. what did you call it? sad boy music? youre funny. and fun. cheers!
Best shoegaze album ever, until their self-titled album came out! And a new one about to drop! I can't wait to go to DC to see them again!
i'm so excited for this new record, can't wait to see them in boston
I think the US reception was a bit better overall. I bought all three albums upon release and my college friends also liked Slowdive. It was probably the college radio thing that was happening in the US in the early 1990s that gave a better voice, as opposed to the UK where britpop (AKA Blur, etc) was becoming more mainstream and expectations were more in line with top 40 music. They were one of the "big three" shoegazer bands along with Ride and MBV in the US. I remember Pygmalion being shit on but i really enjoyed it at the time and it holds up really well. I think it was definitely ahead of its time as far as experimental electronic music goes. And though it's barely a "Slowdive" album, I like the direction better than Ride took when they bcame janglepop. After Slowdive I was a big Mojave 3 fan, though the best stuff was before Rachel left.
Cool thumbnail. My happy shoegaze story is i got one of the last all analog pressings of loveless
that's super cool! why are the newer masters digital?
@@abigaildevoe yeah 2021 they released a few all analog vinyl copies. I couldnt really afford one at the time but had to have it anyway. Everything else was remastered to digital in 2012. Is it better? I dunno, maybe it really captured the authentic vacuum cleaner
Excellent data. Overdue. Great content
I like an underdog with the critical failure, especially if they found a way to involve Eno
slowdive was absolutely the underdog of the scene. but they played the long game: they got back together again after 22 years, releasing new music, and are rocking in their 50s
So very "psyched" for next week's episode. EVERY track is great, not just the 2 tracks everyone knows: "WR" & "STL" (using code here to not spoil it for those guessing). As a matter of fact, since they have been so overplayed, by now they are probably my least favorite tracks on the album (even though they are still very good tracks).
next week's episode has been a long time coming. it was actually the album i meant to kick off vinyl monday over here on youtube with!
Abby revealing her copy of Pinkerton is actually the biggest thing to happen in 2023
it’s happened before and it probably will happen again
Lol.....I was listening to Rumours in the car earlier today. 😮⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My 1st exposure is maybe reminiscent of Comfortably Numb.....
in that, I was at the dentist to get some fillings, he had a pretty awesome hifi and that record, which he played for me with headphones while doing them.
I got every filling I now have on that day.....I had none before that and I was in my mid teens.
I now understand why his office was located on top of the hill overlooking the ocean, in the expensive suburb of town, and with a awesome hifi....or maybe I’m just being cynical 🤷♂️😉🙏
Great album, I wish they play more of it live in 2023. Or at least different songs and into obscurity WE GO
Like Alan McGee said it’s great ppl now finally caught up on the greatness of Slowdive, that nice guys can win - eventually
I used to work with a guy who referred to Rumors as "standard issue when you move to the suburbs. You didn't get your copy?" Oh, the ubiquity...
How can one pick a favorite album of the 90s, when the decade was stacked with classics like this? Nevermind and In Utero by Nirvana, Ten, Vs and Vitalogy by Pearl Jam, Badmotorfinger and Superunknown by Soundgarden, Core, Purple, and Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop by Stone Temple Pilots, Ladies and Gentleman we are Floating in Space by Spiritualized, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, Rage Against the Machine, OK Computer by Radiohead, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Goo by Sonic Youth, Soft Bulletin by Flaming Lips. It was a damn good decade for rock.
Love this breakdown! Good video. Imagine listening to this album and thinking it's "soulless."
I have officially found my new favorite channel.
I don't know if new release day is still Tuesday, but it was when I worked at the record store.
Oh yeah i want the faders at 11 mix in the deluxe anniversary reissue lol
In The Aeroplane Over the Sea retrospective when :D
I haven't come across anything remotely as good as this talking about popular music, Neil Macdonald's Revolution in the Head ok that's an achievement. A reminder with this argument that human beings make music and that human beings listen to it. So much to say instead I'll just watch and listen again.
And because I am a human being, B-Roll Abby she's a star, she is she is.
30!! OMG! you just kill me!
For whatever reason I identify Shoegaze as being closer to the 90’s garage rock revival than Brit Pop. The low fidelity ofThe Mummies or Teengenerate and later stuff like Coachwhips offered a wash of noise almost as an additional instrument so even in description it was probable enough to consider.
Adding to the release date question: in the '90s, release dates were on Tuesdays in the US and Mondays in the UK.
So, in 1993, Souvlaki very well might have been released on June 1 in the States. However, it was *not* released on the 1st in the UK. (May 31 perhaps?) It definitely wasn't released on May 15, which was a Saturday.
So yeah - probably a June 1 release Stateside. No idea when it was released on the other side of the ocean, though.
slowdive themselves acknowledged the june 1st date for souvlaki's 30th anniversary, a few days after this video went up. whichever day it was, it's safe to say it wasn't may 15th haha
@@abigaildevoe exactly! lol
Ohhh you asked fave 90s albs in the other post - no idea, too many years. 😎 Let's say 1990 Goo, 91 Loveless, 92 everybody's gonna be about Nevermind and AFTP so I'll say Henry's Dream, 93 Midnight Marauders or Rid of Me, 94 Bee Thousand, 95 Makers s/t or Inhalants s/t, 96 After Murder Park, 97 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (hon. mention Dig Me Out & Either/Or), 1998 look I'm not gonna say Aeroplane dammit it's Moment of Truth by Gang Starr, and 99 I See a Darkness (because I'll always be a sadboi at heart) with a hat tip to the first White Stripes album and the last Auteurs album.
Sorry, I lived this shit. 🤣
Slowdive never needed redemption, in my eyes, but their late career renaissance and seeing them being appreciated as they should have been for more than 30 years is certainly heart-warming. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm more attached to Mojave 3 and I'd love to someday see another record and/or tour by them though I don't think they get a similar amount of love and respect.
believe me i want a mojave reunion just as much as you do! it seems we can't have mojave and slowdive at the same time :(
Oh Jesus, I know that Jerky Boys phone call. Not gonna quote or explain it here because it's nasty. "Pablo Honey" is also a reference to a Jerky Boys call. lol
Yeah, here on the west coast you would never ever see Slowdive albums on vinyl. Imported 12" singles if you were lucky. The first two albums were released on CD (bonus tracks on Souvlaki) stateside and those were no problem at all to find.
Thanks for doing this, I have always maintained that Souvlaki is my favorite Slowdive album, though some of my friends were more partial to Just For A Day
if i had a nickel for every time a 90s alt rock album was named after a cultural reference that's totally lost on me
ok i'd actually have a lot of nickels
"My wife is into that......"
"My wife; she'll take pictures...."
She knows not to look them up lol. Would have also accepted "I was told there'd be mention of a sand which"
Not sure if I have a favourite but I think KMFDMs "Angst" is up there. "A drug against war", what a great song. Also Pigface's, "Welcome to Mexico Asshole". Another highlight.
You should do a video for Suede’s debut album released 30 years ago, the birth of Britpop.
I really like this 🤷♂️ ..... but my big album for the 90s was Dummy by Portishead 🥳
PS. Love that Spinal Tap reference 🍑🍆🤣😉