Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Slowdive's new song — the band's first in 22 years — is that it sounds like Slowdive. For a band consistently listed as one of shoegaze's pioneering acts, that sound is very specific. Where My Bloody Valentine funneled noise into its pink-puff pop and Ride made swirling '60s psychedelia, there was a resolute beauty to Slowdive that culled from both the romance of Britpop and the complex quiet of ambient music. Listening to Slowdive is like watching the sunrise and sunset at once — an awe-inspiring chorus of the galaxy.
"Star Roving" brings together the lineup that's performed some reunion shows in recent years — the same one that recorded Just For A Day and Souvlaki. Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Christian Savill (guitar), Nick Chaplin (bass), Rachel Goswell (vocals) and Simon Scott (drums, electronics) have all been involved in various projects since Slowdive's breakup, but here it's like not a day has passed. With its rippling guitars, hushed vocals, cooed oh-ohs and beds of synths, "Star Roving" looks to the way those first two albums surfed the celestial skyways.
"When the band decided to get back together in 2014, we really wanted to make new music," Halstead writes in a press release. "It's taken us a whole load of shows and a few false starts to get to that point, but it's with pride and a certain trepidation [that] we unleash 'Star Roving.' It's part of a bunch of new tracks we've been working on, and it feels as fun and as relevant playing together now as it did when we first started. We hope folks enjoy it."
With this new song, Slowdive also announces its signing to Dead Oceans.
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