Bold and Bright
Returning to form with their fifth full length album, popular shoegaze band Slowdive delivers a smattering of sounds and atmospheres packaged in an eight-track experience entitled everything is alive. With such a definitive title, the record sets high expectations for itself, which it quickly and skillfully lives up to, with track after track brimming with vibrant colors that are inspired by a vast array of sources, from ’80s electronic music to modern alternative rock.
If you were to close your eyes and let the experience of listening to everything is alive wash over you and influence your senses, the darkness behind your closed eyelids would dissipate and give way to an array of light and color. The atmosphere that is created by much of the music throughout this record is incredibly lively, which very clearly must have been the vision in mind. Neil Halstead, one of the collective’s two guitarists and vocalists, says on the band’s Bandcamp page that “It wouldn’t feel right to make a really dark record right now. The album is quite eclectic emotionally, but it does feel hopeful.” Of course this makes sense considering the trend of artists sourcing their art from recent traumas, of which…
