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Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-95 / 5CD box set

By Justyn Barnes

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shoegaze

Eyes down for a new five-CD ‘various artists’ box set from Cherry Red Records – Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-1995…

Hot on the heels of shoegazers-turned-Britpoppers’ Lush releasing their Chorus box set comes this 87-song collection with classics, cult favourites, rare tracks (some on CD for the first time) charting the evolution of the so-called shoegaze sound. Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-95 features Ride, Pale Saints, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Chapterhouse, Cocteau Twins, Spiritualized, Swervedriver, Spaceman 3, Slowdive, Galaxie 500, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips and many more (including Lush, naturally).

‘Shoegaze’ was once a term used by music journalists to denigrate lank-haired British indie guitar bands who examined their laces while playing dreamy, slightly psychedelic tunes. There was a short honeymoon period – circa 1991 – when these hacks actually adored them, only for the emergence of Grunge and Britpop to drive the curtain-haired ones underground, with heads remaining bowed in the face of unfair media ridicule.

3D Still In A Dream

It is only recently that the quality of the songs and their effect on successive generations of bands, in Britain and around the world, has started to be fully appreciated. Newer artists name-checked shoegaze originators as influential on their own music; a 2014 film Beautiful Noise (tag line: ‘They didn’t sell a lot of records, but everyone that heard them started a band’) highlighted some of the pioneering acts; and reunion tours by the likes of Slowdive and Ride have been well received, bringing the music to a new audience.

The five CDs are packaged in a book set, with 12,000 words of sleeve-notes by journalist Neil Taylor, band biographies and images of rare memorabilia.

Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-1995 is released on 29 January 2016.

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track_listing

shoegaze_2

CD1

  1. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Rollercoaster
  2. The Cocteau Twins – Cherry-Coloured Funk
  3. The House Of Love – Christine
  4. A.R. Kane – Baby Milk Snatcher (12” Version)
  5. Ultra Vivid Scene – Mercy Seat (12” Version)
  6. Spacemen 3 – Hypnotized
  7. Loop – Arc-lite (sonar)
  8. 14 Iced Bears – Surfacer
  9. Galaxie 500 – Tugboat
  10. The Prayers – Puppet Clouds
  11. Kitchens Of Distinction – The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule
  12. A.C. Marias – One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing
  13. The Telescopes – Precious Little
  14. Pale Saints – Sight Of You
  15. Jane From Occupied Europe – Ocean Run Dry
  16. Sonic Boom – Angel

CD2

  1. Ride – Drive Blind
  2. Lush – De-luxe
  3. See See Rider – Slip So Slow
  4. Nightblooms – Crystal Eyes
  5. The Darkside – Waiting For The Angels
  6. Velocity Girl – I Don’t Care If You Go
  7. Cranes – Inescapable
  8. Chapterhouse – Falling Down
  9. Whipping Boy – Switchblade Smile
  10. The Boo Radleys – Kaleidoscope
  11. Swervedriver – Rave Down
  12. Slowdive – Slowdive
  13. The Charlottes – Liar
  14. Dr. Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations – Sugarblast
  15. Bleach – Decadence
  16. Catherine Wheel – She’s My Friend (wilde Club Version)
  17. Blow-up – Somersault Sunrise
  18. Bark Psychosis – All Different Things

CD3

  1. Curve – Ten Little Girls
  2. The Dylans – Godlike
  3. Th’ Faith Healers – Gorgeous Blue Flower In My Garden
  4. The Lilys – February Fourteenth
  5. The Honey Smugglers – Good Afternoon
  6. Spirea X – Chlorine Dream
  7. Moonshake – Gravity
  8. Spitfire – Translucent
  9. Moose – Suzanne
  10. Spiritualized – Run
  11. Revolver – Heaven Sent An Angel
  12. Lowlife – June Wilson
  13. The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa – Square Wave
  14. Black Tambourine – By Tomorrow
  15. Whipped Cream – Explosion
  16. Smashing Orange – My Deranged Heart
  17. The Hinnies – Gong
  18. Bang Bang Machine – Geek Love (original 12” Version)

CD4

  1. The Sunflowers – Closer
  2. Drop – Mirrored
  3. The Belltower – In Hollow
  4. Sweet Jesus – Phonefreak Honey
  5. Adorable – Sunshine Smile
  6. Sun Dial – I Don’t Mind
  7. Swallow – Sugar Your Mind
  8. Drop Nineteens – Winona
  9. Flaming Lips – Talkin’ ’bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)
  10. Medicine – Aruca
  11. Coaltar Of The Deepers – Charming Sister Kiss Me Dead!!
  12. The Honey Buzzards – Starhappy
  13. Loveliescrushing – Babysbreath
  14. Majesty Crush – No. 1 Fan
  15. The Swirlies – Park The Car By The Side Of The Road
  16. Submarine – Chemical Tester
  17. Bailter – Space Shine
  18. Spectrum – True Love Will Find You In The End
  19. Blind Mr. Jones – Spooky Vibes

CD5

  1. An April March – Memory
  2. Flying Saucer Attack – Soaring High
  3. Drugstore – Alive
  4. Secret Shine – Loveblind
  5. Mercury Rev – Bronx Cheer
  6. The Curtain Society – Chelsea
  7. Seefeel – Plainsong
  8. Spindrift – Surround Sound
  9. Rollerskate Skinny – Miss Leader
  10. Bardo Pond – Die Easy
  11. Alison’s Halo – Dozen
  12. Swirl – The Last Unicorn
  13. Bowery Electric – Next To Nothing
  14. Bethany Curve – Me Voy
  15. Astrobrite – Orange Creamsickle
  16. Luna – 23 Minutes In Brussels

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34 Comments

34 thoughts on “Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-95 / 5CD box set”

  1. £7 cheaper than amazon, from speedyhen, with free delivery too.
    The days of amazon being the cheapest are now long gone. Most companies are now undercutting them on cheaper cds too, by offering free delivery even on items under £20. Sorry for having to say it, but Amazons greed has started to be its downfall.

  2. Glad to see bands that weren’t strictly ‘shoegaze’ (Seefeel, Bowery Electric, Black Tambourine) represented on this compilation. IMO they evolved the sound in ways that was much more interesting than the more well-known MBV-soundalikes (Curve, Spirea X). But in that regard, I’m surprised to see The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa missing from the list. Also would’ve been nice to have seen Christian Savill’s pre-Slowdive band, Eternal, on this compilation too. ‘Sleep’ is an unheralded shoegaze anthem if there ever was one.

  3. WTF with this aficion of putting aside the Latin shoagaze? do you hear about the album “Dynamo” by Argentinean band “Soda Stereo” they had some of the greatest shoagaze songs ever like “En remolinos”, ” Texturas” or “Toma la ruta” its really a big shame to read this list without finding any reference to this fabulous album.

  4. Pingback: SDE Reissue Preview for 2016 | superdeluxeedition

    1. I do agree (same with Pet Shop Boys – no ‘the’). We didn’t call them ‘The’ in the body text, but the track listing on Amazon and it turns out on the packaging has it wrong.

  7. The Dylans were definitely not shoegazers by any stretch of the imagination. They couldn’t licence MBV – “They block all requests”. They also lost Stereolab, who I wouldn’t consider shoegaze either.

  9. The Flaming Lips shoegaze? Really? Mind you, I never considered Swervedriver a shoegaze band either. There a half decent documentary doing the round on Vimeo called ‘Beautiful Noise’ if anyone’s interested about the genre.

  10. Even if some of the music in this box is not, strictly speaking, shoegaze, it’s still an attractive set and a good collection of songs and bands that represented the same musical period well. It looks nice!

    1. Also, the Sundays anyone? I always thought they were considered in the shoegazing realm, at least in broad terms. Love is still one of my all-time favorite songs.

  13. The Hinnies are on there but Cut Cut Emma who south London greatest exponents are not even though shared same label is criminal….they have even been mentioned on BBC 6 recently….Cherry Red are usually spot on as well……

  14. My favorite genre…will probably have to get this even though I have most of the songs. Love the recent reformations of Slowdive, Ride, and Lush!!

  17. Pre-ordered. Nice set ; takes a general overview and looks at influences on either side. A bit like the fantastic glam box Oh Yes We Can Love.

    I am working on a personal 5CD sophisti-pop set at the moment. Spanning 1982 – 1992.

  18. No matter how much you try to broaden the church of Shoegaze, it was never big enough to accommodate 5 CDs! Probably over 50% of this compilation could not remotely be classified as Shoegaze: The Dylan’s, The Prayers, Drugstore, The Belltower, Drop Nineteens, 14 Iced Bears – the list goes on and on. This compilation would have been better described as: ‘Some Shoegaze records along with many, many other indie rock/ indie pop songs that were around at the same time’. Feels like one extended version of the Chart Show Indie Top 10.

    This is unlikely to attract new fans to the genre – more those folk who were into this music at the time, long since sold their records (/cassettes) and want to reminisce about when they had long fringes, and wore long-sleeved cotton tops with their favourite band emblazened on them.

    A better approach would have been to include more music influenced by the 1989-1994(?) Shoegaze era. Bands such as Asobi Seksu, Tamaryn, Echo Lake, I Break Horses, Fever Dream are just a few bands that spring to mind. I am sure there are many more since 1994 that could have fitted this bill.

    The 1-CD Shoegaze compilation ‘Like A Daydream’ was not much less representative of this genre than this bloated effort. That didn’t include MBV either.

  20. Looks like a good purchase to collect the songs by the lesser-known bands. Not so good for representing the more popular bands. I would have definitely chosen different songs for Ride, Lush, Catherine Wheel, and the JAMC, among others. Favorite lesser-known gem: Waiting for the Angels by the Darkside.

  21. Never realised I was a shoegazer until I saw this tracklist and the amount of bands on there I am into! The Pale Saints COM is long overdue being back in print or even remastered/expanded as it’s great.

  22. Some curious selections here. I can’t imagine how you consider A.C. Marias shoegaze; her one album is essentially a Wire side project. Velocity Girl and Kitchens of Distinction are straight-up pop.

    That said, there’s a lot of great music here, and I’m happy to see the collection include some lesser-known stuff like loveliescrushing, An April March, and especially the brilliant Alison’s Halo.

    1. what I was thinking when I saw Drugstore listed (who I do like) … I’m still getting it though. looks a good shoegaze/90s indie collection. + nice to see velocity Girl on it.

      1. shame Phased by All about eve was not included. now *that* would have fitted right in. pure epic shoegaze … and yes THAT all about eve. basically the song/album that ended their career, so different was it to their past. shame it wasn’t embraced. their best album.

  25. Interesting tracklisting although MBV conspicuous by their absence (and probably the most influential band of them all). The first Adorable album definitely needs a reissue.

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