Slowdive Age Gracefully on “Sugar for the Pill”

From their masterpiece, Souvlaki, to what was supposed to be their last album, Pygmalion, ’90s shoegaze icons Slowdive have continually worked to distill their textured sound to its barest core. Twenty-two years after their last record, with a self-titled reunion album on the way, Slowdive seem determined to keep stripping back and evolving past the sound that once defined them.

While their comeback single, “Star Roving,” riffed on the band’s roots, “Sugar for the Pill” is something entirely different—a disarming heartbreak ballad led by singer Neil Halstead in a surprisingly gentle mood. Sparer than their early, fuzzy compositions, and warmer than the equally minimalistic tracks on Pygmalion, “Sugar for the Pill” is simple and delicate, but never frail. The song’s greatest surprise is a smooth, catchy ‘80s soft-rock chorus—a considerable risk for a band that rarely indulged in straightforward pop. But icy needles of guitar and Rachel Goswell’s ghostly backing vocal balance out any hint of effusiveness. An undulating melody and underlying thrum of steady, persistent bass and drums imbues its sad story of a dissolving relationship with a sense of acceptance. It’s gorgeous, but grounded. In their newest incarnation, Slowdive have traded the abject longing of youth—an emotion that suffused so many shoegaze classics—for the wisdom of maturity. Every great band should age so well.

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