WICHITA RECORDINGS
Despite reuniting two years ago, Ride have taken their time to put together this comeback and the approach has paid dividends. Their first new music in more than 20 years is a pleasing mixture of the beatific shoegaze sound that made their name back in the early 90s, together with the more traditional songcraft of 1994’s Carnival Of Light and its follow up, Tarantula.
There are sleek electronics to add to the chiming guitars of opener Lannoy Point, and they accelerate for the more urgent protest of Charm Assault with the harmonies of Mark Gardener and Andy Bell a nice callback to days of old. Producer Erol Alkan (Klaxons, Mystery Jets) brings yet more of an electro slant to the chopped-up vocals on anti-Brexit track All I Want, with drummer Laurence Colbert on fine, pounding form. The woozy Home Is A Feeling returns to their early days – its swirling atmospherics are straight out of the Kevin Shields school. The album’s centrepiece and title track is an epic seven-minute beauty that takes its sweet time. Rocket Silver Symphony is yet another interesting melding of fleeting electronic elements and their traditional overdriven guitars. It’s trumped, though, by the muscular Lateral Alice and the lush harmonies of Cali. There’s a tailing off, but by then, Ride have made it over the finishing line. A very welcome return.
Steve Harnell