Six years after their reunion record, Slowdive has returned with their fifth studio album, everything is alive . It is an album that doesn't merely revive the ethereal sound they invented in the early 90s; it evolves it, grafts muscle onto the ghost, and sets the dial from "reverb-drenched melancholy" to a fragile, electrifying hope. To understand everything is alive , one must understand the void it fills. After the critical and commercial success of Slowdive (2017)—an album that felt like a careful dusting off of cobwebs—the band faced a familiar pressure. They could have easily become a heritage act, touring Souvlaki for the rest of their days. Instead, they went quiet again, writing and discarding material for half a decade.
As Neil Halstead noted in press materials for the album, the title everything is alive is an "affirmation." It is a mantra whispered in the face of the abyss. The album doesn't wallow in the mud of grief; it tries to photosynthesize light from it. Musically, everything is alive is the sound of a band finally comfortable in their own skin, willing to break the rules of the genre they helped define. Slowdive - everything is alive -2023- - album a...
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In the years leading up to the album, the band endured profound personal loss. Most notably, the death of keyboardist and guitarist Rachel Goswell’s mother and the passing of drummer Simon Scott’s father. Where their 2017 album dealt with the anxiety of reunion, everything is alive confronts the finality of death. But this is not a mournful record. It is a defiant one. Six years after their reunion record, Slowdive has