Classic Albums: Ride - Nowhere

Author: Cas Kaplan

The early 90's, although I wasn't aware enough to really appreciate it then, stands alone as one of my favorite musical eras of them all. Seattle grunge came to the rescue and sealed the coffin of the Sunset Strip hair metal scene, Blur and Suede were jumpstarting the Brit-pop revolution, Operation Ivy had its glorious fifteen minutes, and the Beastie Boys were at their height. But the thing I think I love the most about this momentous time in rock history is the coming of the shoegazers.

It's not that I love every shoegazing band out there; not by a long shot. Bands like Curve, Swervedriver and the Jesus and Mary Chain are tragedies of the movement in my eyes. But bands like the Stone Roses, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and even Yo La Tengo were repeatedly spanking the sadomasochist music aficionados with genuine masterpieces like "Loveless". But my favorite band of that era only produced one masterwork of shoegazing genius before leaving the genre behind for (still decent) pop rock, and eventually the neo-psychedelic disasters that were "Carnival of Light" and "Tarantula". You heard me right; my favorite shoegazers are the one and only Ride.

Right off the bat, the buggers smack the listeners in the face with "Seagull", a dizzying six and a half minutes of frantic, noisy feedback squalls over a familiar bass line, coupled with unrelenting vocal harmonies and the entire production drowning in guitar noise. Songwriters Andy Bell (now playing bass for Oasis) and Mark Gardner don't let you come up for air, either; "Kaleidoscope" is similarly arranged, but with a more accessible verse, chorus, verse type of structure, even tighter double guitar and vocal work and ridiculously fast, busy, and obviously impatient drumming from prodigal percussionist Loz Colbert.

The album slows down considerably after these tunes, leaving you coughing and sputtering for oxygen, and the songwriting takes a turn for the emotional. Unfortunately, it's mostly songs like these that really bring forth Bell and Gardner's lack of lyrical prowess; "In A Different Place", which is already a comparatively boring song after the first two tracks, has little to it lyrically besides the tired mediocrity of what it's like to be with someone you love. "Polar Bear" picks things up from there nicely though, and remains one of my favorite songs on this record, with slippery metallic guitars, brilliant vocal harmonizing, and expertly placed tom fills on the part of the drummer, although again the lyrics are a tad derivative, ("Why should it feel like a crime/if I want to be/with you all the time/why is it measured in hours?/you should make your own time/you're welcome in mine.") or somewhat nonsensical ("But when she said "please/raise the roof higher, nobody heard/they never noticed a word/the light bulbs burn/her fingers will learn."). Thankfully, Dreams Burn Down is a flawless, lethargic romp with a f*cking ingenious chorus made entirely of feedback noise.

The tone of the album darkens rather significantly after this song for some reason, it's not to say that the songs aren't well written, but how depressing they can really be sometimes can be quite unwelcome. But this all leads to the band's finest moment: "Vapour Trail" is one of the best rock songs of the bloody decade, and with all that happened in the 90's, that's saying a lot. Delicate moving guitar chords and drums that are (for once) not overplayed compliment the reverent sighing of affecting lyrics. Often when I listen to this song, I'm overcome with the emotion, and I can't help but just revel in its masterpiece. Sweet, romantic lines like "The sun may blind my eyes/I'll love you anyway" and "You are a vapour trail/in a deep blue sky" are beautifully human, and the melancholy string section adds to the overall emotion. Pretty much everything after is pretty cheerful ("Taste"), and still well written, although some of it falls a bit outside the shoegazing spectrum. Still pop genius, although almost too poppy to truly fit with the rest of the record.

Most fans of this style of music would much prefer the masterful studio album "Loveless" to "Nowhere", but sometimes the endless layers of tracks and wall of sound get a bit oppressive. When I want an album that never lets me down, I turn to "Nowhere".