Everyone’s been talking about the latest music that’s being released in 2023. Olivia Rodrigo’s new album Guts and Taylor Swift’s coming release of 1989 Taylor’s Version seem to be the most popular anticipations. However, a long-awaited release for the community of Shoegaze fans hasn’t had much time in the spotlight. On September 1, 2023, the first song “The Slab” from Slowdives new album Everything Is Alive was finally released to the public.

Slowdive is a band that produces dream pop and shoegaze music. It was formed in 1989 in Reading, England. Slowdive is also considered to be part of the genre of English alternative rock.

Slowdive had started discussing the creation of this new album back in February 2022, so fans had been chomping at the bit for over a year for the release. Oakdale senior Alexis Rowe is a Slowdive fan and was highly looking forward to the new album: “My favorite song from the new album was probably ‘kisses’.” This has been the most popular song on the album for the general public as well.

She goes on to add, “The beat makes it easy to like and move to. It flows well and gets stuck in my head.”

Since it seems that she finds the melody an important part of a song, naturally, when asked about her favorite song by Slowdive overall, she answered “When the Sun Hits”. This song is definitely a shoegaze favorite because of its flowy melody and poetic lyrics.

Another student at Oakdale High School, who wants to remain anonymous, listened to a few songs from the new album for the first time after the release of the album.. Considering he usually listens to rap and more upbeat music, he says, “It was definitely a lot slower, but it was also more passionate.”

He goes on to say that “the lyrics went crazy,” and in regards to his pursuit of shoegaze music in the future, “It does (make him want to listen to more shoegaze); it’s a different vibe, but I like it. It’s like you’ve got to really listen to understand”.

Surprisingly, even people who have never listened to Shoegaze seem to be moved by Slowdives latest release. There hasn’t been talk of another album in the making yet, but after taking a hiatus, it’s not too bold to assume the band is ready to continue publishing new hits.