Everybody was getting back from the lifeless. Within the first half of the ’10s, Slowdive joined a crowd of long-departed bands deciding to offer it one other go. Many of those have been happy to tour the pageant circuit, indulge followers’ nostalgia for slightly victory lap and a stable paycheck, then return to the ether. Some dared to make new music, and a few succeeded, although much more of them returned with albums that have been inevitably pale echoes of previous glories. In 2017, Slowdive did the unthinkable. They launched a self-titled comeback, their first album in over 20 years, that doubled as reclamation and reboot. And in opposition to all odds, it was arguably the very best assortment of music that they had ever launched.

Even earlier than Slowdive, it had been a profitable few years because the shoegaze icons first reunited. The stakes have been low. They’d play some reveals, and so they had little sense of how individuals can be. Slowdive had dissolved as a extra divisive prospect, derided by a British press that had moved on to the mid-’90s Britpop frenzy, and sidelined within the annals of shoegaze lore subsequent to the towering madman genius mythology of My Bloody Valentine. However once they returned, they have been greeted because the greats they all the time have been, and the palpable pleasure ignited one thing in them.

Think about pulling that off, then having to contemplate, in any respect, doing it once more. Slowdive have been now extra revered than ever, and reportedly extra agreeable as a bunch with everybody of their mature center age. However the place their influential early work as soon as forged a protracted shadow throughout many years, now there was one thing else solely: a second act anchored by an implausible instant-classic reunion album. The years handed rapidly. It wasn’t clear that there ever can be one other Slowdive album; apparently the band members themselves weren’t certain if there’d be both. However now six years on from Slowdive, the band has returned as soon as extra with all the pieces is alive, one other wealthy and vivid chapter on this new stretch of the band’s story.

After touring closely behind Slowdive, the band’s 5 members — Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, Christian Savill, Nick Chaplin, Simon Scott — took a breather and occupied themselves in any other case. For Halstead, the band’s major songwriter, that meant chipping away on extra synth-based compositions he initially meant for a possible solo album. As an alternative, when 2020 arrived, he considered bringing it to the band since they couldn’t tour. Halstead’s authentic imaginative and prescient for all the pieces is alive was a “extra minimal digital file.” As soon as it ended up with the remainder of Slowdive, they pushed the songs nearer to their established wheelhouse. It leads to a type of fusion, with loads of the nice and cozy comforts of the Slowdive we all know, whereas additionally permitting the band to quietly discover new territory.

Halstead’s description may recommend an about-face as important because the immersive soundscapes of Souvlaki giving method to the bleary, broken-down Pygmalion. Slowdive to all the pieces is alive is extra of a logical development, however it certainly finds the band in a extra contemplative house, even for them. Whereas Slowdive sounded daring, a resurrection occurring up within the stratosphere, all the pieces is alive is all blurs and whispers, with moments much more naked and intimate than the otherworldly sound of its predecessor. Because of the magic contact of engineer Shawn Everett — the prolific mixer who has made albums by the Battle On Medication and Massive Thief sound so mesmerizing — Slowdive’s mellower temper sounds totally different than earlier than. all the pieces is alive isn’t washed out. It’s extra like deep inside areas rendered in hi-def.

Like Slowdive, all the pieces is alive is a compact eight songs, but expansive in nature. The synth burbles of opener “shanty” instantly introduce the aqueous shimmer that defines the album — light, but propulsive, the track is an ideal curtain rise. However all the pieces is alive wanders, enigmatic, from there. Instantly after “shanty,” the band pivots to an instrumental known as “a prayer remembered.” They swing from infectious, attractive sighs like “alife” to one thing as tangible and stripped-down as “andalusia performs.” The latter is the uncommon literal scene occurring in a Slowdive track, Halstead’s account of a second in a real-life relationship. He’s remarked that he isn’t certain how or why he ended up writing it, however the track additionally appears like slightly skeleton key to the album, with lyrics about remembered prayers and chains and clouds that lend different tracks their titles.

Craving and a way of doomed romance are nothing new to Slowdive, the band that epitomized the extra sensual aspect of shoegaze. However the band has additionally emphasised the influence of tolerating love on the album. Goswell and Scott each misplaced mother and father in 2020, and when you can learn into the meditative timbre of all the pieces is alive as reflecting the burden of grief, the title is extra a clue to the album’s general character. Halstead stated it felt pointless to make a darkish file at this juncture of their lives — and, maybe, all our lives rising from the pandemic — and certainly all the pieces is alive takes its synth cascades and characteristically watercolor guitars far-off from previous shoegaze tropes, like partitions of sound as emotional shields. With the band’s fanbase skewing far youthful in recent times and their music touchdown on playlists alongside the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, you’d nearly suppose that ethos would align with the narcotized chill-out aesthetic of some semi-recent pop tendencies. As an alternative, all the pieces is alive picks up the place Slowdive left off, and turns the shoegaze dialog beneath a brand new gentle: They use this music not as numb escape, however a conduit for marvel.

Accordingly, the band have taken their time to craft one other sequence of beautiful, crushing moments that rival any of their key songs. Like “Star Roving” earlier than it, lead single “kisses” appears like an instantaneous entry into the pantheon of Slowdive’s best work. Its songcraft and swoon make it an apparent standout, however the album’s most evocative moments in any other case come from the band taking this model of their sound and pushing it to outer limits, close to abstracting it — as in “shanty” or the penultimate epic “chained to a cloud.” Nearer “the slab” is the album’s sole second of heightened depth, a churn meant to sound as mysteriously monolithic as its title. After the soft-focus glow of the remainder of the album, it’s a dramatic finale.

It’s a uncommon, uncommon factor for bands — true bands, democracies or, as Slowdive consider themselves, the sum of particular person elements — to age gracefully, not to mention find a latter-day relevance. all the pieces is alive is a portrait of a bunch removed from stagnation, removed from rote repetition of predictable components. It strikes a stability between the acquainted points of their character, and a continued tone of renewal. It’s a smaller resurrection this time round, however one which appears like simply as singular of a present. Who is aware of when, or if, Slowdive will do it once more. However their new album solidifies the argument begun by their reunion, after which once more by Slowdive. Now of their fifties, this band continues to be on a journey in the direction of one thing, to further-flung mystical corners than they’ve already traveled to of their music. On all the pieces is alive, Slowdive aren’t simply an unlikely story of survival: They’re evolving.