GD

I resent the implied Surfer Rosa slander, but I agree that Doolittle is the best one

__________________
lasty|rate-y music-y

Vetiver

Who, me?

LOL! It's across the board, I'm afraid. There came a point in time where I decided to only keep albums that were (IMO) exceptionally consistent and really meant something to me.

If I didn't do that, my music collection would be double the size it currently is now and largely unmanageable.

GD

Yeah gotcha
I agree Surfer Rosa is less consistent but I would still rank it above Bossanova and TLM

__________________
lasty|rate-y music-y

Vetiver

I couldn’t remember much about Surfer Rosa, so I just gave it another listen online.

IMHO, Surfer Rosa is probably the quirkiest of the first four full-length studio albums, but I found it to be the least substantial. Bone Machine, Gigantic and Where is My Mind? are still excellent cuts, but the rest I can easily live without.

Anyway, I’m the type of music lover who usually swims against the tide of popular opinion. For example, many consider Slowdive’s best album to be Souvlaki, which I think is utter bull (especially if one knows the background and has heard the shelved demos). But, hey, different strokes...

GD

I definitely rate those. "Break my Body", "River Euphrates" and "Vamos" would be among the other highlights for me.
Interesting. Not trying to get too far off-topic, but which one out of Just for a Day or Pygmalion is more preferable to you? I definitely think JFOD is an underrated album, and Pygmalion is great, but just so different from their earlier output that it's hard to make a comparison.

__________________
lasty|rate-y music-y

Vetiver

Yeah, I can still enjoy them for what they are, but I've long learnt to be harsh when retaining prime cuts from albums I don't want to keep.

My favourite is Just for a Day. IMHO, it is the best shoegazing album of all time.

Souvlaki was the sign of a band losing their confidence and pandering towards the flakiness of Alan McGee, who heavily criticised the original demos. Sonically, I found the dynamics on this album to be flat, in comparison to Just for a Day. Even the Brian Eno collaboration is lame.

Pygmalion is good in parts but it sounds unfinished and lacks focus. I think the demo bootleg from this period is far superior.

With that said, Just for a Day and The Pygmalion Demos are the only Slowdive albums I consider worth owning. As for the monstrosity that is the 2017 comeback album, don't get me started on that...

jarpywarpy

Finally gave their 2019 album a listen and whilst it's not bad or anything I do wish they didn't reunite, those first 2 are classics and Bossanova is excellent as is Trompe Le Monde but there's no spark now, there's the odd really good track but that's about it.

StaticDust101

I must confess I did not read through all 44 pages of previous responses but if no one has mentioned the song The Happening off of Bossanova, it deserves some love!