Ride - Weather Diaries
(Wichita)

After the return of Slowdive in 2017 with their excellent self-titled album, wouldn’t it be fitting if another band from the UK Shoegaze scene, Ride, made a comeback as well? Well that is the case and Weather Diaries is it.
It’s no real surprise that their first album since 1996’s Tarantula is classic Ride in every sense of the word. It reunites them with Creation co-founders, Mark Bowen, Dick Green and Alan Moulder, who mixed their high-water mark Nowhere in 1990. Furthermore, the original lineup of Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Steve Queralt, and Loz Colbert is in check still readily able to channel interstellar streaks of feedback and melody. But the main driver behind their return to band-hood is the current political climate in the United Kingdom. Opening track “Lannoy Point” laments the degradation of the social fabric of these times as Bell’s pristine leads nicely populate a signature Ride buildup. “Charm Assault” ratchets up the rock with a massive introduction before Gardner plaintively regards how the friendliest can sometimes be the most dangerous. “Home Is A Feeling” is sonically one of the closest throwbacks to their earliest incarnation. The guitars and production of Erol Alkan perfectly coalesce into a warm tapestry while Colbert’s drumming guides what is one of the wooziest, and prettiest, tracks on the record.
All in all, Ride have figured out how to capture the essence of what put them in the top tier of UK Shoegaze. Weather Diaries rectifies the letdown of Tarantula and nicely slots itself somewhere in between Nowhere and Going Blank Again. Glad to have them back again. (Dom)
Check out a track here.