Of the ream of shoegazer albums that came out in the early 1990\u2019s, Just For A Day <\/i>might be the most straightforward. While releases by fellow kinsfolk Pale Saints, My Bloody Valentine and the like during the same period were more sophisticated and complex, this one by Slowdive is remarkably direct \u2013 at least, it should be. But it doesn\u2019t seem so because the thick fog of indiscernible layers renders the prettiness in its simple tunes almost nonexistent.<\/p>\n
The noise is loud, too dreary, but also tame. And it is just for this reason \u2013 the lack of bite \u2013 that Just For A Day <\/i>could easily get wearisome. The closer \u201cPrimal\u201d starts off hypnotically merry in sweet melodiousness, but gets gobbled up in swirls of nothingness fairly quickly. And without anything tangible, the fluff of ambience seems to only lumber, which drags even more, like on \u201cBallad Of Sister Sue,\u201d when it gets gothic and almost New Age, at which point, instead of getting meditative, it gets somnolent.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, the muted white noise explosion on \u201cCelia\u2019s Dream\u201d makes sense as it builds in accordance with the melody, giving it a wonderful aural splendor without engulfing the song in its voracious appetite. \u201cWaves,\u201d deprived of any fluffiness, is as catchy and sweet-sounding as any cut off of the Stone Roses catalog. And although straight-arrow pop numbers are not one of the top aspirations on Just For A Day<\/i>, this track is still one of its high points.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s highlights, \u201cCatch The Breeze,\u201d \u201cBrighter,\u201d and \u201cThe Sadman,\u201d unanimously, are ones where the cloud of music is balanced, making the blend of folky simplicity and the right measure of mystique seem very inviting. The instrumental \u201cErik\u2019s Song\u201d moves with the lazy dawdle of the rest of the album, but because the slow and sanguine notes of the piano that make up the entire song do not have to contend with heavy guitars, they become elegantly captivating.<\/p>\n
A simple record that is also difficult to grasp (and a difficult one to sustain), Just For A Day,<\/i> tends to hide too much. However, if the band gives away too much of its plain song structure and forsakes the abstract effects in its music, would it still retain the magic of what\u2019s essentially shoegazer? Maybe there is beauty in the gagged screaming of guitars and overly droning vocals; maybe there isn\u2019t any. That\u2019s the enigma of shoegazer, which clearly is not for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":29888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7949],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41509","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-slowdive","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}