With the release of their excellent Blind Spot EP nearly one year ago, ‘90s legends Lush formally returned two decades after the arrival of their fourth and final studio album, 1996’s Lovelife. While Lush fans worldwide celebrated their reemergence, the band’s unexpected resurrection represented the seeds of a broader phenomenon at play: the shoegaze revival. Much to our chagrin, however, Lush’s reunion proved ephemeral, as the group called it quits once again just a few months ago.
Nevertheless, another promising signal of the genre’s presumed renaissance surfaced just last month, as Slowdive introduced the shimmering single “Star Roving,” their first recording together since 1995’s Pygmalion LP. And now, shoegazers have even more reason to rejoice.
More than two decades since releasing their fourth studio album Tarantula (1996) and following a handful of live shows in 2015, the Oxford-bred Ride are back with the invigorating, Erol Alkan produced new single “Charm Assault,” the first offering from their just-announced new album reportedly due to arrive this summer.
“’Charm Assault’ is a pretty straightforward expression of frustration and disgust at the people who currently run our country,” Ride co-founder and former Oasis guitarist Andy Bell explains in an official statement. The tour in 2015 was a good way of reminding us what we were good at in the first place and ‘Charm Assault’ feels like a natural continuation from our peak. When we started writing together again we tried to imagine we'd kept on making music all this time, and this was just the latest one.”
Stream “Charm Assault” below, revisit some of the band’s finest moments from their ‘90s heyday, and stay tuned for more information about their forthcoming fifth studio album.
DOWNLOAD Ride’s “Charm Assault” via Amazon | iTunes
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