“Just like everything else we experience, our relationships with people in our lives can shift overtime. One of the hardest things I have had to wrap around my mind is the acceptance of negative change in a person’s character. I truly truly believe the best in people, so even when toxic traits show themselves, I place my bets with assumptions or excuses. I rationalize things that are not mine to unpack.
‘Delusional’ is a song that asks for trust, I think I am both learning to trust myself and others at different moments of the lyrics. It’s mourning a healthier relationship with someone, and the confusion/delusion that comes with that. The song concludes with wishing that person the best, which was added last minute obviously, but in relationship with the song, it was the ideal time to revisit it for me. I think healing is possible in a situation like this, even if that just comes from my own perspective and how I learn to view the circumstance that has a lot of disappointment involved.” – Jill Goyeau
Slowdive: Souvlaki
Souvlaki was the actual first shoegaze record I’ve listened to. When I heard Allison for the first time I felt like floating away on a cloud. No other style of music made me feel so enamoured, a perfect blend of sad writing and ambient instrumentals. There was a documentary on them that Pitchfork put out a while back that we all happened to see on our own. It was wild to see all the aspects, the fine line between function and dysfunction in the band and how that actually played a part in their songwriting and their sound. Despite their initial struggles they were still successful, and I think It opened our eyes to a lot of the ins and outs of being in band.
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Pedals. Glide guitar. What can we say that hasn’t been said? A solidified classic and absolute staple of the genre.
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy
This album has so many good tracks on it. This was another one of those records that gives us the feeling no other music could. Hearing Just Like Honey for the first time sent me. I think it was used in some tv shows I watched too… anyways dream pop. This was pretty much the beginning of dream pop.
Ride: Nowhere
Classic Shoegaze. They have some of the most heart felt lyrics among this list. They’ve also proven to be the cleanest and clearest of all the bands instrumentally. Not a lot of use for distortion, but instead clean jangly guitar often accompany horns or strings in one grande mix. I loved this sound because it shows another side of shoegaze. One where you don’t have to run your reverbs into your distortions to get huge guitars. It was more about the whole composition with Ride. As much as we all love nasty guitar tones, this clean cut album is just a natural choice when it comes to shoegaze records.
Hum: You’d Prefer an Astronaut
Hum were a mix of shoegaze and grunge with a monotonous singer and huge guitar sounds. It was totally different from what was going on around then, but there was still a sense of familiarity and simplicity in the songs. I think that’s why this record has the underground status it did. They put out a new album this year called Inlet and it is a perfect example of a modern shoegaze record. Droning sludgy rhythms, huge guitars, and very mellow vocals all come together to make an amazing album and shows that there are still new ways to put a spin on the genre.
