Mere weeks after Slowdive unveiled their first music for two decades, Ride have unveiled the first track from their own forthcoming fifth album, due to be released this summer on Wichita.
Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence Colbert, and Steve Queralt first reunited in 2014 for a series of live shows. This new track ‘Charm Assault’ sounds like no time has elapsed since their fourth album ‘Tarantula’ was released in 1996. Favourable comparisons could be drawn with ‘Black Nite Crash’ – the lead-off single from that album.
In the words of guitarist Bell “Charm Assault is a pretty straightforward expression of frustration and disgust at the people who currently run our country.” There’s a fabulous sense of urgency that reminds listeners that the shoegazing scene produced people who could rock out, rather than simply staring at their feet and causing journalists to search for words other than ‘ethereal’ and shimmering.’
Those words might apply to ‘Home Is A Feeling’ the track that emerged a mere 24 hours from the Ride camp. What is clear is that on the evidence thus far, Ride’s new album sees them bidding to be as strong as they were in the first half of the nineties.
