RIDE

[steveeeeeeeee]

Really don't know what to think about this. I saw them at their best and at their worst and their worst, post Carnival of Light, really was bad. I can't see how they can possibly have anything new to offer, but I get the impression they will do their damnedest to create something new, that is different to other RIDE stuff, but completely retro-looking in style.

I'm going to try and buy tickets on Friday, I'm back in London next year and feel I shouldn't miss it. They're the first band I ever travelled outside London to see. They're one of the few bands from that era that I still listen to and love. For two albums, they were f*cking brilliant. But that was a long time ago.

I sort of wish they could just play an understated mid-afternoon set at Glastonbury, like the Velvet Underground did.

[E10 Rifle]

RIDE

Yeah, inclined to agree. Looking back, I don't think they were anything that special, but Vapour Trail and Taste still absolutely hit the spot.

[steveeeeeeeee]

RIDE

Yes, the first 3 EPs and album were amazing. Just boys making a racket with an amazing drummer, beautiful harmonies and meaningless, vaguely intelligible lyrics.

But Going Blank Again really was a great rock album. At that point they could have been the biggest band on the planet. Twisterella shows what they should've gone on and done - 60's influenced guitar pop, with them vocal harmonies and fuzzy guitars. But drugs clearly got the better of them. I remember them just being so out of place at Glastonbury in 1994, then I went to see them at The Garage about 6 months later and it was horrific - a lot of coke was being ingested and Andy Bell's Swedish wife did a sort of cameo set halfway through. In the space of about 18 months they went from the glory of those seaside weekend gigs to total irrelevance.

[Crusoe]

RIDE

Ride top five:

1. Today
2. Unfamiliar
3. Leave Them All Behind
4. Cool Your Boots
5. Twisterella

Although they couldn't write lyrics for toffee. Making Judy Smile is still one of the most cringeworthy lyrical efforts ever released.

[Jah Womble]

RIDE

For those first few releases I liked Ride a lot, but the problem with what they did was that there were few places to go with it. Going from a tight-as-f*ck noise-pop band to a standard rock 'n' roll quartet didn't really work for me, mainly because the songwriting - while okay when lost in a wash of noise - wasn't strong enough to sustain a more conventional, stripped-down sound.

I felt that they seriously jumped the shark with that second album. Leave Them All Behind became the band's biggest hit single, but it sounded to me like a relentless dirge compared with some of the previous stuff.

Vapour Trail, Dreams Burn Down and Unfamiliar stand up against anything from that era, however.

[Lucia Lanigan]

RIDE

I recently tried to make a shoegaze mix for some friends my age who somehow managed to miss everything cultural that happened when we were young. I had to give up halfway through and put in good early-90s stuff that didn't fit that bill, but 'Taste' is one of about four non-MBV shoegaze songs I really love - it still has that exuberance. (The video is awful, btw - a sulky model with American teeth throwing plates at the wall, intercut with the boys walking around a bit.)

Wasn't 'Leave Them All Behind' a Top 10 hit? It is a very catchy dirge, but I want it to stop after a couple of minutes.

[Jah Womble]

RIDE

Indeed, LTAB made #9 in early 1992 - and, yep, add Taste to my Ride wish-list. Fall was a very strong EP all round.

[Satchmo Distel]

This live performance of "Vapour Trail" impressed me (2017), their work having previously passed me by:

It's got great spacious drumming that allows it to breathe I think. Something Manchester about it as well, despite their coming from Oxford.

[steveeeeeeeee]

That's nice, I love watching Loz drum, so effortless and he has that Mani style of always working left to right, like everything is a roll. No doubt Mani was an inspiration and probably what reminds you of Manchester in the sound.

Loz also does crazy noise drumming very well, there isn't much going on in "Seagull", the opener to "Nowhere", other than Loz's drumming, but it's superb. I love this video of Ride playing "Mousetrap" at Reading 92, the whole band are locked in and jamming, just great to watch, makes you want to be in their shoes.

Can't say I care much for anything they've released since reforming, but I imagine they enjoy recording and having the rare privilege these days of a record company supporting them. I think they're under no illusion that there is pre and post break-up ride and they are 2 very different bands, hence the tours very clearly stating whether they're revisiting old stuff or playing new stuff.

[Jobi1]

I'm something of a fanboy, and have had a few rather obsessional periods with them – the last band I was in was even named after one of their songs.

Have to say I haven't been blown away by the three tracks released so far off the forthcoming album, which is a shame as I've really enjoyed some of the post-reformation stuff over the last decade. There are a few of the new era songs like 'Kill Switch', 'Shadows Behind the Sun' and perhaps above all 'Lannoy Point' that are genuinely among my favourite Ride songs of all time. I even had 'Lannoy Point' on our wedding playlist rather than any of the classics.

Hoping there are a few gems on the album anyway – the lead singles of the other two post-2017 albums turned out not to be the best songs on those records, so I'm not writing it off yet.

[Jah Womble]

I stand by what I said about Ride upthread (just the ten years ago), but I've not minded one or two tracks they've put out since reforming.

Charm Assault (2017) was decent.

[Jobi1]

Sad to report that, on first listen at least, the new record is by some distance the weakest of the three post-reformation releases. I quite like 'I Came to See the Wreck', but there's nothing much else of interest, regrettably.

[Satchmo Distel]

On the drumming, maybe also a Bruce Mitchell influence (jazz drummer + Durutti Column)

[Jah Womble]

Peace Sign was a shade underwhelming as the album's vanguard single, but that's all I've heard thus far.