Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell once named her all-time favourite album
Picking out your favourite album of all time is no easy feat, but for shoegaze fans, it’s generally a toss-up between two. My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and Slowdive’s Souvlaki have become classics of the genre, seminal in its development. While Loveless demonstrates its capabilities for harsh fuzz and dissonance, Souvlaki provided a slightly softer and prettier wall of sound.
Pairing twangy guitars with Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead’s airy melancholic vocals, Souvlaki has become a reference point for budding shoegazers and an enduring favourite for fans of the genre. But Goswell’s own favourite record comes from an entirely different sphere, harking back to the folk of the 1960s.
Picking out her favourite record in a conversation with Under the Radar, the Slowdive singer began, “I think it’s actually quite impossible to choose one favorite album. I could definitely do a list of ten but to do one is really hard.” She landed on either After the Goldrush by Neil Young or Joni Mitchell’s Blue, opting to talk about the latter.
Goswell first discovered Mitchell in the 1990s, “when I’d come out of my goth phase, probably around the time Mojave 3 started.” She was particularly taken by the singer’s 1971 release Blue, which has been helmed as a classic in the decades since its release. “I just fell in love with this particular record and pored over the lyrics,” Goswell recalled.
It’s easy to understand why. Mitchell has a penchant for poetry unlike any other, and Blue is one of the best demonstrations of it. From the nostalgic ‘California’ to the aching ‘A Case of You’, it’s a masterpiece of a record, one Goswell can listen to “time and time again and just sit there singing it. Obviously not as well as she does.”
Though Mitchell existed in an entirely different musical sphere than Goswell, the Slowdive singer was still inspired by her vocalisations. “She influenced me as a singer more than as a musician,” she explained, “I don’t sing like Joni Mitchell. I could never be that good. I’ve always aspired to be that good but in my own style.”
Mitchell excelled in authentic folk vocalisation, while Goswell’s words became an instrument of their own amidst shoegaze soundscapes. They’re incomparable, but Goswell certainly achieved that mastery of her own unique craft and became an inspiration herself.
Blue is a gorgeous record, one that has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. It’s easy to see why it takes the title for Goswell’s favourite record. Revisit it below.
