Search - Ride :: Going Blank Again

A great, but sadly unknown band

Lisa Krause | Irvine, CA USA | 01/07/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I was in college in the very early 90s, I was totally obsessed with Ride. I had all their albums, posters, t-shirts, you name it! Should have kept them all, as they may have been worth something now. :-) I even saw them a few times in concert, and I thought it was the high point of my life when one of the guys from the band (Steve) came out and talked to me and my friends for half an hour after one show. After I left school in 1993 I sort of lost touch with the whole "alternative" music scene--it was just this year that I learned Ride had broken up! It seems like they are getting more attention now than when they were together.Of all the bands I used to love, this one had probably best stood the test of time (well, the last 10 years anyway). This album, along with their early EPs and Nowhere, are masterpieces of british guitar pop. Unlike many of the shoegazing bands, who were relentlessly depressing in their music and lyrics, Ride's albums can actually cheer you up, and don't sound too dated. It's too bad they had to go mess things up with the "Carnival of Light" weirdness. They were on the brink of crossover semi-stardom with Going Blank Again, and if they had made another album of the same quality, they could have been a lot bigger. Oh well, at least those of us in the know can still enjoy their older stuff!"

Truly underrated Shoegazer Classic. Buy this CD.

Jeremy Simmons | Cincinnati, Ohio | 09/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am always surprised how often Ride's masterpiece is overlooked or ranked below "Nowhere". Clearly "Nowhere" was a seminal CD and showed their promise, but it was on this CD, "Going Blank Again", that Mark Gardener showed VAST improvement on his vocals, and he and Andy Bell (now of Oasis) truly came into their own as songwriters. The quality of the production is superb, though perhaps not brilliant, and the band play their instruments with consummate skill and were clearly well-rehearsed before going into the studio.

With classics such as "Cool Your Boots", "Chrome Waves" and "Leave It All Behind" (among others), this CD would be worth buying for those tracks alone. But there's hardly a weak track on it! "Time Machine"'s intro is a bit over-long, as is the intro for the genuinely emotional and beautifully melodic "OX4", but otherwise this shoegazer classic is virtually without peer. (excepting of course such CDs as MBV's "Loveless", Lush's "Gala", and a few others).

Ride are one of the very best shoegazer bands to ever put their sounds to record, and this is without a doubt their very best effort (kind of went downhill after this one I'm afraid). The wall of sound, haunting vocal lines blended with layers of chorus and verb and feedback and...well...it's all there. Just listen to it. You'll thank yourself."

"Leave them all Behind" is a classic

Neil M Cameron | Waratah, New South Wales Australia | 01/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got into Ride in about 1996 and I fell in love with their early "Melodic Wall of Sound" (a love which led to buy MBV's "Loveless" BTW).I found most of this album average, but "Leave them all Behind" is 8 minutes and 30 seconds of exceptionally loud psychadelia, drawing first from a synthesizer beat, then accompanied by bass and drums, and then about 15 very loud and noisy guitars playing the same notes.As far as I know, Ride is the only band that sounds better when you turn the treble up high and let the shoegazer shrill send shivers through your synapses!"