Nowhere - Ride

Tracklist:

1. Seagull (6:09)

2. Kleidoscope (3:01)

3. In a Different Place (5:29)

4. Polar Bear (4:45)

5. Dreams Burn Down (6:04)

6. Decay (3:35)

7. Paralysed (5:34)

8. Vapour Trail (4:18)

9. Taste (3:17)

10. Here and Now (4:26)

11. Nowhere (5:23)

Members:

- Mark Gardener / vocals, guitar

- Andy Bell / vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica

- Steve Queralt / bass

- Laurence Colbert / drums

Ride is one of the pioneers of the shoegazing genre, and is also one of its most relevant exponents. Ride’s mix of well-crafted alternative rock tunes, with noise rock and dream pop influences, helped establish them as one of the most important bands in the shoegaze scene. It also differentiated them from the more ethereal dream pop-influenced bands in the genre like MyBloody Valentine and Slowdive, and gave them a distinctive, rockier sound.

Nowhere (1990) is the band’s first full length album, and definitely their most influential, always being cited as one of the albums that defined the genre. Even if it was their debut LP, it wasn’t their first release. They put out a series of EPs in the months leading to its release, which were collected in the compilation Smile (1990). The last of these EPs, Fall (1990), had four songs which all appear in the American version of Nowhere, which is the definitive one according to the band.

The album has a more punchy and structured feel than other albums in the genre, which tended to align themselves to more abstract and lush songwriting styles. This shows since the first track, with the noisy and psychedelic anthem Seagull. This song has an overwhelming wall of sound, created by the guitar duo. This is complemented by some mesmerizing bass playing and very strong drum playing. The vocal melodies by Gardner and Bell give the song the feeling of being an oriental mantra, conveying a spiritual sensation.

The music featured in Nowhere, although sticking to the basic elements of shoegaze, displays a wide range of ways to explore the sounds connected to this genre. It has abrasive noisier tracks, like the opener, but it also lets itself be more introspective and complex in tracks like Paralysed and Here and Now. From more straightforward rock compositions like Kaleidoscope and Taste, to lush dream pop ballads like Vapour Trail and In a Different Place, this album experiments and surprises the listener with different kinds of compositional approaches. 

Another element that separates this band from others in the genre is their focus in the musicianship instead of the sounds produced by the guitar. Though the sounds are important to convey the different moods for each song, the strong chemistry between the players is the key to the musical success of this LP. Take for example Polar Bear, one of the most sonically ethereal tracks in the record. The lush guitar work, full of reverb, is the essence of the song, but the drums and bass are still present in the mix, giving structure to the abstract shoegazing guitar playing.

The song where the band display the perfect combination of compositional powers along with their attention the sonic textures of the guitar, is Dreams Burn Down. The song features a dense and distorted landscape of sound, produced by the different guitar sounds created by Gardner and Bell. The drums again are in top form with aggressive fills, effortlessly blending with the noisy and lavish atmosphere around it. When the chorus kicks in, the band indulges in a burst of distorted guitars, but always handled by the rhythm section for it not to descend into total incoherence.

Vapour Trail is the most well-known composition of this album and one of the most sensitive and delightful ballads created by an alternative rock act. The guitars overlap creating a very delicate and pleasant atmosphere, which along with the solid drum work and the amazing string section, produce the most stunningly beautiful track in Ride’s catalogue. Having the string section adds much to this song, as much as the harmonica does in Here and Now or the piano in Paralysed. This use of unorthodox instrumentation shows that at this point in their career, Ride was an atypical band inside their genre.

Nowhere closes the album in a very gloomy and dark note. The title track uses feed-back and reverbed vocals to produce a hypnotizing and engaging atmosphere that goes surprisingly well with the art-work of the album. The sounds in this track flow as naturally as a stream, approaching more and more the sea of noise that is the climax of the song. As the song ends you feel the band drowning into the ocean of sounds, as they start to fade away when the final water sounds come to the forefront. The album closes beautifully as you also hear the sound of seagulls flying in the sky, taking us back to the first track, also one of the darkest ones in the album.

The themes that Nowhere touches could only come by the meditation and self-awareness of its lyricists. It is an introspective album, and it makes it clear from the first track:

"Definitions confine thoughts, they are a myth,

Words are clumsy, language doesn't fit.

But we know there's no limit to the thought,

We know there's no limits.”

It shows the turmoil of emotions that self-discovery produces, as for example in Paralysed.

“However hard I try,
I crawl when I should fly.
I wander through my days,
Pulled a million ways.”

In the last song, after all the heartache that comes from the deep realizations that Gardner and Bell transmit in Nowhere, drummer Colbert delivers a verse that makes the album come full circle:

“I learned the hard way,
That life should be easy,
But I want you to know it was hard to show,
The things that I know now.”

Ride is a band unique in its way of approaching the sound of the early 90’s. They had a way of crafting songs that was, at least in the year 1990, the most skillful in the whole alternative rock scene.  Nowhere is an essential album, a collection of the best material Ride has ever written, showing one of the most interesting bands of the 90’s on its peak, both in creativity and in sound.