I cannot understand why critics hated everything they did during their time. These songs are incredible. Those idiots are responsible for this band flaming out before they should have.
Shoegaze was hated because the songs are usually a bit more "sensitive", and most people don't like that part of themselves. Which is why Britpop and grunge took over shoegaze's place
A few months ago I met someone who show me this song... He said "I love your name, and there's a song with your name". Today I'm listening because that person is gone... Rest in peace my friend!
What is your fucking problem? In what world would it ever be okay to say something that disrespectful and immature for no reason what-so-ever? I'm baffled at how such a negative and disgusting comment could be posted on such a beautiful song.
+Sam Mortley Can't agree. The distortion and "dreaminess" of this version is what makes it stand out as one of the best songs ever written. No point stripping it down.
That's exactly what the writer had felt too. You might be knowing this, but Neil had written this song when he had started seeing someone else after his painful breakup with Rachel. So he himself had said something like how the song was about moving on; was about the present ,yet still rooted in the past.
“Alison” has always been my favorite shoegaze song. It captures perfectly the feeling of early adulthood and the realization that the intensity of youth is fleeting. It’s the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” of the 90s.
This song was composed by Neil after he broke with Rachel, there is a video recorded in a concert on Canada, when they are playing Alison Neil is looking at Everytime to Rachel... This song is so powerful that can take you back to your adolescence and remind it your first love..... Sorry for uncover me here....
My ex was a girl living on the edge everyday, but I jumped into a relationship with her falling for eachother without really knowing eachother. She loved sex with me, yea. She ended up being somewhat a hoe but it was too late. We broke up and all I can wonder is who's she's getting high with now. Even tho she was terrible I hope she's out there somewhere doing ok
At this very moment, I’ve found someone. I’m listening to this song to help me imagine what it’d be like to be with her. Still haven’t found the confidence to ask her yet.
This song makes me feel nostalgic for things that never happened, the video is full of old friends I've never met, and the music takes me to places that have never existed.
He says to his girl "your sister's out spinning" and Allison says "she's our there somewhere". Probably the most impactful lyric that she says again in the second Stanza,now when the guy tells her "we are sinking" Allison just says "i guess she's out there somewhere." She's feels to me more like the female lead from Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Allison feels so complex yet so simple.Just a girl probaly a teen who is lost in all the partying,growing up and also many teens like us who are lost in all the rave and all.I guess not only she but we are there somewhere. Allison feels to me like a song about a guy seeing the beauty in the mess of Allison.He embraces her flaws and loves her as she is and will find her one day,somewhere
@@dnielchan that part that really got me was how at first he says "your messes up world will thrill me" and towards the end he says "your messed up world still thrills me". Really puts the whole "we are sinking" type message of this song
I literally was out taking a walk a few weeks ago, listening to this when the weather just started to switch to autumn, and I thought the same thing. So beautiful! Take a walk and listen to this!
I was literally thinking about this today. It's summer now and the heat is unbearable, and I found myself really missing autumn which is my favourite season, so I decided to listen to this album again. This album in particular sounds exactly what autumn feels like for me, and I love it so much.
one of the best album openers I've ever heard. You know exactly where you stand from the outset, and if you have good taste, you won't want to stand anywhere else.
Something about this song, evokes a feeling that is truly unique amongst the thousands of songs I've listened to over the years. Honestly, nothing recreates it, it exists in a plane of its own. It's like a mixture of contrasting emotions, but melded together perfectly. I can't describe it in words, the lyrics bear no relation to anything I've experienced, yet it feels so warm and comfortable, so familiar, like it's always been there.
@Chris Greene Couldn't agree more. Love MBV and Loveless is a towering achievement but Slowdive had better songs overall. Souvlaki is just as good and important as Loveless.
Llew Ballantine The album 'Souvlaki' that this single was taken off is almost a masterpiece in my opinion. The two albums before this are also awesome in their own right, very different whilst still maintaining their unique sound. Listen long and enjoy.
Listen close and don't be stoned, I'll be here in the morning 'Cause I'm just floating Your cigarette still burns, your messed up world will thrill me Alison, I'm lost Alison, I said we're sinking There's nothing here, but that's okay Outside your room, your sister's spinning But she laughs and tells me she's just fine I guess she's out there somewhere And the sailors, they strike poses, the TV-covered walls Answer slowly With your talking and your pills, your messed up life still thrills me Alison, I'm lost Alison, I'll drink your wine I'll wear your clothes when we're both high Alison, I said we're sinking But she laughs and tells me it's just fine I guess she's out there somewhere
The kind of sound that washes over you with cascading emotion. We all have an Alison tale to tell: pining away for someone not quite realized or mourning something that ends all too soon. For Neil Halstead it was really about recovering from Rachel Goswell, his band mate, lover, and muse. The fact that Slowdive survived and thrived speaks about their singularity as human beings in group formation...and we’re all the better for it. They, along with MBV, Cocteau Twins, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, and Lush, produced a veritable soundtrack to our lives. We didn’t know it at the time but we were living at the end of something-we thought it was the beginning. I fell madly in love in this era-the madness has dissipated but the love remains. I’m just feeling a little lost.
What you say is true, we all do have an Alison story to tell. In my case, an Allyson story. I discovered this song while she and I were still dating, and every word Neil spoke resonated with me on a profound level. (It was a terrible relationship. The lyrics to the song played out practically verbatim in real life over the span of about two years.) I never shared this song with her. I'm kinda glad I didn't. Now I can reminisce about all ye good times without it hurting much, if at all. Nothing but a simple viewing, just remembering everything as it happened. Needless to say, this has sorta become her theme song in my head. I need therapy.
Both of these comments are beautiful. Thank you for sharing. We all have our Alison moments… mine was with a girl named Lilly. We were so youthful together.
This is probably the most underrated amazing band. They had a very sad story, their music went by in hatred but I guess, in the end, they came back and hey - they're still out somewhere.
Is it even possible to feel so many things at once while listening to a song? Whenever I'm in the backseat of a car, I love listening to this song while looking at the mountains and the clouds and shit and just daydream during the rest of Souvlaki too "Alison, I said we're sinking But you laugh and tell me it's just fine I guess she's out there somewhere" this has got to be one of the best songs ever made and I don't just say that about any song
90's were a time before the end... before the internet, before the definitive fall of western civilization, before... people were lost but still sane... now it's over.
It’s been a year and this is still my favorite song. This music is just unbeatable in my opinion, just really reflects the emotions you feel and I’m obsessed with it!
This is amazing right? This song belongs to a genre called "shoegaze". You should check bands from that genre. My Bloody Valentine - "Sometimes", Airiel - "In Yr Room" and Ride - "vapour trail" are good examples.
What a song! from my first years at the University... Dreams, hopes, projects for the future, a crush for a guy I totally fell for, passion, nights without sleep...a whole world ahead, or at least I thought so... I love so much this song that sometimes I avoid listening to it, that's the measure of all the feelings it evokes to me. Makes me cry each time i hear it..
"Alison" makes me feel very nostalgic -- there was a girl I dated back in 2012 named Allison, her birthday (June 1) is the release date of this album and I shared this song with her back then, the line "your messed up life still thrills me" fit her, I was attracted to her but she was a bit crazy and drove me insane. The last time I was with her was her birthday (June 1, 2013) 10 years ago. When I stopped seeing her, I would still think of her sometimes, it was sad to hear she tragically died in a car accident in 2022 at the young age of 34.
I was a kid in the ‘90s, and this video makes me nostalgic for ‘90s college life. The song itself makes me nostalgic in general. Thank you random indie station that played this song a few years ago and introduced me to Slowdive.
This song ( especially)and the entire album as well gives me chills maaaany years since I was first introduced to them via my EX. The anchor of their sound and the emotions of falling deeply in love are anchored in my soul so damn deep. The feeling never faded no matter how many times I listened to their songs. Such a sublime joy every time. ❤
When I see Neil and Rachel together I can feel love and I never felt anything similar about “a couple”. It’s a little bit strange, but I think that Slowdive’s opus (first three albums) is reflecting energy and love between two of them. I’m proud that I was witnessing this amazing process in early nineties. They give me hope that you can recover from a breakup even if it takes twenty years... - especially if you know how to melt that beautiful burden into music
This sound perfectly resembles the feeling you get when you remember blurry memories of better days during your youth where time, stress or worries were never an issue and all that mattered was your friends and having fun. Days long gone.
i never comment on YT, but, there's something about this song... i can't forget about it, i guess I'll never will, evokes such strange feelings, ones i have had, some i didnt and never will. this song is youth, and losing yourself in it, glad you guys didnt end up dead or something, thanks for the good music, always
Connecting personal memories with this song definitely would be, depending on what they were, for example if someone had a gf who died and their favourite song was this, or you still had a gf who died and you stumbled on this and then binge listened to it because it spoke to you musically, it definitely would take on a hauntingly beautiful tone, eerie and sad at the same time
This song... wow. It's like being on the greatest high you've ever had, all while holding hands with the girl you love. Yet it's sad as well... like they both know their love won't last.
I have been listening to this song for almost 30 years. Loved it then, in between, and now. I will never forget 1994. Slowdive, Inspiral Carpets, Lush, Ride, Eugenius, Swervedriver, etc.
I confess that this song is my most loved song , It captures my little world perfectly, the pain, gratitude, and joy I’ve experienced. It’s been with me through my darkest to most beautiful moments. To anyone who feels the same about this song i fking love every single one of you mfs precious souls.
This song keeps haunting my mind, I'm a prog rock guy and in a band and at practices lately I find myself playing this in the background. The song has such a deep almost europhoric feeling to me, coincidentally I'm also falling for my bass player (who is a girl) so it adds to the emotional deepness I get from this small masterpiece. So yeah, that's my story right now :)
I told her a few weeks after I posted that, but she didn't like me, sad at the time but that's so past me now, but it was my cake for mid 2015. That band broke up a month later due to people being assholes. But my happy ending is that I've formed a new band in the present!
+John Appleseed Your story sounds like it also happened to Neil & Rachel in Slowdive; they're both in love, suddenly shit happens, Rachel breaks it off with Neil, Neil feels like crap, wrote a song called Dagger etc. After everything cools down, Neil & Rachel decides to be just friends and keep the relationship professional. From Slowdive to Mojave and back to Slowdive, both Neil & Rachel still manage to maintain their "friendship" and still churn out the best songs in history. Just saying.
Zedfinite I wish it turned out like that!, but none of the people from that band (that was last year) are in contact anymore. I won't get into details because that's well in the past now, but people outside the band started being manipulative and deceptive, causing the band to turn against eachother. On the bright side, I formed a new band at the start of the year and have been through many new positive experiences in the year so far!
As a teenager I remember never having any time for Slowdive or any of the Scene that Celebrates itself eulogised in the English media. Took me about a quarter of a century to realise the timelessness of this band and shoegaze in general. This song both musically and lyrically is so hauntingly stunning and beautiful.
I know it's a hatefully obvious cliché, but they've aged like a perfect vintage wine. Served at the time, it had no impact, but hear them 30 years later and during a terrible time for Planet Earth, then it takes a whole new significance. The world wasn't ready for their sound but can appreciate them in 2021
I'm Brazilian, I love this song, it's my favorite slowdive, if I were from the 90s I would try to be someone for this band, I love everything about this band, I will have a band, and it will be inspired, thank you
