Shoegaze Guide

Shoegaze is a sound built on hazy, distorted guitars, subdued vocals, fragile melodies, and ethereal atmosphere. We can’t get enough of it.

Shoegaze was initially coined as a pejorative term, used to mock the genre’s early breakout bands for their lack of stage presence. It was still preferable to another early, equally unkind descriptor: the scene that celebrates itself. While the term wasn’t exactly popular among the artists themselves, they have gradually reclaimed ownership over the ensuing decades.

Shoegaze never really went away after its ‘classic’ late 1980s/early 1990s period—think of the shoegaze holy trinity, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive—but it did become something of a niche concern in the 2000s. There were isolated highlights, such as the Horrors’ Primary Colours, A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s Scribble Mural Comic Journal, and M83’s Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, but you would have been hard pushed to construct a guide of this depth back then.

As a more popular revival gathered pace in the 2010s, led by the likes of DIIV, Nothing, Pinkshinyultrablast and Ringo Deathstarr, more traditional indie-rock outfits like Alvvays started to incorporate shoegaze stylings into their sound. New music from Ride, Swervedriver, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine added fuel to the growing fire. By 2020, when the world ground to a Covid-induced halt, new shoegaze bands were suddenly everywhere—and I really mean everywhere.

And we think that’s a wonderful thing.

This guide features upcoming releases, recent reviews, shoegaze features from our vast archive, a list of essential albums, and a Spotify playlist to cap it all off.

My Bloody Valentine: Live at Aviva Studios, Manchester

The Irish shoegaze legends have a unique relationship with noise. The passage of time has not dulled their potency.

No RipcordDavid Coleman

The Best Swervedriver Songs, Ranked

Swervedriver’s beguiling fusion of rock and shoegaze set them apart from Creation labelmates Ride, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine. These are the band’s twenty best songs.

No RipcordDavid Coleman

M83 Interview (2004) - From the Archive | No Ripcord

In early 2004, French duo M83 were still coming to terms with the unexpected success of their breakout album, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. Our interview from that time captures a modest band at the precise moment when everything around them is changing.

No RipcordNo Ripcord