Wavesby Ride

Over the early nineties Ride were pioneers in the British shoe gazing sound influencing artists ranging from the Catherine Wheel to Robbie Williams. Some 7 years after the band called it a day they released this collection of 17 original BBC recordings. This features tracks from five different sessions from as early as February 1990 and as late as March 1993. There are tracks from all four of their albums as well as tracks from their first two EPs "Ride" and "Play". There are also a few obscurities such as ‘Lets get lost,’ ‘Sight of you’ and ‘Severance.’ Other tracks on offer are the classics ‘like a Day Dream,’ ‘Birdman’ and ‘Dreams burn down.’ Curiously favorites such as ‘Vapour Trail,’ ‘Twisterella’ and ‘OX4’ have all been left off.

The songs on offer have a much rawer feel then that of the studio versions. It is definitely great to hear the session versions of these songs for nostalgia if nothing else especially for those who didn’t get to hear them first time round when they were played on air. In some cases these are the early demo versions of songs before they were altered into studio polished album versions.

This is a definite must for fans of Ride's music. With a collection of classics in a raw and developing format along with a handful of obscure Ride tracks that you might not have heard before this is a very valuable CD for the hardcore Ride fan. As it features tracks from all their albums it acts as a sufficient introduction to the band however if you haven’t heard their music before the better place to start would be the albums "Nowhere" and "Going Blank Again."