Everything is Alive (2023) Slowdive

Written by Meenakshi Nirmalan   

I remember when I first found out that Slowdive had released new material. June was coming to a close and I was about to fly to Toronto, when I saw on Spotify that kisses had been released. I didn’t have any headphones with me so I had to wait until after landing and settling into the city to listen to it. It felt thrilling. It was the first time they’d released material since after I started listening to them. I really enjoyed the single and looked forward to seeing if Slowdive were going to put out an album. They did indeed; Everything is Alive was released in September. I listened to it a few days before taking the train up to Edinburgh, just before starting my second year of university. I remember feeling disappointed the first time I heard it. Souvlaki has soundtracked many of my formative experiences since I first heard it at 16. The band has been one of the only constants these last four years, against a backdrop of perpetual changes. I have listened to songs from Souvlaki with people from different points of my life, with people who will never meet each other. Everything is Alive paled in comparison; it fell flat and I forgot about it, shortly after my initial encounter. I decided to listen to it again this February, as I was going to see Slowdive with a group of friends in Edinburgh. I thought it was absolutely beautiful.

The album’s intro, shanty, is exhilarating but calm. The track starts off with sharp, electronic triplet notes. This ostinato is underscored by hazy synths. Shortly after, a countermelody comes in with the drum beat. The balance in the volume between all elements is interesting; each fades in and out, taking turns to dominate and submit to the soundscape. Shanty feels existential; it feels huge and serenely empty. Everything is Alive is an album I listen to alone. It differs from Souvlaki in that regard. Souvlaki evokes outward connections; I feel connection to places, to people, to memories. Everything is Alive forces me to look inward. Neither feeling is objectively better; they are simply different and there’s merit in both. My favourite line from shanty is: ‘Time runs on once more / Another ghost is born / I feel like change will come / When the night rolls in’. The language is straight-forward; Slowdive aren’t expressing anything new. Despite this, the lyric is striking. I like the juxtaposition of the certainty in ‘change will come’ with the vagueness of ‘when the night rolls in’. Change is the only constant in life,and it still manages to catch you off-guard every time. Slowdive’s style has changed but of course it would. It’s almost 30 years since Souvlaki came out. Nothing is the same. Nor should it be. Why should I expect Slowdive to recreate a similar sound to who they were, long before I was born?

The style of the album cover diverges from the hazy self-portrait of Souvlaki. The album cover of Everything is Alive is composed of geometrical lines, forming a labyrinth with a hooded figure in the middle. Even though the figure is central, it’s by no means the cover’s focal point; it’s swallowed by the concentric squares which radiate outwards from it. Each part is detached from, yet harmonises with the whole, mirroring the sound of the album itself. We hear everything: crisp electronic lines, balanced against fuzzy synths and tender vocals. Chained to a cloud resonates with me too. Similar to shanty, the track also starts with an ostinato of electronic-sounding triplets. The lyrics are entirely composed of rhetorical questions: ‘Did you really understand? / Falling down to begin again / Did you see it’s all real? / For the part of us to let go’. The vocals are soft and fuzzy, with different band members singing different lines, giving it a fragmented feel. The track’s title is a powerful image: chained to a cloud. It conveys the feeling of tying yourself to something so tenuous, tying yourself to things you have outgrown but don’t feel ready to let go. And then, ‘falling down to begin again’: sometimes new beginnings only make sense in retrospect. There’s a profound melancholy to Everything is Alive, albeit in a cathartic way. This album didn’t do much for me when I listened to it in September. However, I gave it time, listened to it again and everything started to make sense. Everything felt alive to me, even the mundane. It feels cleansing in a way that Souvlaki doesn’t. On the track alife the band members sing ‘Hey, just look at us now / Time made fools of us all’. The tone is introspective, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The same can be said about the album as a whole: Everything is Alive explores heavy topics but keeps it light.

Andalucia plays is the song that is most focused on holding onto endings, memories, and reflection. It captures the feeling of nostalgia for a moment that has passed, and can never be recreated exactly the same way. The song starts with the lyric ‘the sun’s coming up,’ mirroring shanty: ‘I feel like change will come / When the night rolls in’. In both songs, the passing of time is set up as a marker of inevitable change. The night can feel liminal, like a non-place or a transitory period. In andalucia plays, the rising of the sun lifts night's veil and the speaker is forced to face reality. The song is also full of minute yet intimate details: ‘wearing your favourite shirt / French cloth and polka-dot’. Grasping onto these seemingly tangential details keep memories alive. They help to relive moments in the mind's eye; it feels personal. Perhaps my favourite lyric in the song however, is: “I dream like a butterfly / Perfect and temporary”, purely because of the pairing of “perfect and temporary”. Everything is transient but there’s beauty in each phase of life. It’s reassuring knowing that when one chapter ends, the next one has the potential to be just as brilliant, if not better. Sometimes forgetting all you have learned and working with a blank canvas is liberating. Slowdive have opened themselves up to new horizons. Everything is Alive feels quieter, more contained in comparison to Souvlaki. The band’s sound has matured, whilst still feeling new and exciting after 30 years of performing together. I look forward to seeing what they become.