I've always had a lot of time for Ride. They remind me of the time when I had hair. Of my youth.In fact I had a few years on them when they first turned up with that glorious burst of records at the end of the Eighties and turn of the Nineties. Never really a particularly cool name to drop, they were nevertheless excellent at what they did, walking the line between guitar based pop and noise based art, they put out some fine records between 1989 and 1992.
They've been back together for a few years now. They played what was probably one of the finest gigs I've ever seen down the road from me at The Newcastle Carling Academy some time back. The albums they've put out since they're reformation, 2017's Weather Diaries and the recently released This Is Not a Safe Place don't quite do it for me, but this, Repetition from the latter is worthy of note.
It's written by guitarist Andy Bell, who is enormously proud of it, saying it's one of the best things he's ever done. I know what he's talking about. It's concise, melodic and powerful. Lyrically it says more than Ride generally do, using Eno's Oblique Strategies card method as a metaphor for their mode of creation and career in music, who they were at 18 and who they are now. I think it's great.
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