Review:
Going Blank Again

SOME PEOPLE say that bands should be 'Scene' and not heard, but I say OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS!

After last year's too-cosy niche of delicate music, 1992 has begun breeding a new defiance and damnation of The Trend. Already Lush have pulled their fingers out and made a half-decent record, now Ride drop the big one. Maybe no surprise to their partisan followers, but it's enough of a shock to me, having had to endure 'Leave Them All Behind' which, contrary to the predictably safe reviews, was ultimately a drab and indistinct record.

Worry worry worry. Ride, after all, have been 'away' for a year, supposedly trying 'to be human again' (don't these people ever look in the mirror?), living Real Life In Oxford and writing songs. If 'Leave Them All Behind' was anything to go by Oxford is full of very real, very grey inhabitants who would make very good librarians. 'Going Blank Again' is not an optimistic title. It sounds like a record to appease a scene - which, by the way, letter writers, is more alive in the heads of record-buyers than it is journalists. The scene is an inevitable self-perpetuating product of peer pressure as much as a media tool. Think about it. ''GBA' follows their debut LP 'Nowhere'. It is the second worst directional album title of all-time behind John Otway's 'Where Did I Go Right?'

And yet after all this, the four handsome boys do the business. This in the LP that restores my faith in Ride and reminds me of all the promise of their early demos/gigs/charm. Ride have looked beyond previous parameters of wah-wahing, (stomach) churning sound and moved on to a different level of pop music.

This LP has some top punk rock bass guitar on it! Some new effects pedals! New ideas! It is not 'Going Nowhere Again' which is the album we feared they'd make. Instead, 'GBA' fills in the lines between Ride's beauty with cement and then builds like a demon. There is no stone left unturned, as they open up to new reference points... would you believe King Crimson? New Order? The Who? The Beach Boys? Ride have reinvented themselves whilst retaining all the cuteness of Haircut 100.

'Leave Them All Behind' starts Side One in dour fashion before we get to the first of the Good Songs/Crap Titles, 'Twisterella' (signalling a rejuvenation of the pop suss, last seen with 'Like A Daydream'). Other sparkling songs emerge later, including the '70-ish guitar-fuelled 'Time Of Her Time' with its crazed, flighty theme line. The old Ride is still there.... possibly the vocals, which have become part of their hallmarked sound, waver too much in places. There is still that trace of nervousness in both Mark Gardener and Andy Bell's voices that at the same time undermines the overall power of the songs, yet gives them a sense of vulnerability which is quite (bitter) sweet. Examples: 'Not Fazed', 'Chrome Waves' and 'Cool Your Boots' which are dreamy and catchy with nice touches of acoustic guitar and ostentatious sweeping keyboards. This is the lovely, daft and majestic face of Ride.

Side Two is the nasty side. This is the first time Ride have gone where Jeffrey Archer will never tread, writing proper epics. The final two tracks show a self-control that replaces the old Ride's lapse into indulgence (one of the failings of 'Nowhere'), with both 'Time Machine' and 'OX4' striving towards a more structured madness - the sort of tracks that should be played through speakers the size of a door. 'Time Machine' has a chipper, loping tune with big string effects capturing the 'distanced' mood of the words ("Some fantasy you've been/Pick up the pieces in my mind/I'm going home". The new Ride sound less stressed out! More laid-back.

There's less here to suggest that they're desperate to impress. They don't need to hang out in the right places - or be 'Scene' to be safe. Judging by this, Ride should get out less.

NME - 1992

recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Chipping Norton, England by Alan Moulder and at Blackbarn Studios, Ripley, England by Matt Oliver
mixed at The Church, London, England by Alan Moulder, assisted by Dick
produced by Alan Moulder and Ride