Hits From the Superunknown—Songs by bands you need to be told are famous

The "Superunknown": a realm that floats just between stardom and obscurity. Bands that find their way there are usually superstars in some circles, but those circles don't overlap with many others. They really are famous, but you have that on someone else's authority.

This one is about staring at your feet. Toes up for rock’n’roll?

The word “Shoegazing” was invented by the British press to make fun of a scene of bands that tended to perform completely motionless, staring at their feet and blankly refusing to engage the audience. They did it partly to make sure no one thought they were making music to be famous, but mostly because it was the only way to keep track of all their damn pedals. Hallmarks of Shoegaze include making sure the guitars don’t sound much like guitars, playing them so that they all blur together, burying the vocals, and turning the whole thing up to 11.

Vapour Trail is the only single from Ride’s 1991 album Nowhere, the second best album in the shoegazing genre. It may seem a bit arrogant to throw in my opinion as fact, but actually, there seems to be some consensus on this. Most people agree that while 3rd place is up to personal taste, the top two are reserved. Unfortunately for Nowhere it was pretty decisively robbed of the top spot when, only a few weeks after its release, My Bloody Valentine dropped Loveless. That’s not particularly fair competition, because Loveless isn’t so much the best shoegaze album as it is the best guitar album of the decade.

THAT was an opinion I arrogantly passed off as fact.

Over time Loveless has grown more and more legendary, and Nowhere sank into the Superunknown. That’s a wrong that needs righting, because Nowhere is still great—especially its closing track, Vapour Trail. Vapour Trail has many of the stamps of Shoegaze, such as swirling guitars and a massive sheet of loudness, but it doesn’t stick to the script; the guitar effects are fairly minimal (just two 12-string guitars), and I can actually understand the lyrics. The lyrics, coupled with the way the sound dreamily winds and whirls, give the weird impression that it’s about a guy serenading a vapour trail. Which is good, because it's about guy serenading a vapour trail. Either that or he's serenading a person by calling them a vapour trail, which makes even less sense.

Vapour Trail is considered Ride’s magnum opus, and one of the greatest tracks in all of shoegaze. That's certainly true, but I think it's also just a classic of pop. And if I can convince someone of that, that means someone's actually reading my blog, which would be weird.