One of the pioneers of the UK shoegaze genre, Slowdive has had a fraught history, with bandmembers and recording deals coming and going, critical praise and backlash, break-ups and make-ups. Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, childhood friends who formed the band in 1989, kept the faith and brought the band together to release an eponymous EP in 2017, the first recording in 22 years. The group’s reincarnation with the original lineup and a new full-length album, Everything Is Alive, finds the critics happy again, touting “exquisite songs” (The Guardian), “a masterpiece of subtlety” (Pop Matters), “same atmosphere, more depth,” (Far Out), and Spin’s rave, “The U.K. shoegaze legends push their sound to remarkable places.”