The Legacy of Slowdive’s Pygmalion

In order to commemorate their upcoming deluxe vinyl reissue of Slowdive’s wonderful Pygmalion, Pitchfork has assembled several artists — including Low’s Alan Sparhawk, Deafheaven’s George Clarke, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, and Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner — to discuss Pygmalion’s legacy and influence.

From Alan Sparhawk:

Pygmalion was this attempt to break free from some of what they had already been doing. Some of the mystique of course is that they disappeared a little bit after that. They had this weird mythical life where, OK, they had this thing, and they tried to shift, and the sheer process of trying to find new ground buried them. How noble, you know? We identified early on with their story of having this very distinct thing — just who they were, the setup, the tone — and then with Pygmalion the fact that they were trying to push forward is, at least in our book, pretty cool. We’ve toured with them a few times since they got back together, and there were a couple shows where they just blew the ceiling off. It was exhilarating.

I caught Slowdive on tour with Low back in 2014, and they did, indeed, blow the ceiling off. And here’s my review of Pygmalion.