Following their remarkable return to activity with their self-titled fourth album, Slowdive returned after COVID delays with 2023’s Everything Is Alive, proving once more that the group simply can’t seem to make a bad or even mediocre album while also avoiding simply repeating themselves. Embracing and exploring electronics to a fuller degree than ever on songs like the opening shimmering pulse of “Shanty” and “Andalucia Plays”’s slow float, their guitar atmospheres remain absolutely enveloping, with Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell’s vocals are equally, calmly entrancing.

– Ned Raggett