There’s something to be said about ’90s shoegaze bands returning years later to release some of their strongest material to-date. My Bloody Valentine did it on M B V in 2013, Slowdive accomplished it twice with their 2017 self-titled and last year’s everything is alive, and now Ride return with their seventh album, Interplay, this week.
Like their contemporaries in the ’90s, Ride seemed to burn out a hair too soon, closing up shop in 1996. Their reunion albums (2017’s Weather Diaries and 2019’s This Is Not a Safe Place) retained some of the spark of their beloved early tunes, but Interplay doubles down on the signature Ride sound with enchantment and confidence.
Interplay conjures the image of a sun rising after a long, freezing night, perhaps a response to pandemic darkness. That sentimental air certainly made its way into Interplay’s lead single, “Peace Sign,” where vocalists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener sing in harmony, “Give me a peace sign/ Throw you hands in the air/ Give me a peace sign/ Let me know you’re there.”
The track — which might be Ride’s most openly positive– seems designed for a festival crowd, but the call for connection feels directed at each other. The quartet, comprised of Bell and Gardener on guitars and vocals, Loz Colbert on drums, and Steve Queralt on bass, physicalize the title Interplay by meeting for some of the most harmonious sounds in their discography, perhaps rivaled only by their still-remarkable 1992 sophomore album, Going Blank Again.
The frequent rushes of burning guitar brightness sometimes come at the expense of emotional release. It’s not that Bell and Gardener don’t depict these tortured themes — they just find dozens of ways to offset them with moments of shimmering beauty and peace. Gardener’s “I Can See the Wreck” is perhaps the most anguished track on the album, with drama in his vocal delivery, the thick atmosphere behind him, and the eventual full-band freakout tinting the song a gothic hue. “This is a system breakdown,” Gardener sneers, a hint of panic sneaking into his conviction.