Happy New Year and good riddance to 2025! Hope you had a nice holiday and are back to knowing what day it is. If you’re still unsure, it’s the first real new release week of the year and things are starting off with a small bang, including records from Dry Cleaning, The Cribs and indie rock collective Winged Wheel (which includes members of Sonic Youth, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Matchess, Spray Paint and more). There’s also the latest from Prins Thomas, Daniel Lopatin‘s awesome score for the equally great movie Marty Supreme, and a look back at The Soundtrack of Our Lives‘ debut album.

Need more? Notable Releases spins new ones from Zach Bryan, Feels Like Heaven (Speedway), Jenny on Holiday (Let’s Eat Grandma), and more.

In other news, a new SAULT album dropped in typical surprise fashion today, and MEMORIALS announced their second album. Also, Morrissey is back on Sire Records somehow.

If you’re still behind on 2025, check out the Indie Basement Favorite Albums of the year list, and if you’re read to move on, peruse BrooklynVegan’s Most Anticipated Albums of 2026 (and listen to Dave, Andrew, Amanda and myself talk about some of them on BV Weekly).

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Dry Cleaning – Secret Love (4AD)
Cate Le Bon helps this unique band refine their voice for their most nuanced, appealing album yet

“Rocks in my dreams / Use some bread to dip / I want you, your boots.” Florence Shaw’s lyrics and delivery feel like being privy to an interior monologue as she goes through her day, where serious thoughts, deep realizations, and witty observations are interrupted by remembering you need to buy onions and pay your electric bill. Such is the way Shaw and Dry Cleaning — a band who claim they formed by accident and sometimes still can’t believe they’re still going — have done things from the start, and they’re clearly doing better than they ever expected, including a Grammy win for 2022’s Stumpwork (best album package for its awesome, if divisive, cover art).

When it came time to record their third album, however, the band felt a little stagnant and adrift. They had already tracked around 20 songs in various locations, including their rehearsal space, Jeff Tweedy’s Loft studio in Chicago, and sessions with members of noise rockers Gilla Band. Hoping to tie it all together, they enlisted Cate Le Bon, whom they met while at The Loft (she produced Wilco’s Cousin). Le Bon suggested they start from scratch, with everyone heading to Black Box studio in France’s Loire Valley. Incorporating ideas from those earlier sessions but funneling them through Le Bon’s guiding sensibilities, it clearly worked: Secret Love is Dry Cleaning’s most nuanced, approachable album yet.

Le Bon also encouraged Shaw to break out of her dry, droll sprechgesang and actually sing, and “Joy,” the final track on Secret Love, is a great example of that. Shaw’s spoken-word delivery is still there, as she mixes worries about the world with text from a book on the history of food and drink, but now it’s almost as if she’s humming to herself along the way, keeping time as the rest of the band lays down a slashing, melodic post-punk backing. And are those harmonies we hear? Joy indeed.

Speaking of the band, there’s wonderful touches throughout, including the spiderweb lacing on Secret Love’s title track, the delicate arpeggiations of “Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit,” the dirgey noise of “Evil Evil Idiot,” the atmospheric touches coloring the dubby clank of “Hit My Head All Day,” and the minor-chord jangle of “Blood,” which sounds a little like Shocking Blue’s “Venus” by way of The Smiths. This is still the same Dry Cleaning, just refined and sounding more like themselves than ever.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: The Cribs – Selling a Vibe (Sonic Blew / PIAS)
Brothers won’t break: Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman make one of their best Cribs albums 20+ years into their career

Formed by brothers Ryan, Gary and Ross Jarman in the West Yorkshire city of Wakefield, The Cribs were one of many mid-’00s UK guitar bands to spring up in the wake of The Strokes and The Libertines — a scene they were often lumped in with but never quite felt part of. Survivors who made it through falling out of fashion, a stint with Johnny Marr as a second guitarist, moves to NYC (Ryan) and Portland (Gary), and more than a little record label bullshit, their bond has kept the trio together and remarkably consistent for over 20 years.

Selling a Vibe is their ninth album, their first in six years, and further proof of The Cribs’ resilience and distinctive sound: perfectly shambolic guitars, melodies that pull from the earliest days of rock n’ roll, and their signature use of a spirited “Whoa-oh!” to punctuate a chorus. What’s heartening about The Cribs is both how little they’ve changed and how good these songs still sound. “If Our Paths Never Crossed,” “A Point Too Hard to Make,” “Summer Seizures,” and “Distractions” are all classic Cribs songs, brimming with that Jarman brothers je ne sais quoi, and could’ve appeared on any of their ’00s-era albums.

Producer Patrick Wimberly (ex Chairlift) adds a little synthy gloss but otherwise doesn’t get in the band’s way, though it’s a surprise to hear tenor Francisco Morales vocalizing operatically on “You’ll Tell Me Anything.” It’s jarring the first time, but it works. Lyrically, Selling a Vibe touches on nearly everything the band have been through and what’s kept them together, closing with what may be their new signature song, “Brother’s Won’t Break,” which has all three Jarmans singing in unison: “All that our roots did was just trip us up / But there’ll never be any shame / For the things that we would never change.” Long live The Cribs.

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Daniel Lopatin – Marty Supreme Original Score (A24 Music)
The man also known as Oneohtrix Point Never collaborates with director Josh Safdie for a third time for a very-’80s score for a 1950s-set ping pong drama

While I enjoy Oneohtrix Point Never albums — like his latest, Tranquilizer — Daniel Lopatin often does his best work collaborating with others, whether that’s co-writing with pop stars or working in the service of film, television, or commercials. Filmmaker Josh Safdie really seems to bring out the best in him, and the score for Safdie’s fantastic new movie Marty Supreme (their third film together) might be the best thing Lopatin has ever done. Though the movie is set in 1952, the soundtrack — from the score to the needle drops — is entirely centered in the mid-’80s, and the juxtaposition works beautifully, giving this hustler and ping-pong prodigy the air of a bright future he’s always reaching for, even when things are going wrong. (Spoiler alert: that’s much of the film.) Tangerine Dream’s score for Risky Business is a clear inspiration, as is Vangelis (Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire) in its airy layers of synth, fretless bass, pan flute, and Fairlight-era homage, while the use of percussive instruments owes more than a little to Steve Reich and plays directly into the sport that drives the film. There are also a number of collaborators here, including ambient great Larajii on zither and percussion, flautist Izaak Mills, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Synchron Choir, and Weyes Blood, who provides ethereal, wordless vocals. (Safdie himself is even credited with “sound effects” on a few cuts.) Above all, the Marty Supreme score is fun and engaging even without the film, but hearing it blast through a theater sound system makes it even better.

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Winged Wheel – Desert So Green (12XU)
This collective featuring members of Tyvek, Matchess, Spray Paint and more deliver intoxicatingly gothy choogle on their third album

This “experimental super-band,” featuring members of Tyvek, Spray Paint, Matchess, plus Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and more, were born out of the pandemic, with songs made long-distance as members added parts almost Exquisite Corpse–style before eventually becoming a formidable live band. New album No Island (their third) was also recorded remotely by the core quartet of Fred Thomas, Whitney Johnson, Cory Plump, and Matthew J. Rolin, but you can feel their symbiosis as if it were hammered out live after a six-week tour in a rehearsal space. Heavy on dark vibes and smoldering, drony jams, Winged Wheel ride a storm cloud formation across the horizon, churning up a gothy choogle that could appeal to fans of Joy Division, The Grateful Dead, Neu!, and Cocteau Twins. These creations allow the members to stretch out and explore, world-building as they play off one another — equal parts creepy, alluring, and dissonant.

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Prins Thomas – ​​Thomas Moen Hermansen (Prins Thomas Musikk)
The Norwegian cosmic disco royalty is still master of his craft on his effervescent 10th album

For a country so near the Arctic Circle, Norway has produced a remarkable number of artists who excel at making warm, breezy music. On the electronic side alone there’s Todd Terje, Lindstrøm, and Prins Thomas, all of whom seemed to emerge from the same cosmic disco nebula in the early 2000s. The title of Prins Thomas’ 10th album is his given name, Thomas Moen Hermansen, and it features a photo of him as a child; is this the equivalent of the old trope where a self-titled release represents an artist’s truest encapsulation? Perhaps, but more concretely it’s Prins alone with his machines, no guest vocalists, delivering a 40-minute dancefloor aerobic workout full of cordial melodies, bubbly synths, bouncing rubbery bass, and simple kick-snare beats accented by electro handclaps, with tempos that stay comfortably below 120 BPM. Thomas Moen Hermansen sounds like liquid sunshine you could spray on your windows during a spring cleaning — or at least use to keep yourself motivated through the dirty work at hand.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Welcome to the Infant Freebase (Warner/Telegram)
Few bands turned rock cliches into something transcendent like TSOOL. Their double album debut still sound amazing 30 years on

When Sweden’s awesome, fearsome — and underheard outside Scandinavia — Union Carbide Productions broke up in 1993, vocalist Ebbot Lundberg, guitarist/songwriter Björn Olsson, and guitarist Ian Person formed a new group: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Adding bassist Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm, keyboardist Martin Hederos, and drummer Fredrik Sandsten, their love of rock & roll and on-stage showmanship remained unabated, but with TSOOL the sound shifted from The Stooges and MC5 toward anthemic, early-’70s stadium rock. The lineup clicked almost immediately, with a torrent of songs pouring out of them, resulting in their 20-song double-album debut, 1996’s Welcome to the Infant Freebase.*

The album opens with “Mantra Slider,” which slow-builds to its killer riff that, like much of their best work, feels so familiar you’re sure they nicked it from someone — even if you can’t quite place who. Often, it was The Who, but in this case it’s The Stones. Every element of their big sound has its place, from the layers of guitars to the melodic basslines, vintage organs, and deft-touch drumming. It’s as if they absorbed every great album from 1971 and synthesized them into one new, 70-minute creation.

Then there’s Lundberg, whose lyrics veer into Syd Barrett-style psychobabble but always sound right, delivered with total conviction. (Dressing like a Trappist monk helped.) From there, the hits keep coming: the groovy “Firmament Vacation,” the sky-high “Instant Repeater 99,” the trippy, baroque “Embryonic Rendezvous,” the storming “Confrontation Camp” (song titles were not their strong point) — the whole thing is great.

Fittingly, the album arrived just as Oasis were entering their post-Morning Glory downswing, and it almost felt like TSOOL picked up the ball and ran with it. They were, however, a far more exciting live band, knowing every trick and every rock cliché in the book, but deploying them with such confidence it felt like they’d invented them. If you got swept up in Oasis reunion fever last year and are craving more, give these Swedes a shot.

*TSOOL had so many songs for their debut that the runoff would fuel their second album two years later that was also a double. In fact, all but one of their six studio albums were doubles. They’re all worth checking out.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

Top 20 Shoegaze EPs of the Early-’90s

20. Bleach – Snag (1991, Way Cool Records)

Formed by brothers Neil and Nick Singleton, Ipswich, UK’s Bleach unfortunately ran out of songwriting steam before they released their first album. (Hey, it happens, just ask Elastica.) The band managed to deliver one terrific EP that showcased their moody style, with guitarist Neil providing the haze and bassist Nick providing the mood. Like a lot of shoegaze groups of this era, singer Salli Carson’s ethereal vocals seemed more like an equal element of Bleached’s sound, as opposed to a focal point. “Bethesda,” with its tom-heavy drumming is especially good, as is “Dipping.”

Extended listening: the cover art is the most distinctive thing about Bleach’s 1992 album Killing Time, but it’s the only one of their releases on streaming services.

19. Medicine – 5ive (1993, Creation)

Led by Brad Laner, who spent time in the ’80s in L.A. cult post-punk band Savage Republic, Medicine were arguably the U.S.’s best shoegaze band, with a firm grip on melody, noise and dynamics, and they weren’t afraid of sampling or dance culture. They also had rare bonafides for an American band; they were signed to Creation in the UK. (Rick Rubin’s American Recordings put out their records at home.) The 5ive EP, also known as Come Here to Drink Milk, takes the tremolo-heavy title track (originally on their debut album) and pairs it with the ragged version of “Time Baby” (not the version with Liz Fraser & Robin Guthrie), searing slow jam “Lime 6,” and the quasi-industrial “Wrought.”

Extended listening: The Sounds of Medicine EP has the Cocteau-ized version of “Time Baby” from The Crow soundtrack, plus “stripped and reformed” versions of other songs, but the 1993 sophomore album The Buried Life is Medicine at their best.

18. The Telescopes – Flying (1991, Creation)

Having got their start in the mid-’80s, The Telescopes predate shoegaze but were part of the dark neo-psych scene that included Spacemen 3 and Loop (who they shared a split 7″ with in 1988). By their fourth EP for Creation, 1990’s Flying, The Telescopes had blasted off most of the white noise in favor of groovy psychedelia that put them somewhere between The Stone Roses and Ride, but frontman Stephen Lawrie was always on his own sonic plane. With layers of 12-string guitars — acoustic and electric — Flying‘s title track is one of their best pop songs, while “High on Fire” heads deep into outer space and “The Sleepwalk” showed they could confidently compete with their Creation labelmates that were getting much more ink in NME.

Extended listening: 1990’s Celeste EP features an amazing 10-minute version of the title track that’s worth the price of admission.

17. Blind Mr. Jones – Eyes Wide (1992, Cherry Red)

Their fondness of flute gave Blind Mr. Jones the reputation of being the shoegaze Jethro Tull, but this band from Marlow, UK were one of the more underrated groups of the era, with a distinctively British sound, a decided goth streak, and consistently memorable, melodic (New Order-esque) bass lines. There are no wind instruments on the Eyes Wide EP but it does feature Slowdive’s Neil Halstead who gifts the record with some of his transcendent guitar cloud cover. All four songs are terrific. Is your favorite Ride song “Decay” from Nowhere? You should definitely investigate Blind Mr. Jones further.

Extended listening: Compilation Over My Head collects everything Blind Mr. Jones recorded, including the Crazy Jazz EP that featured Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.

16. Adorable – Sunshine Smile (1992, Creation)

While they owed more to Echo & the Bunnymen or House of Love than My Bloody Valentine or Ride, Adorable were signed to Creation Records, peppered their very catchy songs with guitar noise and got not entirely unfairly lumped in with the shoegaze scene…even if frontman Peter Fijalkowski bristled at the word in interviews. One thing’s for sure: “Sunshine Smile” was a hell of an introduction that sounds like its title, a wonderful guitar-drenched pop song with a slinky slowburn intro that gives way to a massive guitar riff chorus. The two b-sides — melancholy-drenched ballad “A to Fade In” and the Madchester-leaning “Sunburnt” — are great, too, as is the cover art which uses imagery from The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Extended listening: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling EP takes its title track from Adorable’s debut album, Against Perfection, and adds three good b-sides, especially “Everything’s Fine.”

15. Catherine Wheel – 30th Century Man (1992, Fontana)

Released in the last week of 1992, this limited edition EP was a step up, sonically, for Catherine Wheel who had never sounded so confident and powerful, giving fans a taste of what they might get with 1993’s Chrome. This is probably a controversial pick, given that three of the four songs here are covers, but Catherine Wheel seriously deliver the goods with these killer takes on Scott Walker’s “30th Century Man,” Husker Du’s “Don’t Wanna Know if You Are Lonely” and Mission of Burma’s “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver.” Their cover of “30th Century Man” is particularly inspired, while the other two merely rip (while they make them their own). The EP’s original, “Free of Mind,” is great too.

Extended listening: If you just want great Catherine Wheel songs, the Black Metallic EP has four of them, including the title track which was a Modern Rock Radio hit in the U.S.

14. Kitchens of Distinction – Drive That Fast (1990, One Little Indian)

Kitchens of Distinction would probably be classified as dreampop these days; Julian Swales was up there with Robin Guthrie and Neil Halstead for being able to coax out gorgeous waterfalls of sound from his guitar, but bassist/frontman Patrick Fitzgerald was a confident frontman who had a lot to say. (They were probably closer to The Sound or The Chameleons than to Ride or Lush.) Released as a precursor to their second album, Strange Free World, “Drive That Fast” is one of KoD’s best-ever singles and the EP’s other tracks are all good, with the dark, boozy “These Drinkers” and a piano rendition of single “Elephantine” being standouts.

Runner up: The Elephantine EP has the full-on swirling version of the title track, plus three worthy other tracks.

13. Lilys – A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (1993, spinART)

Kurt Heasley has reinvented Lilys a few times over the last 30 years, but the group began as noisy indie rockers who pulled equally from late-’80s Creation Records and Dinosaur Jr’s freak scene. This wonderfully titled EP has some of Lilys’ catchiest songs, including “Ginger” (which inexplicably ended up getting used in a 2007 Cadillac commercial), “Any Place I’ve Lived” and “Jenny, Andrew and Me.” It’s one of their best releases and, sadly, also one of the rarest…out of print, not on streaming services, and used copies are hard to come by.

Extended listening: Lilys’ debut single, “February Fourteenth,” is a real ripper.

12. Verve – All in the Mind (1992, Hut)

Before they became Britpop stars with “Bittersweet Symphony” and “Sonnet,” The Verve were just Verve (they had to add the “The” after legal threats from Verve Records), a band from Wigan, England who made out-there, super-groovy psych rock. The group pretty much disowned the title track of their debut EP moments after releasing it, but what do they know? “All in the Mind” is a propulsive space-hopper jam that really shows off Nick McCabe’s incendiary fretwork, Simon Jones’ deeply melodic bass, and the indispensable, jazzy style of drummer Peter Salisbury. The other two tracks — the beautiful “One Way to Go” (featuring a great vocal from Richard Ashcroft) and dreamy “A Man Called Sun” — are more indicative of where The Verve would go on their debut album, A Storm in Heaven.

Extended listening: The Verve E.P. was the band’s introduction to the U.S., taking tracks from their first three singles/EPs, including “A Man Called Sun,” and edits of their tripped-out A-sides “Gravity Grave” and “She’s a Superstar.”

11. Swervedriver – Duel (1993, Creation)

Another band who got better when they burned off some of that haze, Swervedriver made a massive leap between their first album, Raise, and their second, Mezcal Head. A big part of that was a new lineup of the band — which included a much-improved rhythm section of drummer Jez Hindmarsh and bassist Steve George — that could really rip. But it was also better songs and more muscular production courtesy producer Alan Moulder who was very busy in the early ’90s. (He probably worked on half the records in this list.) The soaring, roaring “Duel,” arguably the album’s finest moment, is backed with two killer B’s: the majestic “Planes Over the Skyline,” and starry eyed “Year of the Girl,” both of which have Jez going full Keith Moon.

Extended listening: Standalone single “Never Lose That Feeling,” which would be tacked-on the U.S. edition of Mezcal Head, was actually the last record the original lineup of the band made. The EP version melts into the dubby “Never Learn,” making for a very worthy 11 minutes.

10. Chapterhouse – Mesmerise (1991, Dedicated)

In the UK, there was a lot of cross-pollination between shoegaze, acid house and the Manchester scene, and few groups pulled all those together as successfully as Chapterhouse. Coming just a few months after releasing their debut album, Whirlpool, the four-song Mesmerise EP — which is is sometimes listed as a single — features two great examples of their blissed-out style: the title track, which blasts out thick waves of synthesizers against a piano hook, was as much a Madchester anthem as anything else; while “Precious One” rides a bongo-fueled groove. There’s also the swirling, ambient “Summer Chill” and the windswept guitar haze of “Then We’ll Rise.”

Extended listening: 1990’s Freefall EP falls a little more into space rock territory, but “Falling Down” — which uses The Soul Searchers’ “Ashley’s Roachclip” drum break sample heard in Eric B & Rakim’s “Paid in Full,” Milli Vanilli’s “Girl You Know it’s True” (and on many, many, many other records) — pointed to the direction they would soon be heading.

9. Curve – Blindfold (1991, Anxious)

Curve were an interesting group, as both Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia had been around for a while in the industry; Dean was a live member of The Eurythmics in the early-’80s, and they were both in short-lived ‘80s band State of Play, who made one record and then broke up. Dean played on Toni’s 1989 solo album, and then they decided to take another whack at a group, perhaps taking My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon” as an influence, mixing hazy guitars with dance music. With Halliday’s powerful pipes it was an alluring combination. Alan Moulder, who they’d worked with in State of Play and on Halliday’s solo album — and who was THE shoegaze engineer — was the de facto third member of the group. Curve released three EPs in 1991, all of which are great but the first, Blindfold, is the best with the seductive single “Ten Little Girls”  featuring something no other record on this list has: rapping.

Extended listening: Curve’s second EP, Frozen, is also killer, featuring “Coast is Clear” — one of their best-ever tracks. All three of their 1991 EPs were collected onto the Public Fruit album.

8. Velocity Girl – Velocity Girl (1993, Slumberland)

While mainly known for its influential punk scene, Washington DC also had a thriving indie rock scene in the late ’80s and early-’90s that was heavily influenced by the UK’s C-86 scene and labels like Creation, Cherry Red and 4AD. Velocity Girl, in fact, were named for Primal Scream’s song on C-86, and played a similar style of very fuzzy janglepop. The group included former Black Tambourine member Archie Moore and, originally, Bridget Cross who, when she left to focus on Unrest, would be replaced by vocalist Sarah Shannon. The band’s gift for melody, and love of shambolic, noisy guitars, is evident on this EP that collects songs from three early 7″s. “My Forgotten Favorite,” which would turn up a few years later on the Clueless soundtrack, is the obvious standout (and arguably VG’s best song), but the other five songs are equally stellar.

Extended listening: Velocity Girl were more fond of 7″s than EPs, but their 1993 debut Copacetic (released, like all their albums, on Sub Pop) has held up well, and gotten better with age.

7. Ride – Today Forever (1991, Creation)

Released just a few months after their debut album Nowhere, the Today Forever EP takes Ride out of the hazy murk and into cleaner production without sacrificing their signature swirl. The EP also shows a growing confidence in songwriting and arrangements, like with the powerful, deliberate “Sennen.” Today Forever was never released in the U.S., and is unknown still to a lot of fans, though three of its four tracks found their way onto the American “Vapour Trail” CD maxi-single…but it leaves off one of Ride’s prettiest songs ever, “Today.”

Extended listening: Ride’s 1989 debut EP contains classics “Chelsea Girl” and “Drive Blind.”

6. The Boo Radleys – Lazarus (1992, Creation)

Like a number of shoegaze bands, The Boo Radleys spent a couple years hiding their musical skill and good songwriting behind a wall of MBV-inspired noise. This resulted in some great music but when they came out of their shell, they got even better. Released not long after their wilfully dissonant Everything’s Alright Forever LP, the Lazarus EP felt a bit like seeing the band with a new pair of glasses. The signs had been there all along for The Boo Radleys, but all four songs here are a step up in every way. “Lazarus” would show up on 1993’s Giant Steps, but without the long, dubby EP intro that pays off so well when the song roars into focus. It’s also amazing they’d delegate songs as good as “Petroleum” and “At the Sound of Speed” to b-side material.

Extended listening: 1991’s Every Heaven EP is pretty fantastic with a nice balance of melody and roar, and has one of the Boos’ best-ever songs, “The Finest Kiss.”

5. Slowdive – Holding Our Breath (1991, Creation)

While clearly influenced by the Cocteau Twins‘ shimmering style, Slowdive didn’t really sound like any other group from the original shoegaze era, with an oceanic guitar swell that remains unique and mysterious. “Catch the Breeze,” which would also show up on their 1991 debut album, Just for a Day, is an all-time classic but the rest of this EP is just as captivating. Rachel Goswell’s ethereal harmonies on “Shine” will never not send shivers down your spine, and their cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair” is rather titanic.

Extended listening: Slowdive’s debut EP, Morningrise, nods to the band’s ‘80s goth youth while pointing toward the direction they’d soon head.

4. Moose – Jack (1991, Hut)

If it wasn’t for Moose, this list might have to be called something slightly different, as the word “shoegaze” was first used in a Sounds review of one of their early gigs. That is probably enough to warrant an inclusion here, but luckily Moose were a great band who carved out a distinct corner in The Scene That Celebrates Itself. Their first of three 1991 EPs, Jack, was as dissonant as they got, but underneath the bandsaw guitars were melodies rooted in a classic songwriting style that owed as much to Burt Bacharach as the Velvet Underground. That would bubble up to the surface more as the band progressed, but you can hear it on both “Ballad Of Adam & Eve” and “Boy.” The EP kicks off with the awesomely drony title track, and wraps with moody ballad “I’ll Take Tomorrow.”

Extended listening: By the release of their third 1991 EP, Reprise, they were already halfway to the breezier style they’d adopt for XYZ and subsequent albums, and it features the gorgeous, country-ish ballad “This River Never Will Run Dry.” Songs from Moose’s early EPs were cherry-picked for the Sonny and Sam EP, the only record Moose ever got released in America. Criminally underrated, I <a href="https://www.brooklynvegan.com/a-look-back-at-moose-the-u

3. Pale Saints – Flesh Balloon (1991, 4AD)

In between their first and second albums, Pale Saints added singer-songwriter-guitarist Meriel Barham to their lineup, changing the dynamic of the group for the better. She made her debut on this EP, singing lead on a playful, dreamy cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Kinky Love.” The whole EP is fab, though, with the sprawling, dramatic “Hunted” — which would show up on second album In Ribbons — and is one of the best examples of the group’s unique mix of beauty and noise. There’s also a demo of “Hair Shoes,” which shows up in full studio version on In Ribbons, but the real standout here is spectacular instrumental “Porpoise.”

Extended listening: 1990’s Half-Life Remembered is pretty great too, especially “Half Life” which toys with Madchester beats. The title track is great.

2. Lush – Mad Love (1990, 4AD)

Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie was behind the boards for this four song 12” that remains the perfect distillation of everything Lush did so well. Quintessential Lush song “De-Luxe” leads the EP that also includes the equally wonderful dreampop track “Thoughtforms” both of which feature Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson’s signature guitar and vocal interplay. plus great minor chord slashers “Leaves Me Cold” and “Downer.” Lush made many great records during their brief run, but if you can only have one, make it this.

Extended listening: Lush’s debut, the six-song Scar mini-LP is excellent too, if a little rough around the edges. You don’t have to choose, either: Gala compiles Mad Love and Scar, plus a couple other tracks, on one album. It’s also hard to argue with picking up Ciao! Best Of Lush which includes their dabblings in Britpop (like the title track which was a duet between Miki and Jarvis Cocker).

1. My Bloody Valentine – Tremolo (1991, Creation)

While My Bloody Valentine’s 1990 Glider EP features their danceable classic “Soon,” the 1991 Tremolo EP has an overall higher hit-count, and sees Kevin Shields and the rest of the band continuing to break new ground. Tremolo features the swirling, transportive “To Here Knows When,” the beautiful “Swallow,” glide guitar ripper “Honey Power” and the churning, Brian Wilson-esque “Moon Song.” Nearly 30 years later, listening to this dazzling EP’s four songs will have you wondering “How did they make this?” and “are my stereo speakers functioning properly?” A must-own companion to Loveless.

Extended listening: Then again, Glider does have “Soon.” Get them both!