We pushed them, you picked them. Our week-long poll of the top shoegaze and dream pop albums of 2017 has now effectively closed, and there was much disagreement as to what should take the top spot. Except for one. The grand return of Slowdive, with their self-titled album, bested all comers by a nearly three-to-one margin. And why should it not? Nobody could have predicted even three years ago that Slowdive would ever consider returning in their original incarnation, much less produce an album’s worth of songs that felt both comfortably familiar, and the next logical extension, for this revered band. That Russia’s Blankenberge cracked the top five? We take that as a personal point of pride, as I don’t know anyone who’d pushed as hard for their success this year. Not that it took a lot of arm-twisting, as even limited exposure to Radiogaze seemed to win instant converts. Good for them, good for us.
We’ve limited the list to the top 25, in vote order. But, if you’d like to view the full tally, you can reference it at any time, here. Our tastemakers will weigh in with their personal picks next week, and we’ll just see how they agree or diverge.
Shannon on December 8, 2017
I somehow missed seeing the poll! I’m glad though that 4 of my faves this year are on there. Miniatures, Slowdive, Airiel, and Deafcult!