Mazzy Star Still

Four Decades of Folk Rock is an expansive box set, allowing one disc and over an hour of music for each decade. For those who would argue that folk-rock was primarily a 1960s phenomenon in the United States and a '60s and '70s phenomenon in Britain, the box counters that the musical strains of folk-rock have informed everyone from R.E.M. to the Bangles to David Gray. It's unlikely, though, that anyone but record shop nerds and music historians will be very interested in the debate. For everyone else, the set will be measured by the quality of the music itself, and on that account, Four Decades delivers a remarkable set list.

During the latter half of the 1980s, a wave of alternative artists began to explore a gentler, more ethereal sound, bringing a dream-like aesthetic to the rock and pop idiom. Taking its lead from the UK (and the 4AD label in particular), this refined approach soon spread, particularly to the United States, slowly picking up the moniker “dream pop” – a catch-all term rather than a genre within itself.
Curated by the same team as our successful ‘Still In A Dream’ 2016 shoegaze set, ‘Cherry Stars Collide’ explores that sound as it emerged in the mid-80s and proceeded to define a less grounded, more thoughtful approach to musical expression than was offered elsewhere. Fusing and blending with other genres along the way. – from the guitar driven shoegaze movement and proto-Britpop to the post ‘C-86’ generation and the nascent leftfield clubbing scene – that sound both drew in artists already operating elsewhere and inspired new artists to embark their own journey.

It’s pretty tough to leave the world of Blueflowers once the song starts. You may not want to. The Detroit-based outfit set the mood, they dim the lights, they spark the projector and they transport the listener. Led by the husband/wife songwriting-duo of singer Kate Hinote and guitarist/producer Tony Hamera, Blueflowers evoke a noir-drenched neverland clouded by a surreal, cinematic haze of reverb.

Majesty Crush was filed and misfiled in one category or another throughout their brief but extraordinary career. They answered the call to open up for just about every dream pop, paisley, or shoegaze band that made it to the Midwest in the early part of the 90s… Mazzy Star, The Verve, Julian Cope, Chapterhouse, Curve and My Bloody Valentine just to scratch the surface.

Universal Music Presents The Best Acoustic Album In The World…Ever! album original hits and the original artists genre Acoustic, Blues, Rock.

rigid Mae Power’s music never quite settles on solid ground. The Irish singer-songwriter flits between past and present; between traditional and modern forms; between the heaven in her voice and the earthbound epiphanies of her words. Her last album was called The Two Worlds. I’d say she inhabits a few more than that.