Souvlaki (partially found rejected Slowdive album tracks; 1991-1992)
Souvlaki album art.
Status: Partially Found
Souvlaki is the second album by British shoegazing band Slowdive. It is often considered the band's best work and is a staple of the shoegazing movement. The album is also infamous for its troubled, dramatic production and harsh negative reception at the time of release, being retrospectively hailed as one of the greatest albums in the shoegaze genre.[1]
Background
Production started after a tour supporting the band's first album, Just for A Day. Creation Records flubbed the album's promotion and blamed the band themselves, demanding that their next album be "full of hits". After a run-in with a toy train taking up the recording space (which another shoegazing band, Spiritualized, left behind as a joke), the band had an unproductive recording session. They then returned to England where they recorded a reported 40 tracks, of which the band was proud.[2] After allowing Alan McGee, the head of Creation Records to listen to the tracks he loudly declared "They're all shit!", causing the now frustrated band to have to go back and record the tracks that would become Souvlaki.[3]
Availability
Out of the rumored 40 recorded tracks, only around 20 have surfaced on various bootleg releases, which get sparsely distributed by fans. Despite fans' efforts to search for the tracks, the tracks remain missing. Even Slowdive co-founder Neil Halstead has stated that he doesn't have the master tapes and is hoping that the material gets released sometime in the future. Unfortunately, it seems an official release of these tracks isn't likely, as Sony holds all the rights to the Souvlaki demos. [4]
In 2016, two of the unreleased songs "Let's Go Away" and "One Hundred Times" were found and uploaded to Soundcloud by the user "Souvlakiss."
On July 10th, 2021, one of the songs "Sleep" had an unauthorized release on Spotify. It has since been removed, as the band themselves didn't approve of the release.[5]
On January 8th 2023, YouTube Channel Stained Glass Stories did an Interview with Slowdive guitarist Christian Savill about the songs. He said that "Hide Your Eyes" and "I Saw the Sun" were pretty close to being on the record because of Ed Buller doing mixing on them, that there exists a second version of the song "Summer Day", and also mentioned a song called "When Abby Calls" which never saw the light of day.[6]
Confirmed Songs
| Song Title | Availability |
|---|---|
| AB | Found |
| Alabama Moon | Partially Found |
| Ambient Nightmare | Lost |
| Ball Sack | Lost |
| Been in Love Before / One Hundred Times | Found |
| Bleed | Found |
| C Sharp Song / Instrumental Take One | Found |
| Chris Song #1 | Lost |
| Dagger (Electric) | Found |
| Final Day / Let's Go Away | Found |
| Gang Bang | Lost |
| Hide Your Eyes | Found |
| Hide Your Eyes (Version 2) | Found |
| I Can't Remember | Found |
| It's Not For You | Found |
| It's Not For You (Drum Machine Demo) | Partially Found |
| It's Not the Future | Lost |
| Jazz Odyssey / Jazzers | Partially Found |
| Jones Bayes | Lost |
| Joy | Found |
| Joy (Drum Machine Demo) | Found |
| Joy (Studio/Extended) | Found |
| Lady Hanging | Lost |
| Opus | Lost |
| Proggers | Lost |
| Shove 'em | Lost |
| Silver Screen | Found |
| Silver Screen (Courtyard Demo) | Found |
| Simon Song | Lost |
| Sleep | Found |
| Song 1 | Found |
| Song 1 (Drum Machine Demo) | Lost |
| Song 2 / "I Thought I Saw" | Found |
| Song 3 / Starman/Stars | Found |
| Song 4 | Lost |
| Song 7 / "I Saw the Sun" | Partially Found |
| Summer Day | Found |
| Summer Day 2 | Lost |
| Sweaty Scrotum | Lost |
| Tina Williams | Lost |
| Whales on Land | Lost |
| When Abby Calls | Lost |
References
- ↑ https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9966-the-50-best-shoegaze-albums-of-all-time/?page=5
- ↑ http://ianwatsonuk.com/slowdivetwo.html
- ↑ https://pitchfork.com/tv/27-pitchfork-classic/1429-slowdive-souvlaki/
- ↑ Lead singer, Rachel Goswell, stating Sony holds the rights to Slowdive's old demos. Retrieved 04 Dec '22
- ↑ Rachel confirming the Spotify release of "Sleep" was unauthorized. Retrieved 04 Dec '22
- ↑ Stained Glass Stories Interview with Cristian Savill Retrieved 01 Apr '24