Souvlaki (album)
Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: Template:Start date | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Outside Your Room199351993studioSouvlakiSouvlaki (album) cover.jpgSlowdiveTemplate:Start date1992* Protocol (London)
- Courtyard (Sutton Courtenay)
- The White House (Weston-super-Mare)* Shoegaze<ref name="PitchforkShoegaze"/><ref name="Paste">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- dream pop<ref name="Paste"/>Template:DurationCreationSlowdivex|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}
Souvlaki is the second studio album by the English rock band Slowdive. It was recorded in 1992, and released on 1 June 1993 by Creation Records.
On its initial release, Souvlaki peaked at number 51 on the UK Albums Chart and was greeted with tepid reviews from critics. It has since received retrospective critical acclaim and has been hailed as a classic of the shoegaze genre.
Background
Prior to the writing of Souvlaki, Slowdive co-vocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead had ended their relationship and Halstead began to spend more time writing songs alone, a process that had been completed by the full band in the past.<ref name="PitchforkClassic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The album's title was inspired from a skit by American prank call comedy duo The Jerky Boys, where one of the duo telephones a hotel manager requesting him to perform sexual acts on his wife. Upon learning the manager is Greek, the caller says: "My wife loves that Greek shit... She'll suck your cock like souvlaki."<ref name="Watson">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
Recording
While touring Europe in early 1992, Slowdive began tentative work on Souvlaki, writing and recording multiple takes of around 40 potential songs.<ref name="Watson"/> According to the band's chief songwriter Neil Halstead, these early songs were influenced by Joy Division and the David Bowie studio albums Low (1977) and Lodger (1979).<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/> Alan McGee, the head of Slowdive's label Creation Records, was unimpressed by the band's material and rejected it, though he later decided to give Slowdive full creative control over the album.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/><ref name="Watson"/>
After returning to the United Kingdom following a May 1992 tour of the United States, Slowdive contacted Brian Eno, of whom Halstead was a "big" fan, and requested that he produce Souvlaki.<ref name="Watson"/> While Eno declined, he did agree to spend a few days recording with Slowdive, and out of these sessions came the tracks "Sing" and "Here She Comes".<ref name="Watson"/> Following the sessions with Eno, Halstead began to take greater influence from ambient music in his songwriting; he has cited Aphex Twin, dub music, and early drum and bass as influences for the track "Souvlaki Space Station".<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/>
Meanwhile, Halstead was in a fragile emotional state due to his recent breakup with Goswell.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/> At the suggestion of Slowdive's manager, Halstead temporarily exited the recording sessions for Souvlaki in the summer of 1992 and travelled to Wales, where he stayed in a rented cottage for around two weeks.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/><ref name="Watson"/> In Halstead's absence, only bassist Nick Chaplin and guitarist Christian Savill persisted in recording material, though Savill would later recall that he and Chaplin ended up merely recording several "joke songs".<ref name="Watson"/> By the time he returned, Halstead had written a new batch of "stark and much more personal" songs, including "Dagger", which would make the final album.<ref name="Watson"/> He has said that the lyrics he penned during this period were informed by both his solitary living conditions in Wales and his feelings about the end of his relationship with Goswell.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/>
Souvlaki was mixed by Ed Buller, who had previously worked with Suede and Spiritualized.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/>
Release
Souvlaki was released on 1 June 1993 through Creation Records.<ref name=CreationMM93>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It peaked at number 51 on the UK Albums Chart dated 12 June 1993, 19 places lower than Slowdive's debut studio album Just for a Day (1991), and spent one week on the chart.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was released in the US through SBK Records on 8 February 1994.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The US release included four bonus tracks: a previously unreleased cover of "Some Velvet Morning" (written by Lee Hazlewood and originally recorded by Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in 1967), and three tracks from Slowdive's 1993 5 extended play (EP).<ref name="Rabid"/>
A two-disc remastered reissue of Souvlaki was released in 2005 by Castle Music, a subsidiary label of Sanctuary Records.<ref name="Abebe">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> The second disc featured the "Some Velvet Morning" cover, two tracks from Slowdive's 1993 Outside Your Room EP, all tracks from their 5 EP, and Bandulu and Reload remixes of 5 track "In Mind". Another two-disc remaster was released by Cherry Red Records on 16 August 2010, featuring the same bonus tracks on the second disc.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Critical reception
Souvlaki was released in the UK to middling reviews from critics.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dave Simpson of Melody Maker wrote: Template:"'Sing' aside, I would rather drown choking in a bath full of porridge than ever listen to it again."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> John Mulvey of NME reacted with muted praise, calling Souvlaki "another exemplary product from spangly guitar heaven" yet ultimately deeming it a "pretty, but unfulfilled" album.<ref name="Mulvey"/> In 2015, Slowdive and Alan McGee stated that they felt that Souvlaki was released at a time when dream pop and shoegaze had become unfashionable and the music press were more interested in Britpop bands such as Oasis.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/>
In later years, Souvlaki has been met with more widespread acclaim.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Jack Rabid praised the album as "quiet, moving, and aggressive simultaneously, mixing trance-like beauty with the deepest delayed guitar sounds around, a sound at once relaxing, soothing, and exciting, and most of all harshly beautiful."<ref name="Rabid"/> Nitsuh Abebe of Pitchfork described it as "a bit of an Essential Slowdive in itself", with songs that are simultaneously "pillowy-soft and passionately deep".<ref name="Abebe"/> PasteTemplate:'s Zach Schonfeld called Souvlaki "the definitive shoegaze statement".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Legacy
In 1999, critic Ned Raggett ranked Souvlaki at number 83 on his list of the best albums of the 1990s for Freaky Trigger.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pitchfork released a documentary about the album in 2015 as part of its Pitchfork Classic series.<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/> The following year, the website listed Souvlaki as the second best shoegaze album of all time.<ref name="PitchforkShoegaze">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Souvlaki has since been recognized as one of the best releases of the 1990s and one of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time by the websites NME and PopMatters.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Track listing
Template:Track listing Template:Track listing Template:Track listing
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.<ref name="Notes">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
Template:Columns-start Slowdive<ref name="PitchforkClassic"/>
- Neil Halstead – vocals, guitar
- Rachel Goswell – vocals, guitar
- Christian Savill – guitar
- Nick Chaplin – bass guitar
- Simon Scott – drums
Additional musicians
- Brian Eno – keyboards and treatments on "Sing" and "Here She Comes"
Template:Column Production
- Ed Buller – mixing
- Guy Fixsen – engineering
- Giles Hall – engineering (assistant)
- Chris Hufford – engineering
- Yvette Lacey – engineering (assistant)
- Marcus Lindsay – engineering (assistant)
- Martin Nichols – engineering
- Slowdive – production, mixing
- Andy Wilkinson – engineering
Design
- Steve Double – sleeve photography
Charts
| Chart (1993) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Independent Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 3 |