Pygmalion (album)

Pygmalionis the thirdstudio albumby EnglishrockbandSlowdive, released on 6 February 1995 byCreation Records. It was the group's final album before their disbandment in 1995 and later reformation in 2014, and their only album with Ian McCutcheon, who had replacedSimon Scotton drums.
Pygmalionis a significant departure from theshoegazestyle that Slowdive had established in their previous twostudio albums,Just for a Day(1991) andSouvlaki(1993). The album features a more experimental sound tilted towardsambient electronic music,with sparse, atmospheric arrangements.Pitchfork's Nitsuh Abebe described the album's songs as "ambient popdreams" that are stylistically closer topost-rock, in the then-contemporary first wave of the genre, than the band's trademark style.Regardless,BBC Musicwriter Wyndham Wallace still viewedPygmalionas a shoegaze album, although not in the conventional sense of the style, noting that at points the album forgoes conventional percussion, or percussion in general, entirely.
With the exception of the lyrics for the songs "Miranda" and "Visions of LA", which were written byRachel Goswell,Pygmalionwas composed byNeil Halstead.Several songs on the album reflect Halstead's experimentation with digital technology and techniques such asloopingandreverb. This was born out of his then-increasing fascination withelectronicaanddance music,which he had been introduced to in 1992 by ex-SeefeelmemberMark Van Hoen, who had playedAphex Twin'sSelected Ambient Works 85-92for Halstead.
Pygmalionwas released on 6 February 1995 byCreation Records.The cover illustration for the album, designed by Steven Woodhouse,features imagery from Rainer Wehinger'sgraphic notationforGyörgy Ligeti's 1958 workArtikulation.Though Slowdive had begun preparing for an expected tour of the United Kingdom in support ofPygmalion,a week after the album's release Creation dropped Slowdive from its roster, and by the end of the year the band had split.
TheSanctuary Recordssubsidiary labelCastle Musicissued aremasterededition ofPygmalionin 2005.Cherry Red Recordsissued another remastered edition of the album on 16 August 2010, with a bonus disc consisting of demo versions ofPygmalion-era tracks.
Pygmalionwas largely overlooked by contemporary music critics, with competing musical trends and the radically different style of the album being main factors according to journalist Kieron Tyler; with theBritpopgenre at the height of its popularity, Slowdive were seen as "past-their-sell-by-date shoegazers" by a music press who were more interested in covering the Britpop scene.For instance, inMelody Maker, Jonathan Selzer dismissedPygmalionas "an insipid attempt at prettiness".John Harriswrote inNMEthat the album represented a seeming act of "career suicide" by the band, for whom he composed a mock epitaph: "Slowdive... They could have had the world, but they decided to go all skeletal and wibbly and make sneakingly fascinating records that will sell absolutely fart all."However,Q'sAndrew Collinswas positive and enthusiastic, saying that the album "basks splendidly in its own sod-you resonant shapelessness."Caroline Sullivan ofThe Guardianwas intrigued by the album's sound and quipped that it "should spark many a philosophy debate—after all, if music is this minimal, can it be said to exist at all?"
In a retrospective review forPitchforkin 2005, Nitsuh Abebe calledPygmalion"a detour of the best sort",and in a separate appraisal forAllMusic, Abebe stated that "for anyone who appreciates the indirect and intangible, it's a stylistic masterpiece."In his review for BBC Music, Wyndham Wallace wrote thatPygmalion"remains Halstead and Goswell's masterpiece",whileHead Heritagewriter Rust Phimister said that with the album, "Slowdive distilled the expansive aural atmospheres ofSouvlakito perfection."Trouser Press, however, found thatPygmalion"completely lacks all the tension, songwriting, sounds and power of the band's work, leaving only the spatial dimensions", deeming it "essentially a solo ambient recording" by Halstead "that should have been released under his own name".
ThePygmalionsong "Blue Skied an' Clear" was featured in the 1995 filmThe Doom Generation;Gregg Araki, the film's director, is an avowed fan of Slowdive.
In 1999, critic Ned Raggett rankedPygmalionat number 122 on his list of the best albums of the 1990s forFreaky Trigger.In 2016,Pitchforklisted it as the 12th best shoegaze album of all time.PitchforkdescribedPygmalionas a "post-rock masterpiece" in a 2018 article that included quotes from several musicians professing appreciation for the record, including members ofLow,The Twilight Sad,Deafheaven,Múm,A Place to Bury Strangers,Survive, andGirlpool.
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
Slowdive
Production
Design