Mojave 3 - Resend to Turner

 

Mojave 3 formed from the ashes of celebrated shoegaze band Slowdive in 1995. Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Neil Halstead, bassist/vocalist Rachel Goswell, guitarist Simon Rowe, keyboard player Alan Forrester and drummer Ian McCutcheon, their first album "Ask Me Tomorrow" was released in 1996. In all they released 5 studio albums, their final album "Puzzles Like You" in 2006. This collection features 3 tracks from all 5 albums, plus 3 tracks from EP releases. 

According to wikipedia their musical style is described as: dream pop, indie rock, alternative country, folk. Well, there's certainly elements of all those genres on their albums, their first probably more alternative country than anything else, sounding quite similar to Mazzy Star. For me their greatest album was their 2nd, "Out of Tune", released in 1998. A huge leap forward from their first release in both quality of songs and sound. 

As much as I was a fan of Slowdive, especially the album Souvlaki, over the years I've found listening to the back catalogue of Mojave 3 a much more satisfying experience. Compiling these tracks was again a difficult task, I could have picked 3 completely different tracks from each album and it would still be a fine collection of their work. After the demise of Mojave 3, Halstead went on to form the short-lived band Black Hearted Brothers, releasing one album in 2013. The following year Slowdive reformed and released a new album in 2017, which I found a somewhat disappointing experience to listen to, though it did include (for me) a couple of outstanding tracks. 

I doubt if Mojave 3 will ever reform, but they've left a fine legacy and perhaps it's better if they left it that way. Personally I'd like to see more solo albums by Halstead, he released three between 2001 and 2012, his debut "Sleeping on Roads" for me one of the outstanding albums of that year. Maybe one day I'll post a Halstead anthology.

Huge thanks to Manerg for this project. It was he who suggested in the first place doing a Mojave 3 collection, also providing the title of this anthology as well as finding the excellent cover art. As ever, info containing track origin & year of release is tagged in the music files and in the download file. Enjoy!

  1. Give What You Take (4:25)
  2. Starlite #1 (4:54)
  3. Love Songs on the Radio (5:45)
  4. Any Day Will Be Fine (3:22)
  5. Big Star Baby (4:19)
  6. Yer Feet (4:13)
  7. Between Us (6:58)
  8. Star in the Sky (3:58)
  9. After All (3:30)
10. Bringin' Me Home (3:49)
11. Ghostship Waiting (3:05)
12. Battle of the Broken Hearts (6:38)
13. This Road I'm Travelling (5:31)
14. Return to Sender (4:42)
15. All Your Tears (4:36)
16. Running With Your Eyes Closed (2:10)
17. Hard to Miss You (2:50)
18. Mercy (4:56)

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