A lil bit of impressionism.

The guitar in rock music is often looked as being a tool of clumsy destruction, not an instrument capable of elegance or transcendent beauty. Starting in the late 1980s however, an underground movement of musicians, known as shoegazers for their introverted stage presence, strove to craft intricate dreamscapes through their guitar pedals. The result has been a series of impressionistic masterpieces, albums shrouded in crystalline guitar tones and ethereal vocals, with the following cuts remaining the best of the genre. – TA

Cocteau Twins | Treasure (1984)

Before the open reliance of guitars producing walls of sound to achieve hazy bliss, Elizabeth Fraser set the template for atmosphere with The Voice. Fraser caterwauls between yowls and harsh consonants, and coupled with equal parts drum machines and harpsichord, Treasure evokes medieval courts and witch incantations. The first escape into a netherworld of removed tranquility. –TA

Essential Track: Lorelei

Ride | Nowhere (1990)

More so than other seminal shoegazers, Ride’s debut took standard song structures and placed them into a setting similar to Nowhere’s cover art of a lone oceanic wave: a crossroads of breathy ambiance and reverb-soaked hard rock. The songwriting teeters between stylistic extremes of the string-laced splendor of “Vapour Trail” and the drum-and-feedback earthmover “Dreams Burn Down”. The most accessible album for new converts of shoegaze. –TA

Essential Track: Vapour Trail

My Bloody Valentine | Loveless (1991)

The crowning achievement of shoegaze, Loveless has seen its mythology grow through the years. Principal songwriter/guitarist Kevin Shields bankrupted his label and disappeared from music after obsessively seeking a specific sound. That particular sound is the musical equivalent of Monet paintbrushes and bubblegum vocals unglued at the seams. The result is a masterpiece that has forced critics to resort to increasingly absurd metaphors. Are the endless blankets of sound in “To Here Knows When” a return to the womb? Exactly. –TA

Essential Track: Sometimes

Slowdive | Souvlaki (1993)

While the genre moniker invokes images of awkward teens staring downwards, no other shoegaze band were better able to achieve sky-scraping statements than Slowdive. The songs of Souvlaki are best measured in degrees of weightlessness as many replicate the drifting off during dreams. Then “Souvlaki Space Station” arrives and you are launched practically into orbit. No one said lightheartedness wouldn’t hurt. –TA

Essential Track: Souvlaki Space Station

M83 | Saturdays = Youth (2008)

Many shoegaze albums seem intent on creating an idyllic world outside the musings of reality. With Anthony Gonzalez’s inspiration for Saturdays=Youth being a fond gaze back at the 80s, notably the classic coming-of-age films such as The Breakfast Club, Gonzalez uses synthesizer and guitar to craft a cathedral of nostalgia. During the second-half daydream of “We Own the Sky” one cannot stop themselves from experiencing perfect Autumn days on repeat. –TA

Essential Track: Kim & Jessie

Note: This was written for a collaboration article for Ohio Northern's Northern Review.