Attack of the Killer Track! is a series that explores tracks from artists from a variety of genres. Some of the tracks were singles, some of them were obscure b-sides or long forgotten album tracks. One thing is certain – all of them are killer tracks.
The mid 90’s saw former shoegaze critical darlings Ride move from their noisier past towards a more melodic future. Released in 1994, the band’s Carnival of Light was a critical and commercial failure, which has baffled me for years. The band didn’t sell out to play Oasis styled Britpop – in fact, Carnival of Light came out 2 months before the debut Oasis album, Definitely Maybe. So why was the album such a dividing point for fans and critics? I guess if a band releases one of the definitive albums of a different musical movement (1990’s Nowhere) it is tough to see the band in a different light. I’d say early Ride with its shoegaze centric aesthetic sounds like a completely different band from the mid 90’s Britpop centric version. I Don’t Know Where It Comes From was the 3rd single lifted from Carnival of Light and is my favorite track from the album. A dreamy, 60’s vibe courses through the song – the meeting of nostalgia & wistfulness. It’s a perfect introduction to this period of Ride – a period that would only last 1 album and still hasn’t found popular or critical acceptance 20+ years later. That’s a damn shame, but it doesn’t dilute the impact of these memorable tunes. Start with this song and work your way into the full album.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa-cE3c-hAw]