Thanks to the internet and downloading in the early 00’s, it was possible to read about bands like Cocteau Twins and Godflesh in forums and then check the music out for yourself. You didn’t need to know someone with a cool record collection, nor did you even need a record store! You could download the discographies of obscure acts like Dif Juz, Meat Whiplash and Flipper, read their Wikipedia entries and become an expert instantly.
By the end of the decade, tons of those bands have reformed, garnered critical appraisal far greater than they had initially experienced and had their catalogue repressed on vinyl. All’s well that ends well, I hear you say.
But something was lost in the process: context, literacy, connections.
And, in this new book from the acclaimed writer/music commentator, Simon Reynolds muses on all of this while reexamining links between groups one may not have thought of before.
From how Cocteau Twins and early REM share a lack of conventional singing through to how the likes of Tad, Dinosaur Jr and Nirvana were a response to the punks discovering classic rock as well as an entrenchment of the more macho elements of rock music, there is much to rediscover and reappraise.
And some angles that can cause arguments . . .
One bit that did irk me was his surface level critique of Steve Albini’s persona during this period. While some of what he said/wrote has been correctly attacked, it’s important to remember the context of the time. As one commentator wrote:
...it's worth mentioning that you sort of had to be there to understand how some of this sort of bullshit fit into the cultural miasma that was 'punk rock' in the '80s.This was before 120 Minutes...Hot Topic...'American Idiot.' Punk rock was a fairly anarchic and unstructured community full of completely ungovernable people where bad behavior was not only tolerated, but often encouraged. You had this massive gamut of subcultures within the subculture - from the very rigid and codified dress code and lifestyle of the skinheads to the ascetic straight-edge kids to the 'how many of these can I take and still stagger onstage in a wedding dress and a cow's head?' performance ethic of bands like the Butthole Surfers.
I watched a girl come out of the bathroom at 688 and throw a cup of hot piss at Henry Rollins one night because she really liked the band. Two friends of mine came out of a night club in Miami and saw Nick Cave standing in the alley. When they said 'Hey, Nick! We love you! Nick!' and he turned his back on them they got pissed and beat him up. y'know, because they loved him. Punk rock was for fucked up people...It wasn't just suburban teenagers with edgy haircuts and skateboards. It was hustlers, fuckups and untreated psychotics, it was addicts and dwarfs and that girl with one arm and a snake tattooed on her cheek.
Why does this matter? Because the terms of rebellion weren't so codified then. 'Right' and 'wrong' were pretty fluid in a lot of people's minds … How fucked up a spectacle could you make? How outrageously could you behave? These were hallmarks of quality before it all got codified into 'How many records can you sell?
Yes, it’s now considered ‘edgelord’ terrain in the online sphere. Back then, it can be argued, that one way of responding to political conservatism was through the dark underbelly. As one ages and matures, we should confine such interests to memory (although the popularity of true crime would suggest otherwise).
Similarly, while correctly noting how most of the music scene was often passively political,(directly or indirectly) he neglects to discuss how this ended up in a situation where according to Andrew Calcutt:
A new political order has emerged in which the victim is supreme, and adults are treated more like children. Meanwhile, many adults are more likely to think of themselves as victims, or to identify with the motif of the authentic, innocent child. The result is a convergence between on the one hand the spontaneous development of a cultural personality which is victimized and childlike, and on the other hand the remoulding of the individual’s relationship to the state in accordance with his supposed immaturity. The convergence of these trends is facilitated by the already existing non-adult language provided by the counterculture and the pop culture which succeeded it.
Regardless, although not on a par with other Reynolds books like Retromania or Rip it Up and Start Again this is still an immersive read that celebrates an eclectic moment in time as well as critiques it.
Simon Reynolds, 2026, Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994. White Rabbit Press ISBN-13: 978-1399618373
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
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