Track Listing

1. 01. Chelsea Girl
2. Drive Blind
3. Like A Daydream
4. Taste
5. Dreams Burn Down
6. Vapour Trail
7. Unfamiliar
8. Leave Them All Behind
9. Twisterella
10. OX4
11. Birdman
12. From Time To Time
13. How Does It Feel To Feel?
14. I Don't Know Where It Comes From
15. Black Nite Crash

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19055 in Music
• Released on: 2006-02-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
OX4: The Best of Ride brings together the best tracks from Ride's brief but bright reign. Much maligned throughout the Britpop years, Oxford's Ride were to be remembered as the progenitors of shoegazing, a movement that dominated the early 90s indie scene with a personality-free strain of skyscraping noise-rock. Fortunately, in hindsight, a listen to OX4: The Best of Ride displays a very different band: a group determined to break out of the self-imposed boundaries of British rock music by drawing on the extremities of the Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain, and harnessing their explosive rush to pop songs that fizzed with the enthusiasm of youth. From their glorious, passionate inception on their first two EPs, Ride and Play (see the starry-eyed clatter of "Chelsea Girl", and the heart-stealing harmonic jangle of "Like a Daydream") to their growth into champions of retrodelica, with Carnival of Light-era tracks such as "I Don't Know Where It Comes From" summoning classic tunes out of the ether, Ride sounded like true pioneers. The closing, Rolling Stones-pillaging "Black Night Crash", from the poorly-received Tarantula LP is the only really pointless inclusion here, the sound of a band burnt out. But that leaves OX4 with a pretty impressive strike rate.-- Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Way to much..........
The fact that you are viewing this suggests to me that you are either a ex - shoegazer, looking to resurrect your student days, or you are a revivalist, delving into the jangly world that was indie of the early Nineties. Either way this album will fail to satisfy. Ride were a phenomonally good band, don't misunderstand me, but just what is the point of this album. The selection of tracks for disc 1 is an excellent montage of the development of the band over the 6 or so years that they performed, but is available as a single CD. The Live at Reading disc fails to capture Ride's awesome sonic wall, and quite frankly spoils the memory for those of us who had seen them live; and as for the 3rd disc; a sorry excuse which will only interest retentive obsessives (you should be ashamed of yourselves). My advice, buy the Single CD version, listen to Taste and Leave them all Behind and decide to buy the full albums. OX4 in it's current format is way to much and delivers way to little.

I'd forgotten how good Ride actually were....
This retrospective provides a wonderful introduction to Ride's talent and the strength of indie music in late 80s/early 90s. Extracts are taken from all four studio albums, ranging from early feedback ridden frenzies to melodic classics. Highlights include "Dreams Burn down" (and the outtake version on the Boxed set is even better), "Taste", and "Going Blank again" (surely the best opener to a studio album ever.)

The album weakens in the final quarter, but any sound would when compared to the quality of earlier listings. Rack the sound up, and you'll begin to smell the sweat of student gigs.

Should Make Judy Smile
Here's a strange dichotomy for you. Had Ride started out on their rock 'n' roll journey today, they'd never have progressed from the Oxfordshire pub circuit. They'd never have a fanbase, with the kids too busy listening to nu-metal, punk or whatever the US alternative gravy train has to offer this week.

However, if Ride had never existed, music wouldn't be like this. Indeed, with The Stone Roses and My Bloody Valentine, Ride helped to shape independent, alternative guitar music. They were, no less, the harbingers of Britpop, Oasis, The Verve and the like.

And so here we are, over a decade later, finding ourselves re-examining Ride's contribution to British popular music. Five albums, some wonderful early EPs, a couple of anthemic singles (not least Leave Them All Behind, which still sends shivers down my spine every time I listen to it) and some really BIG fringes. Once mocked by the press, now almost universally loved. But why?

Well, one thing is for sure, the songs have aged pretty well. "Leave Them All Behind" and "Twisterella", despite some suspect production, are still amazing, even after repeated listens. The early stuff does sound a bit dated, yes, but you could never knock "Chelsea Girl" and "Like A Daydream", simply because their quality shines through so clearly. And then their Byrds revivalist period - the clothes got sillier, the band all got Swedish wives, and the music soared. "Birdman" and "I Don't Care Where It Comes From" - essentially a "You Can't Always Get What You Want" for the 90s - here represent what for many was the epitome of Ride's creative powers. And then there was Tarantula, but the less said about that the better...

All going well so far, isn't it? But this is the problem with pretty much all "Best Of" albums. Whilst with some bands a compilation of singles would suffice (say, The Jam or Madness), to do the same to Ride would be positively heretic. Where's the wonderful "Seagull" and "Kaleidoscope" from their Nowhere album - both infinitely superior to the messy "Dreams Burn Down"? Why is their best album, Going Blank Again, only represented by three songs? Who wants to hear the dross of "Unfamiliar"? And who was the idiot who left "Crown Of Creation", the best love song since George Harrison's "Something", off the album?

These and many other questions can only be answered by those responsible (apparently the band) for putting OX4 together. Ride had a bitter old break-up, so is it any wonder that Mark Gardener seems to have got his way and got the most space? The only fair way to have made this album would have been for Mark and Andy to compile a CD each.

That said, you can't argue with the quality of those tracks lucky enough to have survived the cut. If you've never heard of Ride, or have any amount of desire to discover what the bassist from Oasis did before he joined the Gallaghers, then by all means go buy it. Otherwise get Going Blank Again and Carnival Of Light.

(5) for the music, (1) for the many omissions. I only wish I could make compilations for a living...