Pygmalion (album)

A departure from their previous two albums, Pygmalion incorporated a more experimental sound tilted towards ambient electronic music, with sparse, atmospheric arrangements. All compositions were by Neil Halstead. Lyrics on tracks "Miranda" and "Visions of LA" were by Rachel Goswell.

The cover illustration features imagery from Rainer Wehinger's graphic notation for György Ligeti's work Artikulation (1958).[1]

The album was remastered and reissued on Cherry Red in 2010, with a bonus disc consisting of demo versions of Pygmalion-era tracks.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Guardian	[3]
NME	5/10[4]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[5]
Record Collector	[6]

Pygmalion has been well-received by critics. AllMusic called it "a stylistic masterpiece",[2] while BBC Music echoed similar sentiments, writing that Pygmalion "remains Halstead and Goswell's masterpiece" and comparing it to the ambient work of Brian Eno.[7] Head Heritage wrote that with the album, "Slowdive distilled the expansive aural atmospheres of Souvlaki to perfection."[8]

Pitchfork noted the change in style, describing the album's tracks as "ambient pop dreams that have more in common with post-rock like Disco Inferno than shoegazers like Ride".[5]

A negative review came from Trouser Press, which wrote that the album "completely lacks all the tension, songwriting, sounds and power of the band's work, leaving only the spatial dimensions", calling it "essentially a solo ambient recording by singer/guitarist Neil Halstead that should have been released under his own name".[9]

The song "Blue Skied an' Clear" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1995 film The Doom Generation.

In 1999, critic Ned Raggett ranked Pygmalion at number 122 on his list of "The Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties" for Freaky Trigger.[10] In 2016, Pitchfork placed it at number 12 on its list of "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time".[11]

All tracks are written by Neil Halstead, except where noted.

Slowdive

• Neil Halstead – vocals, guitar, production
• Rachel Goswell – vocals, guitar, production
• Christian Savill – guitar, production
• Nick Chaplin – bass guitar, production
• Ian McCutcheon – drums, production

Additional personnel

• Chris Hufford – engineering, production