Ride – “Charm Assault” & “Home Is A Feeling”

Now I’m all for the comeback of influential bands these days, but I’ve learned it’s best not to hold one’s breath too hard in terms of them recapturing the spark that might have caught early on. That said, Ride come crashing through with two new tracks that embrace all the elements that made them such favorites over the years. The first is “Charm Assault,” a powerful, driving jangler that feels its own debt to Going Blank Again. The band spent a good deal of time honing their current sound while bouncing the reunion circuit and the renewed live legs may well have given them the drive for new material. It seems that immersing themselves in their catalog did well for finding a classic catch with some popped-on new production from dancefloor mainstay Erol Alkan. While this track captures the upbeat catchiness of their slightly more outgoing material, the second peek, “Home Is A Feeling,” creeps back into the warm blanket of Shoegaze that they built on Nowhere. So it seems they truly are embracing what made them work and blending eras on the new LP. Good to have them back.