A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
My record collection
[273] Various artists - Still in a Dream
Cherry Red Records have been trotting out these extensive compilations for a number of years (as have some other reissue/legacy labels like Ace and Two Piers and Rough Trade) and I suspect AHFoW related acts have been sprinkled around many similar collections. Both Galaxie 500 and Luna turn up on this one, which is subtitled 1988-1995 A Story of Shoegaze. I’ll spare you a discussion on my opinions of music pigeonholing - but imagine me rolling my eyes!
I guess I bought this comp, and none of the others because:
- It has a pretty good tracklisting across its five CDs
- It has tracks by both Galaxie 500 and Luna, and also a track by The Belltower (one of Britta’s pre-Luna bands)
Obviously Galaxie 500’s and Luna’s contributions aren’t anything I don’t already have… multiple times. So I guess reason #1 is the best reason to have this collection.
The collection is packaged as a book and had a lengthy essay on shoegaze (that doesn’t mention Galaxie 500) by Neil Taylor - and little puff pieces on each track, neither the Galaxie 500 or Luna ones have anything insightful to say so are not worth me copying them down!
So… just because - I’m going to pick my three favourite tracks from each of the five discs†!
Disc 1
- Galaxie 500 - Tugboat (obv)
- Kitchens of Distinction - The 3rd Time We Opened the Capsule
- Pale Saints - The Sight of You
Disc 2
- Lush - De-Luxe
- Cranes - Inescapable
- Bleach - Decadence
Disc 3
- Th’ Faith Healers - Gorgeous Blue Flower in My Garden
- Spiritualized - Run
- Curve - Ten Little Girls
Disc 4
- Swallow - Sugar Your Mind
- Spectrum - True Love Will Find You in the End
- The Belltower - In Hollow
OK I picked this video (which does have In Hollow towards the end), for other reasons - as follows:
- Outshine the Sun (which is better than In Hollow)
- Britta looking gorgeous with dark hair!
- Britta making eggy bread!
Disc 5
- Drugstore - Alive
- Luna - 23 Minutes in Brussels
- Seefeel - Plainsong
Plainsong is from Seefeel’s masterpiece Quique and is the best track on this album (with the obvious exception(s))
Here’s a Spotify playlist of my picks
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/169
- Artist: Various artists
- Title: Still in a Dream
- Packaging: Hardbacked book
- Format: 5xCD
- Bought from Amazon for £35.99
† Restricting myself to three per disc means no room for so many great bands - also I could easily have picked different tracks on each run through - I haven’t though too hard about this!