Ride has returned with the news of their seventh studio album, Interplay, out March 29th via Wichita Recordings / PIAS. The new record is the Oxford four-piece’s third since reforming in 2014, having now been together longer in their current second phase than their original iteration as 90’s shoegaze pioneers. The announcement is accompanied by the album’s first single, “Peace Sign,” out now.
Interplay will follow 2017’s Weather Diaries and 2019’s This Is Not A Safe Place, which re-lit the Ride spark, both pleasing old diehards and introducing one of the most forward-thinking guitar bands of their generation to a whole new audience. Produced by the band with Richie Kennedy and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, it connects all the dots from their career, taking the frenzied guitar attacks, hypnotic grooves, and dreamy melodic hooks of their early work and setting it to a more expansive sonic template, inspired by 80’s pop gems like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk & early U2.
Thematically, it pairs classic Ride lyrical hallmarks such as escapism, dreams, and the dissatisfaction of modern life with a sense of resilience and perseverance that comes from imploding, then reforming and finding a way forward to their second peak. Guitarist and singer Andy Bell explains: “This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album. But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place.”
RIDE
Interplay
Wichita Recordings/PIAS
March 29th, 2024
1. Peace Sign
2. Last Frontier
3. Light in a Quiet Room
4. Monaco
5. I Came to See the Wreck
6. Stay Free
7. Last Night I Came
8. Sunrise Chaser
9. Midnight Rider
10. Portland Rocks
11. Essaouira
12. Yesterday Is Just a Song
