The five albums made by Mojave 3 stand as an answer to the shoegaze of Slowdive, the band which spawned this one. Heck, this music really is its own genre in a way, and it's never sounded better than on the reissues of the Mojave 3 catalog that 4AD is offering up today.
The three members of Slowdive formed Mojave 3 in the mid-Nineties, and presented Ivo-Watts Russell of 4AD with a demo tape that was so good he supposedly wanted to release it as is. The sounds were timeless in a fashion, and what Mojave 3 was doing from the start was quite far afield from the shoegaze of their earlier group, and that of era peers too. Today, we are greeted with remastered reissues of the group's quintet of records from the same legendary imprint. Now, when a whole lot of bands are doing dream-pop, there's a need to go back to the building blocks of the form. And so much of that now in vogue style started with either Slowdive or Mojave 3. That's another way to say that these five albums are foundational for fans of this kind of thing.
Ask Me Tomorrow from 1995 finds Rachel Goswell, Neil Halstead, and Ian McCutcheon from Slowdive starting out. Heard then, the windswept Americana of this record seemed a little barren in spots. Heard now, 30 years on, and the tunes seem ahead of their time. From the elegant "Love Songs on the Radio" to the gently insistent "Tomorrow's Taken", the tracks seem dissolute in a wonderful way. The vocals from Goswell are lovely but a little sleepy, while the brush-work from McCutcheon and slide guitar from Halstead, or Simon Rowe (ex-Chapterhouse) provide the modest energy for the tracks here.
Out of Tune from 1998 might just be the band's masterpiece. The addition of organ from Alan Forrester gives songs like "Who Do You Love" a woozy appeal. That one, the extraordinary "Caught Beneath Your Heel", and "Some Kinda Angel" are standouts, but the whole record really sounds like we're hearing the group come into its own. The sound, marginally more robust, seems more lived in, and producer Mark Van Hoen (Locust) made sure that there was a depth in this stuff that the first record was lacking a little. And the roots-y "Some Kinda Angel" continues this band's journey away from shoegaze towards something else entirely. So much of the best stuff from this period of Mojave 3 recalls classics from Gram Parsons, or even The Byrds' Gene Clark, a musician whose best solo record Ivo reissued. Of course, with Neil Halstead singing a little like Dylan on some of this ("Yer Feet", etc.), there's even more reason to approach this from angles not rooted in shoegaze or dream-pop.
Excuses for Travellers (2000) leans into the sound of the prior record. There's even a little here that sounds like Nick Drake ("Trying to Reach You"), though the slide guitar of Halstead seems almost a distraction at times on epics like "In Love with a View", the record's opener. Still, the partnership between producer Mark Van Hoen and Mojave 3 continued to bear ripe fruit with this warm turn-of-the-century offering. "My Life in Art", a down-tempo gem here, suggests a gentler version of the Americana from the group's first album. This is contemplative stuff, and more organic than the vaguely Western-tinged numbers earlier from Mojave 3. In a sense, this one is a more successfully realized version of the first record.
The epic "Bluebird of Happiness", the opener on Mojave 3's 2003 Spoon and Rafter takes the sounds heard on the prior three records and ups the drama a little. With vocals from Rachel Goswell in the mix, the vibe is still rustic, in a sense, but more spacious too. It's a neat blend of Halstead's vocals and slide guitar with a style that's a little more ruminative. "Starlite #1" benefits from more prominent synths that sound like they were pinched from a Stereolab session. The track is one of many here that is elegant and still precise, an indication that the band's sound was evolving a bit from the decided near-ennui of the first long-player from this group. For all that suggested forward progress from the group in 2003, it's simple numbers like the gorgeous piano-ballad "She's All Up Above" which manage to still captivate in a big way 23 years later.
Puzzles Like You ended the band's extraordinary run in 2006. Surprisingly pop in spots, this is likely some folks' fave Mojave 3 effort. "Truck Driving Man", the rollicking opener, is hardly the twang-y dissolution of the first record. This is peppy, and unashamedly so. Given numbers like this, Puzzles Like You is a slight outlier in this band's output. Whether you enjoy the risks taken here or not is another matter entirely. As oddly upbeat as this one is, stuff like the McCartney-ish title track, The Jayhawks-y "Kill the Lights", and the soaring "Breaking the Ice" are really, really good. Sounding little like earlier Mojave 3 records (and not too much like Slowdive ones either), what's on Puzzles Like You offers up a hint of yet another path that Rachel Goswell, Neil Halstead, and co. could have purused had they continued on after 2006.
A crash course in the foundations of dream-pop, the output of Mojave 3 has never sounded better than on these five 2026 remasters. The group honed a sound uniquely their own, especially so 30 years ago, and took some big chances on at least one of these albums. Overall, each is an essential record. Both heavy with meaning and as light as air, the majority of these songs still please enormously, with a good many sounding way ahead of their time. Ask Me Tomorrow, Out of Tune, Excuses for Travellers, Spoon and Rafter, and Puzzles Like You by Mojave 3 are all out today on vinyl, CD, and digital. Details via 4AD.
[Photo: Phil Nicholls]