Tarantula (Expanded)

Just as Carnival of Light divided fans, so went the fate of Ride's final album, Tarantula. The band was in pieces by the time the recording was done, but Andy Bell had kept things in motion, writing nearly all the material and singing all but two tracks on the original LP. This expanded version adds the three cuts from the Black Nite Crash EP, and with it the Mark Gardener track "Slave." In retrospect, this is a very good album, though it's made with sounds not associated with Ride. There's a tough, stripped-down indie pop-rock feel here, which led to comparisons with Teenage Fanclub. Fact is, "Black Nite Crash," "Dead Man," and "Walk on Water" would rank among the finest songs by any band that didn't come with Ride's baggage; the band had been a pioneer of the shoegaze genre and was seen as slumming with this more conventional sound. Years later, all that's left are these fine tracks. Gardener's "Deep Inside My Pocket" cranks up the slashing Big Star–styled guitars (along with some hilarious spoken-word bits), while "Castle on the Hill" is the type of acoustic ballad every classic rock album should have.