Day After Day #282: Vapour Trail

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Vapour Trail (1990)

Sometimes you just miss things the first time around. I fully admit to being clueless about the greatness of English shoegaze greats Ride when they first emerged in the early '90s. I heard them on WFNX, but they just didn't click with me the way other bands like R.E.M., U2, Jane's Addiction and others did. 

It wasn't until the early 2000s that I really started paying attention to Ride; I downloaded a cool live bootleg of the band in its prime from an MP3 blog and really enjoyed it. Then in 2012, my good buddy Jay, proprietor of the late great Clicky Clicky Music Blog, wrangled a tribute compilation to Ride's debut album Nowhere in which Boston indie acts each covered a song. It was pretty goddamn great and stoked my interest in Ride even more; you can listen to it here.

Ride was formed in Oxford, England in 1988 by singer-guitarists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt. Bell cited seeing the Smiths play live as his inspiration for forming the band. The group made a demo tape that caught the ear of Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain, which then led to former JAMC manager Alan McGee taking an interest in Ride. After they opened for the Soup Dragons in 1989, McGee signed Ride to his label, Creation Records.

Ride released three EPs in 1990: Ride, Play and Fall, all of which making it into the top 75 of the U.K. charts. The first two EPs were combined as Smile and released in the U.S. in July 1990, while the four songs on Fall were incorporated into the CD version of the band's debut album, Nowhere, in October 1990. Ride's noisy guitar-driven sound was classified as shoegaze in the British press, although the band didn't like the label. 

The last track on Nowhere (although the CD versions added three songs from the Fall EP at the end), "Vapour Trail" was released as a single in the U.S. in April 1991. Written by Bell, the song featured a shimmering and distinctive guitar riff played on two Rickenbacker 12-string guitars while Colbert's powerful drumming propels the proceedings along. There are only two verses in "Vapour Trail" in the first half of the song; the last half is instrumental, closing with a string section.

"First you look so strong, then you fade away/The sun will blind my eyes, I love you anyway/Thirsty for your smile, I watch you for a while/You are a vapour trail in a deep blue sky/Tremble with a sight, glitter in your eye/You seem to come and go, I never seem to know/And all my time is yours as much as mine/We never have enough time to show our love."

The song is widely considered the band's best. Nowhere went to #11 on the U.K. Albums chart, although its popularity in the U.S. was restricted to college and alternative stations. 

Ride released its second album, Going Blank Again, in February 1992, and had a top 10 hit in the U.K. with "Leave Them All Behind." The followup single didn't fare as well and after a difficult American tour, the band took a break. The band's third album, Carnival of Light, came out in June 1994 but it was not well-received by critics. The recording of Ride's fourth album, Tarantula, found the group pursuing a different sound; Gardener and Bell had begun squabbling and Gardener walked out during mixing sessions for the album. The band announced its breakup right before Tarantula was released in March 1996.

After the breakup, Bell formed a new band called Hurricane No. 1 and released two albums before joining Oasis on bass. Gardener and Colbert formed a band called the Animalhouse that didn't last long before Gardener began a solo career. In the meantime, all four Ride members participated in a 2001 documentary about Sonic Youth and recorded a 30-minute improvised jam that was later released on CD. 

In 2014, Ride announced it was reuniting, playing festivals in Europe and North America. Eventually the band decided to record a new album, releasing Weather Diaries in 2017. The album was strong and Ride supported it with another tour. I saw them on the reunion tour and in 2017. Two more albums have followed, including Interplay this past March.

Better late than never, I say. Nowhere is an amazing album and "Vapour Trail" is an amazing song. (Check out Senor Breitling's tribute comp, Nofuckingwhere, which features a sharp version of the song by Eldridge Rodriguez.)