"Sugar for the Pill" follows "Star Roving" as the second track from shoegaze icon Slowdive's upcoming self-titled reunion album (out on May 5 via Dead Oceans). It comes with a hypnotic music video that features geometric shapes rotating in bright colors (inspired by Harry Smith's avant-garde film (1957)), juxtaposed against black-and-white shots of Slowdive members mouthing the song's lyrics.
Unlike "Star Roving", which offered some of that nostalgic desire for youth that informed much of the band's early work, "Sugar for the Pill" trades open-ended longing for a mature acceptance of lost opportunities. Anchored by mild grief and clear-eyed disappointment, it traces the breakdown on a relationship:
'There's a buzzard of gullsTravelling in the windOnly lovers aliveRunning in the darkAnd I rolled away, said we never wanted muchJust a rollercoast', our love has never known the waySugar for the pill, you know it's just the way things areCannot buy the sun, this jealousy will break the whole
Cut across the skyAnd move a little closer nowLying in a bed of greedYou know I had the strangest dream
Lyrics: Genius
Lead vocalist Neil Halstread provides a gentle and dreamy soft-rock ballad with the help of backing vocals from Rachel Goswell. The minimalism of the track's instrumentation is nevertheless sufficient to create a rarified sense of otherworldliness with its swelling melody and throbbing bassline. There's a sublime beauty in this particular breakup, where acceptance offers up the space for solace and contemplation.
