Editing Slowdive (section)

===1992–1994: ''Souvlaki''===
{{listen|
 | filename    = Slowdive - When the Sun Hits (Sample).ogg
 | title       = Slowdive: "When the Sun Hits"
 | description = from the band's second studio album ''[[Souvlaki (album)|Souvlaki]]'' (1993)
}}
While they toured in early 1992 to support ''[[Blue Day]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.creation-records.com/ride-going-blank-again-20th-anniversary/|title=Celebrating 20 years of Ride's Going Blank Again – Creation Records|first=Stewart|last=Nash|website=creation-records.com|date=30 March 2012 }}</ref> a re-release of their early EP material, the band began writing songs for a follow-up album, but the negative coverage Slowdive received in the press affected their songwriting. "[It] did affect us as we were all teenagers at the time", said Scott in a 2009 interview, "[We] couldn't understand why people were so outraged by our sound that they had to tell the ''NME'' or whoever that they wanted us dead!"<ref name = "DIS_SCOTT">{{cite magazine | url = http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136609 | title = Shoegaze Week: DiS talks to Simon Scott about his time in Slowdive | author = Gourlay, Dom | magazine = [[Drowned in Sound]] | date = 2009-04-23 | access-date = 2009-08-23 | archive-date = 26 April 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090426223117/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136609 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Approximately 40 songs were recorded and rerecorded as the group became very self-conscious of their writing and how it might be received. When McGee listened to the new material, he subsequently dismissed it, stating, "They're all shit". The band discarded all the music and started over.<ref name = "WATSON_4B"/> In a 2009 interview, Halstead vividly recalled the incident: "I remember going to start the record in a studio in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. [[Spiritualized]] had just been there and left a huge [[Scalextric]] in the live room. I remember thinking this was the height of indulgence! Ironically we scrapped everything we recorded...we had to start the record again back in [[Oxfordshire]]. We should have just played with the Scalextric for a month".<ref name = "DIS_HALSTEAD">{{cite magazine | url = http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136653-shoegaze-week--dis-meets-neil-halstead | title = Shoegaze Week: DiS meets Neil Halstead | author = Gourlay, Dom | magazine = [[Drowned in Sound]] | date = 2009-04-22 | access-date = 2009-08-23 | archive-date = 10 November 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101110212116/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136653-shoegaze-week--dis-meets-neil-halstead | url-status = dead }}</ref>

When the band returned to the UK, they wrote a letter to [[Ambient music|ambient]] visionary [[Brian Eno]] and requested he produce their second studio album. Eno responded and told them he liked their music, but wanted to collaborate, not produce.<ref name = "WATSON_4B"/> Halstead later called the recording session "one of the most surreal stoned experiences of [his] life".<ref name = "DIS_HALSTEAD"/> "The first thing he did when he walked into the studio was to rip the clock off the wall and put it by the [[Mixing console|mixing desk]]", Halstead remembered. "He then said 'Okay, you're going to play the guitar and I'm going to record it. I don't care what you are going to play, just play something.{{'"}} Two songs from the collaboration appeared on the ensuing album: "Sing", which was co-written with Eno, and "Here She Comes", where Eno played keyboards.<ref name = "WATSON_4B"/>

Creation Records wanted Slowdive to produce a commercial-sounding album.<ref name = "DIS_BIO">{{cite magazine | url = http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136640-shoegaze-week--slowdive--ecstasy-without-the-clubbing | title = Shoegaze Week: Slowdive: "ecstasy without the clubbing" | author = Tudor, Alexander | magazine = [[Drowned in Sound]] | date = 2009-04-23 | access-date = 2009-08-23 | archive-date = 7 November 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101107012100/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136640-shoegaze-week--slowdive--ecstasy-without-the-clubbing | url-status = dead }}</ref> Halstead agreed: "We wanted to make a 'pop' record but it took a while to record".<ref name = "DIS_HALSTEAD"/> At one point, Halstead suddenly left in summer 1992, seeking seclusion in a Welsh cottage. Savill, Chaplin and Scott were left in a recording studio in [[Weston-super-Mare]], and while waiting for Halstead's return, recorded some "joke songs". To their misfortune, McGee acquired them and became despondent, by which time Halstead had arrived with new music, including "Dagger" and "40 Days".<ref name = "WATSON_4B"/> The band named their second studio album ''[[Souvlaki (album)|Souvlaki]]'' after a skit performed by [[the Jerky Boys]], an American comedy duo that recorded [[Prank call|prank phone calls]].<ref name = "WATSON_2B"/>

''Souvlaki'' was released in May 1993 alongside the EP ''[[Outside Your Room]]'',<ref name = "BUCKLEY_ROCK"/> a few months after [[Suede (band)|Suede]] released their [[Suede (album)|popular debut]] and the Britpop movement began.<ref name = "WATSON_6B">Watson (2005b), p. 6</ref> Critical reaction, as with their previous album, was generally negative. ''NME'' writer John Mulvey gave an ambivalent review. Despite noting their dated and "unfulfilling" sound, he did call it an "exemplary product". Dave Simpson, writing for ''Melody Maker'', declared, "[This] record is a soulless void [...] I would rather drown choking in a bath full of porridge than ever listen to it again".<ref name = "WATSON_6B"/> To make matters worse, Slowdive booked a tour with fellow shoegazers [[Catherine Wheel (band)|Catherine Wheel]] for a tour of the United States, only to find SBK had pushed the album's US release date back eight months. The band recorded an EP, titled ''5 EP'', and started a modest tour through Europe with dream pop band [[Cranes (band)|Cranes]]. Scott was unhappy with the gap between releases and quit the band in 1994.<ref name = "WATSON_2C">Watson (2005c), p. 2</ref>

A marketing campaign was started in early 1994 to promote ''Souvlaki'' in the United States, which ''[[AllMusic]]'' writer Andy Kellman said would "undoubtedly go down in industry history as one of the laziest ever"; SBK sent fans a release flyer and were told that if they copied and posted 50 flyers around town, they would receive a free copy of ''Souvlaki''. Fans who participated had to document their progress with photographs to prove they performed the activity.<ref name = "ALLMUSIC_BIO"/> Halfway through the ''Souvlaki'' US tour, SBK pulled their funding and left Slowdive to pay the rest themselves. In 1994, the band funded two small tours of the United States using money raised through the sale of a live tape and a tour programme that mocked the record label.<ref name = "WATSON_2C"/>