The following is a Designated Cheerleader piece by @bainard for the Best Album of 1991 tournament. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you follow the link to vote in the tournament. Thanks!
Chapterhouse! The Reading band do plenty to distinguish themselves from fellow shoegazers Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine (who both had monumental releases in 1991 as well), as well as fellow ‘gazing lads Ride. The opening two tracks are as radio-friendly and hook-laden as any alt-rock that was released in the year that “alternative”-music-in-general broke. “Breather” speeds with jangling fury, while “Pearl” uses a Baggy-friendly backbeat and a simple riff to lay the groundwork for a soaring chorus (and a breakdown that features the beat from Schoolly D’s “PSK, What Does It Mean?”). Things get spacier, fuzzier, and far more thunderous as you dig into “Autosleeper”, the hazy “Treasure”, and “Falling Down”, a track that could easily be mistaken for prime-era Stone Roses. You can hear in Ralph Jezzard’s production the cavernous reverb that separates hair metal from shoegaze, and how that sound would go on to influence countless bands for the rest of the decade and beyond. If you want to explore the body-enveloping sound of shoegaze beyond the bands mentioned above, this album is your ideal jumping-off point.
