A molten extension of Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth, the Stooges’ drill-press rhythms, and early Dinosaur Jr., Raise should have been made by young record shop rats from the Midwest. Adding to this is a fascination with the open road; only two of the album’s nine songs do not directly reference cars or driving. It’s no real surprise, then, that this Oxford, England-based band found a home on Stateside turntables that were otherwise Anglophobic, despite being pigeonholed as shoegazers. In all fairness, the band was about as exciting to watch as any actual shoegaze band, and Adam Franklin’s vocals were buried deep within the studio and live mixes. (Flying leg kicks, windmills, and eye contact couldn’t have been all that possible with an unwieldy battery…

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