If you like Slowdive, try these 7 artists

Slowdive built a sound out of things that should not fit together: guitars so washed out they feel like weather, and vocals that sit inside the mix instead of on top of it. The band from Reading, England made Souvlaki in 1993, vanished, then came back with a self-titled record in 2017 and everything is alive on 1 September 2023. If "Sugar for the Pill" is on your late-night loop, this is where to go next.

We left out the names every algorithm already hands you. These seven are a step or two further out, in time and in distance. For more, see all the artists like Slowdive.

1. Cocteau Twins

Start with "Heaven or Las Vegas" (1990). The Scottish trio is the root system: Elizabeth Fraser sings in a language that is mostly her own, and Robin Guthrie's guitar turns into shimmer. If Slowdive's voices feel like another instrument, this is the original. Their page is here.

2. Pale Saints

Start with "Sight of You". Pale Saints came out of Leeds on 4AD in the same era, and they are looser and stranger than most of the genre, with melodies that wobble on purpose. Good for when you want the haze but a bit more nerve.

3. Duster

Start with "Gold Dust". The San Jose band recorded Stratosphere in 1998 and spent years as a cult secret before a reissue found a new audience. It is slow, lo-fi and sleepy in the best way, the sound of a record played at three in the morning. Duster on ADMC.

4. Hatchie

Start with "Sure". Harriette Pilbeam, from Brisbane, writes dream pop that keeps the Slowdive glow but pushes the melody to the front. Her debut Keepsake (2019) is easy to fall into if you like your haze with a hook.

5. Wisp

Start with "Your Face". Natalie Lu, from San Francisco, put the song out on 4 April 2023 and it spread on TikTok, then landed on her 2024 EP Pandora and her debut album If Not Winter in August 2025. It is the clearest proof that a new generation is finding this sound. Wisp on ADMC.

6. Horsegirl

Start with "Switch Over". The trio of Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein and Gigi Reece came up in Chicago, and their second album Phonetics On and On (Matador, 14 February 2025) was produced by Cate Le Bon. It is shoegaze with a motorik pulse underneath, so it moves while it blurs.

7. Long Distances

Start with "Empire". The Mumbai band's five-track EP How the Mighty Will Fall arrived in January 2024: guitar-led indie rock with shoegaze in its bones, and a sound that fits next to anything above. A home-scene pick for readers in India who want this sound made close by. If Kolkata's dream pop is more your lane, read our Parekh & Singh spotlight too.