It’s been a watershed year for shoegaze and dream pop albums in 2017, only made bigger by the releases from the reunited Slowdive and Ride after decades of relative dormancy. We went wide and deep with this year’s candidates, as there’s a literal bounty to choose from. We tried to avoid “genre-adjacent” albums, as that would cause a further layer of unnecessary turmoil, easily avoided. Not much psych in our list, as that’s never been our specialty. If you’re a psych enthusiast, there are professionals like the folks over at Primal who are far better equipped to help than we could ever pretend to be. We’ve tried to stay close to shoegaze and dream pop, with some (mild) crossover.

The rules are simple: each voter gets seven votes (up from last year’s three), as there’s so damn much to choose from. We’ve alphabetized this year, only because the list is so long. If you’re looking for specific artists, this should make it easier to track them. We used to fully randomize the listings, just so no band got a clear advantage by appearing at the top, but that purpose is defeated with a list this large Please note: if you try to vote a second time, the script will thank you for your participation, but let you know you’ve already voted. Poll closes on December 8th, results to be published after. But you should be able to get a live snapshot of results at any time, even while the poll is still active. Enormous thanks to Amber, Jason and Matthew for assistance in stitching this together, and invaluable insight. Happy voting, rep your favorite shoegaze and dream pop bands, and show your love to the artists making great music this year!

[polldaddy poll=”9887194″]



