Sliding & Driving

Sliding & Driving (1996) Tanya Donelly

I might've mentioned some of this in an older post, but here it goes again: I loved Belly back in the early to mid 90s. Then they broke up and Tanya Donelly went solo. I remember being in the big Tower Records store in Boston back in 1996 and seeing the Sliding & Driving EP in their vinyl single section. it couldn't have been priced at more than $9.99, but as much as I loved Belly (and Throwing Muses), I didn't buy it.

I think I suspected that the music wasn't very good and I based that on the sleeve. I didn't like the colors or the collage style of the images. The lettering was cool but that was it. I also ignored Lovesongs For Underdogs when it came out in 1997. Maybe I decided that I'd pick it up someday, and I did, but that wasn't until 2003.

I'd made the right decision and I'd made a mistake. I was mostly right to ignore Sliding; half the songs weren't that good. But I really missed out by waiting so long to get Lovesongs. It's worth it for "Landspeed Song" alone. Then there's "Goat Girl", "Clipped", and "Swoon" (also included on Sliding).

But there's more that I'd missed out on: if I'd gotten Lovesongs back in 1997 I also would've picked up the CD singles and heard all the amazing B-sides.

"These Days"

"Moon Over Boston"

"Vanilla"

"Bury My Heart" and my favorite- maybe my favorite song ever-

"Influenza"

Anyway, here are some Sliding & Driving images.