IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK (August 4, 2026)

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

August 4, 2026

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Back atop the proverbial horse after our week of wayfaring. Fortunately, it hasn't been an especially eventful time for new stuff (though it's our contention that there's always new music if you know where to look). 

Our Tuesday posts are dedicated to celebrating just one record from this constant stream of novelty, knowing that it requires work to keep up with what's new. 

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK

This week we're going to direct your valuable attention back to the late 90s and 00s, when Mojave 3 grew out of the dissolution of Slowdive. Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell (with an evolving cohort including drummer Ian McCutcheon) projected Slowdive's shoegaze forward, opening the hazy buzz to emphasize elements of folk, country, and pop. Over the span of their five (5) records, that evolution included regular use of pedal steel, which occasionally lent Mojave 3's music a subtly rural air. 

The legendary 4AD label has remastered and reissued the British band's LPs in a lovely box set (Mojave 3: (1995-2006) that has since sold out, though the records are individually streamable). Mojave 3 was introduced on 1995's Ask Me Tomorrow, a project that dealt in a low-key psychedelic shoegaze, sometimes trading out Slowdive's electric hum for a more acoustic setting. The band's follow-up, 1998's Out Of Tune, found Halstead and Goswell increasingly defining a more distinct, heavier direction, incorporating more pastoral pop influences in addition to keys and electric guitar. Later collections paid greater attention to melody and songcraft, flirting less with with any country influences. 

Beginning in 2002, Neil Halstead began devoting increased time to solo and side projects (2008's Oh! Mighty Engine is especially worth your attention). Following the release of 2006's Puzzles Like You, Mojave 3 declared a hiatus, and an eventual reformation of Slowdive made any further recordings unlikely. 

Our celebration of Mojave 3's reissues will continue on tomorrow's Episode, when we look back at thirty of our favorite songs from the act's relatively short run. 

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