Just for a Day

1	Spanish Air 6:02
2	Celia's Dream 4:07
3	Catch the Breeze 4:19
4	Ballad of Sister Sue 4:32
5	Erik's Song 4:25
6	Waves 5:49
7	Brighter 3:48
8	The Sadman 4:45
9	Primal 5:31

Barnes & Noble

Boosters dubbed this ethereal Brit combo "dream-pop," a term that fit rather snugly, given the apparently hermetically sealed universe that created its sound. Slowdive occupied a spot somewhere between the finespun sweetness of the Cocteau Twins and the lurching aggression of My Bloody Valentine, while revealing a more human side than either. That trait stemmed largely from the vulnerable boy-girl harmonies crafted by Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell -- which reach dizzying heights on "Spanish Air." Although the album is cocooned in multitracked guitars, the effect is never as cold as the output of some of Slowdive's peers. In fact, on "Catch the Breeze," the atmosphere is as inviting as an Iberian beach. Halstead and Goswell split Slowdive in the mid-'90s and have since re-emerged with a band called Mojave 3. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Just for a Day is Slowdive's first album, and it shows; when one listens to the magnificent sound of Souvlaki or the brilliant experimentation of Pygmalion, it becomes clear that Just for a Day was only a step toward the greatness they would later achieve. Its sound is quite like Souvlaki's -- swelling waves of flanged guitars, layers of wispy vocals floating in and out of the mix, and sweet lazy pop songs -- but the production sometimes turns the band's plush, sweet sound into the sort of cheap and cheesy pleasantness one might expect from a new age artist. A few tracks hint at the sound that would be fully achieved on Souvlaki ("Celia's Dream," "Erik's Song"), and the album as a whole must have sounded wonderful before anyone knew what great things the band was capable of -- but Just for a Day is really Slowdive in their infancy. Nitsuh Abebe