“While You Dream Vividly” is the latest single from Slow Crush, a band known for their blend of shoegaze haze and emotionally dense songwriting. The new track builds on that reputation with slow, hypnotic pacing and a dreamlike intensity that reflects the band’s intention to explore connection and detachment in the same breath. “We wanted to capture the sensation of being tethered to someone yet drifting weightlessly, lost in the surreal beauty of the moment,” they explain.
This marks the latest preview of Thirst, Slow Crush’s upcoming ten-track album due out August 29 via Pure Noise Records—their first for the label. It’s their third full-length, following Aurora (2018) and Hush (2021), both of which gained the band a strong foothold in the rock and shoegaze space, selling several tens of thousands of physical copies to date.
The lineup—Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Frederik Meeuwis (drums), Jelle Ronsmans (guitar/vocals), and Nic Placklé (guitar)—recorded Thirst with producer Lewis Johns at The Ranch in Southampton. The approach this time was deliberately open-ended. With a few years off the road, they had space to regroup and let the songs grow naturally. What emerged was a heavier, grittier version of their sound—still washed in reverb and dreaminess, but with a sharper edge.
Isa Holliday’s vocal performance is more emotionally raw than before. She describes the sessions as a personal excavation, marked by moments of vulnerability so intense she couldn’t finish recording some songs without crying. This emotional weight runs parallel to the album’s main themes. “The fragility of human connection, and the complexity of love and self-identity,” she says, are what shape Thirst.
Distance and reunion, longing and uncertainty—these ideas flow through the record, both lyrically and in the sonic contrasts between dense riffing and soft ambient passages. “In the depths of distance and absence, the heart trembles, torn between love and loneliness, as if clinging to the fragile thread of a connection that may unravel at any moment.” At times, the album touches on moments of renewal, but never in an overly hopeful tone. The emotional clarity remains grounded.
Live performance remains a key part of Slow Crush’s identity. “We want people to let themselves go and feel embraced by the music, so that they can experience it in 4D,” Isa says. “That’s what we hear a lot from people who come to see us live… is that we take them to another dimension.” For the band, music is a way to offer presence in a world that keeps pulling people out of the moment. “We want to let people take a moment for themselves and let the music take them wherever they would like to go.”
Following the release of Thirst, Slow Crush will embark on a European headline tour in the fall. It begins October 31 in their hometown Brussels at Ancienne Belgique and covers 13 countries before wrapping in Cologne on November 30. Support comes from Keep, with Oversize, Newmoon, Glazyhaze, Mondaze, and Fall Of Messiah joining select dates.
Slow Crush European tour:
Direct support: Keep
Support on select dates: Oversize, Newmoon, Glazyhaze, Mondaze, Fall Of Messiah
Oct 31 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
Nov 01 – Rotterdam, NL – Rotown
Nov 02 – Utrecht, NL – Ekko
Nov 04 – Hamburg, DE – Headcrash
Nov 05 – Copenhagen, DK – Beta2300
Nov 06 – Berlin, DE – Badehaus
Nov 08 – Budapest, HU – Dürer Kert
Nov 09 – Vienna, AT – Das Werk
Nov 11 – München, DE – Kranhalle
Nov 12 – Bern, CH – ISC Club
Nov 13 – Ravenna, IT – Bronson
Nov 14 – Milan, IT – Slaughter Club
Nov 15 – Lyon, FR – O Totem Live
Nov 16 – Toulouse, FR – Le Rex
Nov 18 – Barcelona, ES – Upload
Nov 19 – Madrid, ES – Nazca
Nov 20 – Bilbao, ES – Stage Live
Nov 22 – Bordeaux, FR – Sortie 13
Nov 23 – Nantes, FR – Le Ferrailleur
Nov 25 – Paris, FR – Backstage by the Mill
Nov 26 – Karlsruhe, DE – Jubez
Nov 27 – Neunkirchen, DE – Stummsche Reithalle
Nov 28 – Jena, DE – Café Wagner
Nov 29 – Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz
Nov 30 – Köln, DE – Helios 37
