Simon Reynolds, the author of Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Bring the Noise: Twenty Years of Hip Hop and Hip Rock, and countless other highly-regarded musical tomes, is set to publish a new book in June that explores the rise of shoegaze, noisepop, slacker rock and grunge.
Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994 is set to be published by White Rabbit on 18 June, in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
It will explore the emergence of groups such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement – a golden age of guitar reinvention and a ‘second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds’.
“Still in a Dream is a love letter to the music of my youth,” Reynolds said of the forthcoming book. “And it’s a flashback to the most exciting time of my writing life, the late eighties and early nineties, when week by week I was on the frontlines of covering a cascade of thrilling developments in underground rock. This is my most personal book and it’s one I had the most fun writing.”
Lee Brackstone, publisher at White Rabbit, echoed his sentiments, saying that the book represents a “strangely thrilling meta experience” for him.
“It was reading Simon Reynolds in the Melody Maker in the late ‘80s that turned me on to Cocteau Twins, Loop, Dinosaur Jr, Spacemen 3, Husker Du and the other giants of underground 80s rock – especially of course My Bloody Valentine, who are the main protagonists in this gripping narrative,” he said. “Simon Reynolds’ writing and his evangelism about this music turned me into a fan – not only of these bands, but also the act of music writing itself; how these artists were written about and mythologised.
“So many music fans have enormous affection for this moment (1984-94), when a loose generation of slackers and shoegazers reinvented the guitar as a sonic instrument of assault and beauty.”
Other books by Reynolds include Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellions and Rock and Roll (co-written with Joy Press), and Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984.
Still in a Dream will be published by White Rabbit on 18 June 2026. You can pre-order it here.
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