Tokyo’s Moon In June may have been born into shoegaze – their 2020 EP 海鳴り doesn’t spare the reverb, distortion, or glide guitar – but they’ve grown through 2022’s extended player Evergreen towards last year’s debut full-length ロ​マ​ン​と​水​色​の​街 (“Romance and Soft Blue City”) to reside in a neighbourhood where power pop and dreampop intersect, and it suits them – the record is a shimmering, melodic delight.

But they’ve not forgotten their roots, and described that full-length as follows:

With nods to the likes of SPITZ, Galileo Galilei, Supercar, and Homecomings, Moon In June has packed the album with a sense of comfortable nostalgia, while also leaning into some up-tempo dreamy tunes a la DIIV, and even throwing in a homage to shoegaze legends Slowdive.

That tribute, indiscretely named “Slowdive”, was released on the “Sweet Little Lies”/”Slowdive” digitalsingle last August before “Romance and Soft Blue City” came out in October, and despite the album versions of both tracks being labeled “Alternative”, I don’t hear much of a difference? Nor do I really hear the track in question as being particularly derivative of it’s namesake, but that’s okay – slavish imitation wouldn’t have been to anyone’s benefit. But it’s arguably the shoegaziest number on the album, in both tempo, spirit, and liberal application of effects, so I’ll allow it.

An earlier, live version of the song is available from their New Year’s Eve performance at Koenji High in December 2022, where the songs as notably titled “Slow Dive”. Maybe they wanted to draw a little distinction from the influence, or maybe they decided to go all in after the fact.