Guides/A Riffiter guide

The new shoegaze: a canon forming in real time

Loveless is settled law. These eleven records are the genre's live, contested present.

Shoegaze returned in the 2020s as one of the decade's defining underground sounds, driven by TikTok rediscovery and a wave of new bands. This guide tracks the new canon as it forms: julie, Wisp, Feeble Little Horse, Fleshwater, Hotline TNT, Whitelands and more, the records the next Loveless arguments will be about.

Every few years someone declares a shoegaze revival; the 2020s version is the real thing. Duster and Slowdive numbers exploded on streaming, Deftones-loving teenagers found the pedalboard, and a scene that once meant four English bands now stretches from Philadelphia basements to London's Black British gaze revisionists.

The old canon (Loveless, Souvlaki, Nowhere) is settled. This one isn't, which is exactly what makes it exciting. Eleven records from the argument in progress.

1
my anti-aircraft friend by julie (2024)
The LA trio that became the new wave's flagship: detuned Sonic Youth angles, whisper-to-roar dynamics and total visual control. Their debut LP on Atlantic (a shoegaze band on a major, again, finally) is the scene's biggest swing.
2
If Not Winter by Wisp (2025)
Natalie Lu went from a bedroom Garageband demo to the revival's breakout solo star while still a student, "Your Face" detonated on TikTok before she'd played a show. Her debut album is the clearest evidence of how this wave actually spreads: phone first, venue later.
3
Girl With Fish
Feeble Little Horse
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Pittsburgh's noise-pop pranksters: Girl with Fish (2023) crams hooks, static and humor into 26 minutes. The wave's most charming record, shoegaze that refuses to be solemn.
4
We're Not Here to Be Loved
Fleshwater
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Members of hardcore band Vein.fm running Deftones worship through actual shoegaze: We're Not Here to Be Loved (2022) is the record that fused the heavy and dreamy wings of the revival, and half the new bands' secret blueprint.
5
Moments of Clarity
Narrow Head
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Texas's grunge-gaze standard-bearers: Moments of Clarity (2023) sounds like 1994 alt-rock radio beamed through a Big Muff. The bridge between the revival and the people who just want great loud songs.
6
Chameleon
trauma ray
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Fort Worth's Trauma Ray made the wave's heaviest pure-shoegaze statement: Chameleon (2024) rolls doom-weight guitars under weightless vocals. The Texas scene's arrival as the genre's American engine room.
7
Night‐Bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day
Whitelands
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London's Whitelands (led by Etienne Quartey-Papafio) released their debut on Sonic Cathedral in 2024, consciously reclaiming a genre whose first wave was whiter than its influences. Gorgeous, political and overdue.
8
Cartwheel
Hotline TNT
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Will Anderson's one-man wall of sound, signed to Jack White's Third Man: Cartwheel (2023) buries power-pop songwriting under an avalanche of guitars. The revival's best pure songs-per-minute ratio.
9
Destiny XL
They Are Gutting a Body of Water
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Philadelphia's TAGABOW run shoegaze through breakbeats, DJ tags and dial-up textures. Destiny XL (2022) is the scene's internet-native id, and their live shows are the revival's communal ritual.
10
kenopsia
quannnic
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From the digicore internet rather than any local scene: Kenopsia (2023) is bedroom shoegaze with hyperpop's emotional pressure. Proof the genre's next generation comes from Discord servers, not record shops.
11
Glixen
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Phoenix's Glixen are the wave's purest MBV devotional act, all glide guitar and breathed vocals across a run of EPs. The band the genre's lifers point to when asked who actually has the sound.