Mojave 3: Puzzles Like You - 2026 Remaster (Vinyl LP)

Mojave 3’s founding members are vocalist / guitarist Neil Halstead, bassist / vocalist Rachel Goswell, and drummer Ian McCutcheon. The band broke cover in 1995, when a six-track demo impressed 4ad sufficiently to offer them a deal, despite a then-prevailing musical climate of bumptious Britpop that seemed totally at odds with what Mojave 3 were doing.

Their incongruence was hardly surprising given that Halstead, Goswell and McCutcheon had formed as members of definitive shoegazers Slowdive, while guitarist Simon Rowe had previously served with dreampop kindred spirits Chapterhouse.

Mojave 3’s debut, Ask Me Tomorrow, was a refreshingly stripped down collection that changed little from the original demos. Halstead’s melodic, folk- and country-tinged songs drew favourable (if lazy) comparisons to Nick Drake, Cowboy Junkies and Bob Dylan. Three years later, Out Of Tune continued where the first album left off and showed a group that had grown in both confidence and cohesiveness. Third album Excuses For Travellers contained some of the most ambitious Halstead compositions yet. Spoon And Rafter followed three years later marking another shift for the band.

While still containing echoes of singer-songwriters and alt-country, the record represents a technicolour expansion of their palette that utilizes electronics, glockenspiels, melodica, and Beatlesque production. Their final album, 2006’s Puzzles Like You is a positively bright and fun record that feels right at home next to indie rock contemporaries like The Shins and Band of Horses, while sounding nearly unrecognisable next to the band they were on Ask Me Tomorrow.

By the time of their final album, Mojave 3 had journeyed a long way from the dreamy, country-tinged sadcore they started with. Reminiscent of the late days of Slowdive, both Neil and Rachel had released solo records, Ian was playing in other bands, and Neil was once again going off on his own to finish the album himself.

Leapfrogging the sonic direction of their previous album, Puzzles Like You brings in jangly Byrds guitars and uptempo Sixties pop melodies for a positively bright and fun record that feels right at home next to indie rock contemporaries like The Shins and Band of Horses, while sounding nearly unrecognisable next to the band they were on Ask Me Tomorrow.

“It’s a much perkier, more ‘indie’ record,” says Neil, “although there's still some quite nice country stuff on there. ‘Most Days’, ‘Big Star Baby’ and Ian’s song ‘The Mutineer’ are some of my favourite songs that Mojave made.”

Sadly, after recording her vocals for the album, Rachel entered a period of illness that would prevent her from touring or recording for several years. Combined with the fact that their five-album deal had been completed, Neil had a growing solo career, and they never sold enough records to live off of in the first place, the band seemed to be reaching its natural conclusion. And so (after briefly reforming for a 2011 tour) Mojave 3 disappeared, blown away by the desert sands they came from.

Over the next few years, the shoegaze sound Neil and Rachel first made together was discovered and mythologized by a new generation, and it was Slowdive’s turn to be reborn, becoming bigger and more beloved than anyone could have imagined.

As a result of their unpredicted success, Mojave 3’s own myth has grown, resulting in their records being some of 4ad’s most requested reissues of the last decade. With these 2026 reissues putting all five albums in print once again, perhaps it’s Mojave 3’s time to rise from the ashes and fly once again.

Black vinyl version.

1. Truck Driving Man
2. Puzzles Like You
3. Breaking The Ice
4. Running With Your Eyes Closed
5. Most Days
6. Big Star Baby
7. Ghostship Waiting
8. Kill The Lights
9. You Said It Before
10. To Hold Your Tiny Toes
11. Just A Boy
12. The Mutineer