According to Slowdive fans, “When The Sun Hits” is one of their finest songs. Surprisingly, it was almost left off Souvlaki. Apparently Christian and Nick “fought like hell” to get the song in the album, according to John Kupchik.
Bassist Nick Chaplin told the Observer:
"I remember recording it down at Weston, down at the White House, and for the longest time it sounded like a Pixies cover. Thinking back, I think that was people’s hesitancy. We didn’t wanna have something this derivative on the record, but again we took all those songs to Ed Buller [the mixer engineer], who’d worked with Suede and was in The Psychedelic Furs at one point.
I think he’d just worked with Suede, made them this great, big, sparkly britpop band, and we wanted that sheen. He really liked that track and said, “I think we can do something with this.” He turned that around, along with “Alison” as well. “Alison” was a mess when we brought it in, and he turned it around, made it one of the stronger songs on the record. But we’re always arguing about what’s good and what isn’t."
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