

The fourth and final album of the Oxford band’s original eight-year run, Tarantula completes Ride’s shift out of the shoegaze sound they helped define and into the burlier retro-rock styles of Britpop. Though the band’s wispier side surfaces on “Castle on the Hill,” the bluesy swagger of “Burnin’” shows newfound machismo. The blistering garage rave-up “Gonna Be Alright” and the snarling “Black Nite Crash” further signaled Ride’s determination to finish with a bang, not a whimper.