Above Image via Spotify: Majesty Crush
Giovanni Mori | Posted April 14th, 2026
Now midway through the 2020s, one of today’s rising trends in music takes us back in time to the world of 90s alternative, and goes beyond to explore a lesser known subgenre called shoegaze, a very noise driven style of alternative rock full of layered guitars and instrumentation. Popularity of the subgenre resurfaced with albums like Souvlaki from Slowdive and Loveless from My Bloody Valentine, as well as many other shoegaze adjacent bands that have carried the torch, being passed around on TikTok with only five to ten second clips of songs including “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” from Deftones, “Where Is My Mind?” from The Pixies, and “Mayonnaise” from The Smashing Pumpkins.
Today we look back on another album from a more obscure band who may not have been given enough credit for their excellence in the alternative rock world, Love 15 by Majesty Crush. This is the band’s only full length album along with a couple of EPs and extra singles in their small discography, and today only ranges between 50,000 – 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone, but if you’re a fan of any of the songs, albums, or bands listed above, this 1993 release just might be your next favorite!
track 1: boyfriend
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
Our first track from Love 15 begins with a pounding chord progression without warning, before slowing down to a mellow tempo full of unusual melodies, and whiny note changes. Listeners will soon realize the very faint vocals are a trademark for the band, while also noticing the imagery in the lyrics adding to the beautiful instrumentation, and in “Boyfriend’s” case, lines like “I can see you walking away, I can see you dancing on stars” (0:40 – 0:47), and in the second verse, “He’s like a fish out of water, watch him flip watch him and flop…we’ll clutch him by the gills, we’ll cut his head and his tail” (1:21 – 1:40). Showing just a small taste of everything the band has to offer, “Boyfriend” is the perfect introduction to first time Majesty Crush listeners, and is the second most popular tune from their catalogue.
track 2: uma
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
“Uma” opens with a steady bassline, another common staple for Majesty Crush, and while there are many noisy layers of guitars moaning in the background, they pair well with the song’s foundation. This song leans more on the post punk side of rhythmic bands like Killing Joke and The Cure, but unlike them, the simple and catchy hook in the chorus crying out the song’s title is a great characteristic to some of the decade’s most popular alternative rock tunes, I personally think of songs like “In Bloom” and “Creep.” The lackadaisical feel in the verses against the busyness of the interludes in between are also a great pair to keep the song grounded easy on the ears.
track 3: no. 1 fan
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
Our third track, “No. 1 Fan,” is currently Majesty Crush’s most popular song to date at over two million streams on Spotify. Listeners are sucked in to the song’s momentum, and taken down a long dark hallway through the descending main chord progression, all while more groove in the bass, faint vocals, and lyrics detailing obsession and temptation follow throughout. Here, along with other tunes, the band shows off their storytelling abilities in their songwriting, with lines such as “I’d take a car, a boat, a train, a plane, kill anyone that got in my way, the kind of fan that never strays” (0:38 – 0:44). These lines over the song’s repetitive instrumentation is undeniably creepy and borderline stalker-ish, but listeners clearly can’t help themselves singing along and bringing “No. 1 Fan” to the top.
track 4: brand
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
“Brand” begins with a momentous drum beat, and as each instrument enters, this tune is morphed into another post punk inspired song. The clean guitars make this song the most mellow track on the album so far, but despite the limited use of distortion, the layered instruments still do what they do best in creating noise for listeners to get lost in. Fans are treated with another catchy mouthful of a hook singing depressing lines detailing addiction like “I’m always so f***ing drunk, I wake up with a bottle in my hand, I go to bed with a bottle touching my lips” (0:19 – 0:38), and the vocal melodies are almost too high for our singer as his voice sounds very close to cracking in the entire five minute tune. There’s no doubt Majesty Crush was fighting demons to make this song, and out came the perfect and emotional storm that fans know as “Brand.”
tracks 5-6: purr and seles
“Purr” is one of the album’s three interludes that give us a nice break from the music, and make for great transitions between tracks. This track in particular puts the listener in a dreamlike state with an underwater tremolo effect coming from the guitars before turning the page to the next chapter.
YouTube – Majesty Crush
The following track, “Seles,” keeps us in the air with more dreamy instrumentals, this one sounding more inspired by dream pop bands like Cocteau Twins and The Sundays. Unlike the album’s previous tracks, the song’s vocal melody is much more contained in a falsetto, which instead of calling out to the listener, the track whispers gently in their ears. The guitar melody again works well with the vocals, and is almost as if the instrument itself is singing its own melody reaching to the listener. “Seles” doesn’t stay in dream pop mode for long as the chorus and bridge section pulls us back down to Earth with spacey distortion, and the mix between these effects give the song a good push and pull balance the two sounds, following the footsteps of a countless amount of other tunes in rock.
track 7: grow
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
By track seven, we’re brought back to the spirit of energetic 90s alternative rock and grunge. “Grow” seems to have more of the punk influence from bands like Nirvana, The Breeders, and Mudhoney, and jumps you around with fun power chord progressions and louder drums. This rough around the edges style is what helped bring the subgenre to life for mainstream audiences, the catchiness musically and lyrically is why “Grow” has become one of my personal favorites from the album, and listeners will agree as they instinctively sing the “woahs” scattered around. Let’s also not forget the use of feedback being another huge characteristic of 90s alternative, and while it doesn’t stay in this song for too long, the band surely knows how to use the number 11 on their volume knobs to their advantage.
tracks 8-9: pretty head and cicciolina
“Pretty Head” is the second out of the album’s three interludes, which is much more mysterious sounding with a momentous bass tone picking up over some strange guitar sounds. As you hear the swelling bass and what sounds like a guitar pick scraping roughly against the strings, you anticipate where the album is going next.
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
Listeners will soon find themselves with “Cicciolina,” a catchy mid tempo post rock song. If Love 15‘s ninth track doesn’t have you shouting the title throughout the music, then you’re at the very least guaranteed to hum the bass melody by the end. The instrumentation feels like it was a song taken from The Cure or Revolver-era Beatles, with no clear structure or organization of the song except for when listening to the lyrics, which simply repeat each verse and hook back to back. Like the interlude before, “Cicciolina” is the one of the album’s stranger and ominous sounding tunes, but somehow never fails to stick with listeners when it’s over.
track 10: penny for love
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
The tenth track of Love 15, originally from the band’s 1991 EP, Fan, once again puts together very droney and whiny sounding guitars, complete with an interesting vocal melody over a few simple notes in the verses, but the four on the floor drumbeat up through the song’s chorus makes it catchy as ever. Lyrically, the song is about prostitution, with the narrator using money and every last penny to buy love, while also occasionally giving up his own body simply for the satisfaction of his lustful desires. Musically, “Penny For Love” is a relatively easygoing tune more on the pop and indie rock side of the genre for any fist time listener to enjoy, and of course still makes use of its post punk influence when needed.
tracks 11-12: skin and feigned sleep
“Skin” is the third and final interlude of the album, again putting the listener in a dreamlike state as another beautiful guitar melody swells up and down.
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
To continue this dreamlike state, if you’re a fan of the band’s more up in the air and floaty tracks like “Brand” or “Seles,” “Feigned Sleep” may be the floatiest of them all. The track is acoustic driven, and blends itself nicely with a light and melodic intro, showering listeners with natural harmonics on the guitar, and morphs into a mix of post rock and indie sound reminiscent of bands from the same decade like Radiohead and Mazzy Star. The chorus section builds the song up, but without going too much into another direction, still grounds itself as a melancholic ballad. This is the song on the album that will cradle you to sleep in its arms, another very common and effective characteristic in the world of shoegaze, but you’re guaranteed to enjoy every second of it.
track 13: horse
YouTube: Majesty Crush – Topic
“Horse” is the album’s outro and longest track clocking in at nearly seven minutes long. As a step away from the previous track, “Horse” keeps listeners on their toes as we move in multiple directions from a slowdancy build throughout the verses, to the ferocity of rapid chord progressions and drum beats in the chorus sections. If listeners didn’t know any better, it would almost seem as if the band’s creative direction behind this song was to make as much noise as possible with their instruments, but as we listen, we can still feel every emotion through the fog. Every “ahhh” and “yeah” over the noisy and layered instrumental puts you in a trance before fading out, effectively ending the first and only full length album from the band.
Many bands, artists, and genres come and go, but unfortunately, some burn out and fade away much quicker than others. Still, after over thirty years since its release in 1993, Majesty Crush’s Love 15 holds a place in many listeners hearts, and will hopefully come around for newer fans of 90s alternative and shoegaze.
Sources
“Boyfriend” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kveJLi6SdQ&list=RD0kveJLi6SdQ&start_radio=1
“Brand” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpxElWIPN58&list=RDLpxElWIPN58&start_radio=1
“Cicciolina” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVr69E4sEX0&list=RDLVr69E4sEX0&start_radio=1
“Feigned Sleep” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwEj6QjbPiQ&list=RDXwEj6QjbPiQ&start_radio=1
“Grow” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0pb_frPlCE&list=RDS0pb_frPlCE&start_radio=1
“Horse” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JESodiKwBXw&list=RDJESodiKwBXw&start_radio=1
Majesty Crush. Butterflies Don’t Go Away, Numero Group, 2024. Spotify app.
“No. 1 Fan” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOhUo5T4BYU&list=RDXOhUo5T4BYU&start_radio=1
“Penny For Love” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 19 Feb. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlB1856WdTs&list=RDKlB1856WdTs&start_radio=1
“Seles” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP0c0cPt5m4&list=RDyP0c0cPt5m4&start_radio=1
“Uma” YouTube, uploaded by Majesty Crush – Topic, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g5oLJi9F2g&list=RD7g5oLJi9F2g&start_radio=1
