So the ropers began creating very very nice post shoegaze pop music around 1993, pretty much after the whole scene was starting to die out (shoegaze that is). The band put out an ep kind of mini album in 1994, I think it is sef-titled? At any rate it is really good, perfect ride-esque quitars churning away, vocals hovering in the mix, dynamic drumming and excellent songwriting. The ropers soon fell into that ever consuming void that took most of the shoegazing bands before them. They returned in around 1997 to produce this album you see here on Amazon- "the world is fire". I bought it once, used for like ... bucks, it's not that good, which is sad to say because I really did like this band at one point. Like Ride and slowdive the ropers got rid of their big guitar sound and went strictly clean pop. They do a decent job at this but never return to that nice distorted wall of sound they once had. Go ahead and buy this, but look for it used first, and if you see there old e.p. buy that for sure. I recently found it at Amoeba music for a ... Best deal ever....