This album is not the pinnacle of shoegazing that a lot of people seem to think it is. This band seems to have stolen most of its ideas from the band Ride, and its album Nowhere. If you like Ferment, take one listen to Nowhere (released 2 years before, in 1990). You'll hear what I mean. Don't get me wrong, Ferment is a nice listen in places (I like "Flower To Hide" and "Balloon"), but all I can think when I hear most of it is "rip off!".To the band's credit, they really honed their craft on later albums and concentrated on songwriting, rather than trying to take your head off with walls of guitar noise. If you compare this to their 2000 release Wishville it doesn't even sound like the same band.