In 1998, Slide became Germano’s fourth and final album on 4AD. She had been consistently busy throughout the decade, releasing new music almost every year while regularly touring. When she wasn’t on tour, she was writing new songs at home in Bloomington, Indiana. To prepare for the release of Slide, 4AD encouraged her to meet with new producers and musicians and work with them out in Los Angeles. Open to trying something new, Germano ended up finding an apartment and got to work. “When you’re so used to feeling dead all the time, it takes a while to get used to feeling alive. That’s kinda why it’s called Slide, because you’re wanting to be in an upper place but you keep falling back down because that’s what you’re used to. It’s really just been within the last few months that I really feel super-uplifted. When I was making the record, I was going down and up a lot.” — Lisa Germano, Magnet Magazine (August 1998) Slide brought a fuller, band-oriented sound to her introspective songwriting. The songs were beautifully mixed by friend and producer Tchad Blake, and the album is widely considered one of the most accessible or radio-friendly of all of Germano’s catalogue. The album saw release in the fall of 1998 and like all of her records, received warm praise from critics, but didn’t fare well commercially. Due to the lackluster sales, 4AD had no choice but to drop her from their roster. Despite the setback of not having a label any longer to support her music, Germano promo