Just for a Day

Halstead convinced Alan McGee that the band had enough songs for an album when they did not, and the group wrote in the studio. Halstead said they went in for six weeks with no songs and came out with an album. It was recorded at Courtyard Studios in Abingdon, formerly known as Georgetown Studios, with Chris Hufford and Halstead producing and Slowdive mixing. Catch the Breeze, the lead track of the Holding Our Breath EP issued on 3 June 1991, was also on the album. Creation released it on 2 September 1991, and SBK followed in the United States in 1992.

It reached 32 on the UK Albums Chart and the top ten of the UK Indie Chart. Reviews were lukewarm. Melody Maker's Paul Lester called it a major letdown, Select's Dan Maier said the band sounded like the Cocteau Twins with ballast, and NME's Simon Williams called it frequently exceptional. Jim DeRogatis described its sound as one of the lushest and most layered of the shoegazer movement, and Trouser Press found the material inconsistent but said the solid songs were breathtaking. Looking back in 2005, Pitchfork's Nitsuh Abebe thought the overgroomed production was what would sound dated, but found a terrifically oceanic quality in the record. Ned Raggett placed it 17th among the albums of the 1990s, and Pitchfork put it seventh on its 2016 list of shoegaze albums. Castle Music remastered it in 2005 with a second disc of tracks from the first three EPs, and Cherry Red reissued it in 2010.