so, i was sitting at home a few weeks ago on a saturday night when i got the news: my bloody valentine, one of my favorite bands, who hadn't released anything since loveless in 1991, was going to be releasing their new album in a couple of hours. you can imagine my reaction. i stopped the dvr, got online, and spent the next three hours waiting and finally purchasing m b v. by the time the record was securely on my ipod, it was close to midnight. i pressed the play button and was gently blasted into another dimension.
here's my history with my bloody valentine: i first heard of them in 1989 from my friend shaun (see post below). the album was isn't anything, and i spent the better part of a year being mesmerized by it. what made this record so incredible was how intense AND poppy AND noisy it was. i spent a week once listening to "you never should" on repeat over and over. crazy? maybe, but i really connected with the ideas, and the way that kevin shields and company can frame intense noise within pop songs really tugged at my soul. anyways, as my love affair with isn't anything was cooling off, i started discovering the feed me with your kiss single as well as the you made me realize ep. i loved both, but you made me realize REALLY knocked my socks off. so heavy, yet super catchy as well. i was in heaven.
then 1990 came around, and the glider ep came out. the song "soon" dominated every dance floor at every house party that i went to that year. my friend james was crazy about them as well, and we made sure that it got spun as much as possible. the other songs we're good, but i remember not being as nuts about them as the older stuff. they felt too polished, and the chaotic edge that made my heart race was missing. but, i figured, oh well, the new album will be out soon and they will be vindicated. so i waited. and waited. crazy rumors about the drummer breaking his arm and sampling all of the drums into the music beat by beat abounded. i heard that kevin shields was refusing to finish it. crazy stuff. so, i went back into their earlier catalog and got really into the ecstacy and wine compilation, and their earlier singles (which, by the way, were pretty hard to get ahold of in the pre-internet world). at the same time that this was happening, i started getting heavy into the c86 scene, subway records, and all of the earlier creation bands like the pastels, biff bang pow, primal scream, felt, etc. so i kind of forgot about my bloody valentine.
it's hard to believe that loveless came out in 1991, because it seems so much later. nevermind by nirvana had just come out, and new albums by swervedriver (raise), primal scream (screamadelica), and teenage fanclub (bandwagonesque) were either on my horizon or already on the stereo at my apartment. i remember my reaction to listening to the newest mbv album: too polished, kind of boring. now i'm not saying that my critique at the time is how i feel about loveless today, but you have to remember that i was literally LOSING MY MIND to songs like "the concept" and "higher than the sun" at that point. listening to loveless, it seemed really sanitized, and i still do believe that it is one of the weakest points in their catalog. i know it may sound crazy to you, but it's truly how i feel (and yes, i do know about the this is your bloody valentine album).
so, years go on, and i find myself still listening and freaking out to how great my bloody valentine is. in 2003, after hearing a couple of new kevin shields songs from lost in translation, i was back at full-on hero worship. a rumor came out that a my bloody valentine box set was to be released, and so i paid a hundred bucks to some website in japan to try and get it. never happened. another rumor that a new ep was going to come out soon surfaced in 2005 or so. then there was another box set rumor. and then there was a rumor of a "missing album" that was coming out. each time, i got my hopes up, and nothing happened. that is, until 2008.
2008 marked the moment that my bloody valentine came back to life for me. i got married that year. and as a present on our wedding day, my amazing wife gave me tickets to see them in los angeles. it was to be part of our honeymoon. we went, and had a great time. there were no new songs at the show, and really no merchandise whatsoever, but something seemed real about the rumors now. and then they remastered and reissued loveless. and then isn't anything. and then mbv put out all of their later eps as a two disc set. and finally, three weeks ago, on february 2 at 11:45 pm, m b v landed in my brain.
this album is perfect. the first song, "she found now," drifts in with a wash of real dissonance and gentle power. kevin's vocals and lyrical content are just beautiful. the next song, "only tomorrow," is so good i can't even hardly believe that it exists. super heavy, with female vocals, and a warped melody that grabs your heart by the balls. there is a guitar solo at the end that drives me crazy in the best possible way. the third song, "who sees you," is a grinding psychedelic explosion of bliss, with every ragged corner and edge left unpolished, and another ending section that is almost too good to believe.
the album takes a left turn at song four, "is this and yes," with vintage synthesizer sounds and a sort of sterolab-ish feel to it. very sweet, and a proper break from the skull crushing dissonance of the previous songs. "if i am," song number five, adds back in the guitars and pop structures. the sixth song, "new you," is a masterpiece if there ever was one. mellow dance rhythms with tremolo guitars and the sweetest vocals. after that, "in another way" delivers another dose of bending distortion and incredible effects. song number eight is a brutal assault of distortion, drums, and repetition. and the final song, "wonder 2," blows the whole formula apart with airplane feedback, flange pedals, masked vocals, and everything else you would imagine could make a song a mess. but it isn't. while not very accessible at first listen, "wonder 2" grows on you with each listen, and is already either the favorite or most hated song on the album.
like i said a couple of paragraphs ago, this album is perfect. it's not loveless, and not even in the same ballpark as loveless. but it doesn't want to be. where that album was polished and edited to a perfect beam of light, m b v is ragged, wild, desperate, sweet, and immediate. it's right up my alley, and if this is any indication of the direction of the band in the future, i'm ready to be as obsessed as i ever was. ps here's a picture my friend kate painted of kevin:
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