My Bloody Valentine - "Loveless" (LP Review)

I had been resisting reviewing "Loveless" because it is just too obvious: there are innumerable reviews proclaiming the excellence of this LP (e.g., Allmusic, Wired, Pitchfork, Drowned In Sound).   But with My Bloody Valentine's out-of-print EPs collected on "EPs 1988-1991" and *finally* a new LP,  "m b v", I've decided to include it.

I first heard this LP in 1999, ordering it at the same time as DJ Shadow's seminal "Endtroducing.....".  They don't sound anything alike, but they are similar in that once you listen to them, you'll never hear music the same way again. 

Rather than throw hundreds of words at this LP, the eccentricities and innovations of Kevin Shields, or how the cover art matches the sound, instead I'll offer my initial, visceral reaction from 1999:

Dying Swan Music*.

Yes, that's the best I can do, courtesy of Tennyson:

But anon her awful jubilant voice,
With a music strange and manifold,
Flow'd forth on a carol free and bold;
As when a mighty people rejoice

Standout songs:  All, and it really should be consumed as a whole, start to finish (Youtube playlist).  If forced to pick three, I'd go with: "To Here Knows When", "Sometimes", "Blown A Wish"

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final Score: In addition to "10/10", this LP earns my very rare "beyond music" label; "music" is just too limiting a concept to describe it.

Bonus links: official videos for "To Here Knows When" and "Soon" (radio edit).  I'm pretty sure most of the "official" videos for MBV are the same footage used over and over again, but how else would you do it?



* = Listen to "Touched", a sort of intro to "To Here Knows When", and then get back to me when you come up with a better description.

My Bloody Valentine - "You Made Me Realise" (forgotten song)

"You Made Me Realise" is a 1988 release by My Bloody Valentine. It was first released as a 7" single and then a 12" EP, then a CD. But the CD is out of print and you'll pay stupid $$$ to get a copy. I don't have a copy, so I'm just focusing on the song and not the entire EP.

MBV is one of my favorite bands and their impact reaches beyond their relatively limited output. Discussion of MBV is inevitably dominated by their landmark 1991 "shoegazing" LP "Loveless", one of my favorite LPs of all time. I'll review that LP later, but suffice to say that it was so good it effectively ended the genre because there was nothing left to accomplish after it was released.

It is quite easy to overlook this song, considering: 1) the gravitational pull of "Loveless", 2) this song was never released on an LP, and 3) the EP is out of print. The celebrated MBV sound is still forming and there is more of a conventional song structure. It is "fuzzy", but actually rocks a good bit harder than most of the material on the LP that immediately followed, 1988's "Isn't Anything". It sounds more like MBV covering a Jesus and Mary Chain song, and that's pretty good in my book.

Link: YouTube and last.fm.

Edit: This EP and others are now available on the compilation: "EPs 1988-1991".   I'll review it later, but it is worth getting.