My reviews of My Bloody Valentine albums. Albums only. I suspect there is a substantial group of fans who feel the EPs are essential and maybe they’re right but I just can’t be bothered. Sorry.
1988: Isn’t Anything (8/10)
I don’t love shoegaze. I don’t know if I came at it at the wrong time in my life or whether I just would have and never will like the aesthetic of noise plus bubble gum.
But I like this a lot more than the Jesus and Marry Chain; it’s a lot more musically interesting to me and certainly, from a production standpoint, it’s a mot more daring than just sugary melody plus buzzsaw guitar.
Maybe one day I will come to like this more than I do but I find, of all the shoegaze bands, I still prefer the ones closer to more traditional rock music – i.e. perhaps less innovative than My Bloody Valentine but closer to what I enjoy personally.
Ah well.
Still, it’s hard to deny this record’s importance.
Read my reviews of albums released in 1988.
1991 Loveless (10/10)
For years, I’ve struggled with the idea that this – this record – is a record that drastically changed music. I had read so much about it – too much – that when I heard it, I was disappointed. “It sounds like shoegaze” I thought.
But it isn’t just shoegaze, it’s a revolution in electric guitar sound and production, and the incorporation of samples as lead musical instruments is also path-breaking.
I may never love this record, but I have finally come to respect it as much as I should.
Read my reviews of music from 1991.
2013: M B V (???)
As with numerous other bands, I’ve failed to listen to My Bloody Valentine’s reunion album.