Twenty-one years later...

February 2, 2013 8:57 PM

My Bloody Valentine's new album mbv is streaming on YouTube.
posted by griphus (171 comments total)

Where's the Onion link?
posted by LionIndex at 9:01 PM on February 2

I have been WAITING for this for 20+ years so, naturally, I managed to click the 'download' link after I bought the album too many times, disabling it...and now I have to wait for their support people to reset me and AAAAAAAGH OH MY GOD IT'S A NEW MBV ALBUM AND JESUS IF IT WEREN'T FOR THEM AND THAT FIRST LIZ PHAIR ALBUM I DON'T THINK I WOULD HAVE SURVIVED MY FIRST 2 YEARS OF COLLEGE YOU GUYS oh my god this is really super exciting and also I should maybe not have had this much caffeine but AAAAAGH MBV!

(currently feeling ALL the feels... your friend,)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:02 PM on February 2 [14 favorites]

Furthermore it's available for sale and their site crashed immediately after the announcement.

And--finally--

yes. It is a damn good album. Worth checking out. Listened to it with a few friends who are scattered across the world. Haven't had that communal feeling with tunes in so long.
posted by raihan_ at 9:03 PM on February 2

I have downloaded the WAV files and ordered the vinyl and DUDE I AM FREAKING OUT
posted by mintcake! at 9:04 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

wonder 2
posted by raihan_ at 9:05 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

!!!
posted by Jimbob at 9:06 PM on February 2

You guys you guys you guys! My husband bought it, too, because he was in another room and it's not like we consult each other before buying something this momentous and now I don't have to wait because he can copy it over OH HAPPY DAY!

*jumps up and down and wonders how many other people jackassedly locked themselves out of their download, too*
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:09 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

Ha, I was just listening to track 2 when I saw this post.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:11 PM on February 2

I bought it. I love it.
posted by item at 9:13 PM on February 2

Just listening to "wonder 2". Quite an earmeal.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:14 PM on February 2

God, this is just so much tired dreampop/shoegaze/drone retread stuff. Totally ripping off innovative bands like the Besnard Lakes, Mazzy Star, BRMC, and Spacemen 3.
posted by kenko at 9:16 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

I'm going to alternate between this and Chinese Democracy while I play Duke Nukem Forever.

(Not really. Those other two things suck.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:17 PM on February 2 [7 favorites]

I was introduced to MBV by my neighbor in freshman year of college, and I listened to them nonstop for the next two years. I know it sounds hugely cliche, but MBV is still one of my biggest musical influences.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:19 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Clearly the twenty year delay was so Kevin Shields could come up with the perfect album title and artwork.
posted by .kobayashi. at 9:20 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

I've been wandering around the house for the last little while saying "I just bought the new My Bloody Valentine record," pinching myself and trying to convince myself that I'm not dreaming.


Initial impression: the record is really good. And not just because I've been waiting or it for 20+ years.
posted by thivaia at 9:23 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that the "20 year delay" in this case was actually an extremely long tape loop
posted by billjings at 9:24 PM on February 2 [14 favorites]

I'm going to alternate between this and Chinese Democracy while I play Duke Nukem Forever.

Awesome. I just went and found this comment of mine from almost a year ago.
posted by LionIndex at 9:26 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

"New You" is absolutely the best track.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:27 PM on February 2

So strange, this is so good and so beautiful I'm being transported back in time.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:28 PM on February 2

Dunkadunc, my (dude) college roommates knew to back away slowly from my door if "Only Shallow" was playing REALLY loud. It got to the point where you could make valid decisions about things to do in our house based on which MBV song was on, and at what volume...
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:30 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

kokuryu: Sometimes I get the feeling that history got broken sometime around 1997 and veered off in this very wrong direction, just when it seemed like things were going to get really really good.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:30 PM on February 2 [17 favorites]

Downloading now. I'm a bit breathless.
posted by jokeefe at 9:42 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Most important news ever.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:44 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

It is very good, but it sounds so eerily like the 'next "My Bloody Valentine"' album that it makes me uncomfortable. Okay, obviously, this is the next My Bloody Valentine album, duh; but what I mean is, it sounds exactly like it came out in 1994 - a few years after the breathrough album, sure, but essentuially like there was no 20 year gap between the two, no tortured pauses, no acknowledgement that the world has changed or that music has changed or that we've changed. It feels kind of frozen, and I don't know, it makes me very sad and very nostalgic at the same time, but mostly sad for reasons I can't put my finger on.

I think basically this: that to me, it sounds like it came from the 'good' early 90s, that special universe: the one where I didn't end up making all those mistakes in the early 2000s, and everything came through, none of those accidents happened, and my life didn't turn into the mess it is now. Like, this is a dispatch from a much better timeline where I basically stayed 16 forever, which is the age at which I first stumbled across Loveless; a universe where I just assumed I would have things figured out, more or less, by my late 20s.

A very distant universe, apparently.

(Also, I keep forgetting to turn shuffle off so iTunes keeps flipping between the new songs and Loveless, and, hmm, I don't know.)
posted by Tiresias at 9:47 PM on February 2 [26 favorites]

Tiresias I will totally come by and listen to this fucker with you and pretend that Creed never happened if you need a buddy right now.
posted by mintcake! at 9:53 PM on February 2 [11 favorites]

This is serious. So serious.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:53 PM on February 2 [5 favorites]

I was having kind of a nothing of a night, and now it's something. It's too bad the main site isn't working, but it'll work, and YouTube will serve for now.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:58 PM on February 2

mintcake!: "Tiresias I will totally come by and listen to this fucker with you and pretend that Creed never happened if you need a buddy right now."

Creed, Nickelback and the rest of post-grunge, the faux "latin invasion", George W. Bush, the death of rock as a genre on the radio, and "indie" becoming completely bland, co-opted and meaningless.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:00 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the high points here for me are definitely the bits that sound less lovelessish.

I feel like it sort of hit its stride after the third track. Up until then I felt like I was basically listening to a Loveless tribute band — and, okay, a really good tribute band, with the finest ginormous speakers and the deftest tremolo-bar-wiggling skills and etcetera — but then things started deviating from that template enough to be interesting.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:00 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

And I mean don't get me wrong Loveless is way the fuck up on my list. It's just that if I want to listen to it I'll go and listen to it already.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:01 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the world does not need another Loveless. It was over-rated and over-hyped the FIRST time around.
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 PM on February 2

Yeah, the world does not need another Loveless. It was over-rated and over-hyped the FIRST time around.
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 PM on February 2 [+] [!]

Eponysterical.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:07 PM on February 2 [21 favorites]

"New You" is absolutely the best track.

I dunno how I'll feel in a week, but right now I'm obsessed with Wonder 2. It's hard for me to stop listening to it long enough to give the other tracks on the album a second or third listen.
posted by pocketfullofrye at 10:09 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

I didn't get the hype.

Then I realized I was confusing them with My Dying Bride.
posted by munchingzombie at 10:16 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Is it "mbv" or is it "m b v"? I hate (myself for caring about) this sort of thing.

New You on repeat for me.
posted by shortfuse at 10:16 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

At least you've all got your own lawns now.

Pale Saints were better
posted by fullerine at 10:26 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

The new music definitely sounds like something from 20 years ago - I'm stuck on an island off the west coast of North America flipping through NME marveling at the fact that Ride and Verve are playing a show, and there are more cool bands where that came from, why don't they ever come HERE??? - but there isn't anything wrong with that at all.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:27 PM on February 2

WAV files for download? This really is something from 20 years ago; FLAC has been around for a decade now.
posted by PueExMachina at 10:33 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

WAV files for download? This really is something from 20 years ago;

So is having such shitty bandwidth / hard drive capacity that you're forced to use FLACs...?
posted by Jimbob at 10:57 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Ok, Avalanches, what's your excuse?
posted by Merzbau at 11:01 PM on February 2 [6 favorites]

You Made Me Realise....
this album is out.

To YouTube and beyond! (Or at least as far as 1990.)
posted by Mezentian at 11:03 PM on February 2

I so don't want to be that guy that pisses on other people's parade, and I do not do this lightly, BUT FUCK ME with a tuning fork if Wonder 2 isn't awful, there are a coupla moments, but then yeah fucking awful...and Nothing Is is a fucking repetitive go nowhere waste of time. What's up with the looped syncopated marching band bullshit....this is supposed to be the motherfuckin' mighty MY BLOODY VALENTINE already, not the Buttfuck Creek, Mississippi H.S. marching band or something...

New You, seems catchy and elegant and pretty okay, but man, 16 bucks for 9 digital songs and two already blow superchunks of fecal matter...

Maybe they wanted to release this shit just to show the world how much they could actually suck, and contrast with just how good they actually were at one point and why Loveless is a masterpiece?

I must say, I am bewildered, disappointed and deeply slightly panicked at this world class craptastical display from the mighty MBV. Because at the end of the day, I like Loveless a lot, was a major experience for me from 1991, even if it was overhyped and over-rated (Slowdive and Swervedriver have stood the test of time much better than MBV IMHO), and I don't want it sullied by some weirdo revisionist brain damaged joke from Kevin Shields...

Okay, I'm going back under to listen to more. Say a prayer for me. This could be a long and sobering night of disillusionment and dispair...
posted by Skygazer at 11:05 PM on February 2

BUT FUCK ME with a tuning fork if Wonder 2 isn't awful,

Do you mean a house fork, or should I go and get my BBQ fork?
Or, you know, I could go to the shed and get my gardening fork.
posted by Mezentian at 11:07 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

A Tuning Fork.
posted by Skygazer at 11:10 PM on February 2

Skygazer - I'm currently listening to it via my laptop's shitty speakers. It sounds like the MBV I love as heard through shitty laptop speakers. Tomorrow sometime, I expect to get it on a proper system at which point escape velocity will likely be achieved, the earth will shake, everything will get bloody for a while.

By which I mean, what are your expectations here?
posted by philip-random at 11:11 PM on February 2

Slowdive and Swervedriver have stood the test of time much better than MBV IMHO

...and then I realized you were fucking with us.
posted by mintcake! at 11:12 PM on February 2 [9 favorites]

By which I mean, what are your expectations here?

Look all I ask is that heros or semi-heros, or whatever simply don't embarrass themselves and try. It's not a very high bar to clear.

Here's what I'm suspecting from what I hear, and that is that they cut cut up and re-sampled, re-looped and re-arranged pieces from Loveless for a lot of these songs, and that in itself is a fine idea and technique, but on those two songs I mentioned above Wonder 2 and Nothing Is, it just sounds like gleeful and reckless pisstaking....as in stunts....as in bullshit.

Okay, just listened to In Another Way, and that was pretty okay. It clears the bar for quality(tm).
posted by Skygazer at 11:21 PM on February 2

I'm listening on good studio headphones. My take on each track:

1 - "She Found Now": Not my favorite, but a nice laid-back track on par with anything on Loveless.
2 - "Only Tomorrow": Good!
3 - "Who Sees You": Possible rival to "Soon" in awesomeness. Nice and lush.
4 - "Is This And Yes": Very ambient- this may grow on me, but right now it doesn't work.
5 - "If I Am": Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher in good form. Nice wah-wah on the guitar.
6 - "New You": The obvious radio hit- danceable yet understated, really nice. I really wish more tracks on the album had been like this.
7 - "In Another Way": There's a real dark feeling to this- a bit experimental, but quite enjoyable. I can see Boards of Canada doing a really nice remix of this.
8 - "Nothing Is": WHAT IS THIS HORRIBLE REPETITIVE CRAP? I COULD HAVE DONE THIS MYSELF IN 5 MINUTES. If you're going to charge $16 for a download, leave out horrible abrasive filler like this.
9 - "Wonder 2": Heavily flanged, experimental but not really enjoyable. More filler.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:25 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

Mintcake: ...and then I realized you were fucking with us.

I'm not, I think both Slowdive's Souvlaki and Swervedriver's Mezcal Head are both better records than Loveless and have weathered the passage of time much better, with much of Loveless sounding so cloying and dated now. (Not Soon. Soon is a towering achievement indeed).

Okay listening to Is This and Yes, which sounds like Stereolab's worst song ever as written by MBV, but still, even that clears the dismal bar of Wonder 2 and the abysmal Nothing Is...
posted by Skygazer at 11:25 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

Swervedriver?
posted by KokuRyu at 11:29 PM on February 2

dunkadunc, your opinion regarding Nothing Is is only ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT.

The highlight of the record.
posted by xmutex at 11:31 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

If I Am is pretty interesting, actually I think this might be up there with New You. It's getting better and better..very nice.
posted by Skygazer at 11:33 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Mezcal Head was highly underrated. I discovered Lush after MBV, and they still blow me away- with every listen, and I listen to them constantly. Check out "Downer" or "Nothing Natural".

I'm still so sad about their later stuff, when they tried to ride the wave of britpop.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:34 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

Skygazer, I don't believe MBV are the ones embarrassing themselves here.
posted by item at 11:34 PM on February 2 [5 favorites]

Felt like it started slow but picked up in the second half. I also enjoyed nothing is.
posted by Team of Scientists at 11:37 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Swervedriver: Son of a Mustang Ford is an almost perfect song, and I will shank anyone who says otherwise.

God know it's true.
But I think that the devil knows it too.

(It must be hard for a band with a shoddy live reputation and a classic album 20+ years old to get down on it again and potentially ruin their own legacy with a Chinese Democracy , but from what I have heard, this album is settling in nicely with MBV fans who have been listening for most of the day.
posted by Mezentian at 11:37 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the world does not need another Loveless. It was over-rated and over-hyped the FIRST time around.
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 PM on February 2 [+] [!]

hahaha is it physically possible to utter a statement more incorrect than this
posted by p3on at 11:38 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

Who Sees you, sounds like another sampled loop from Loveless, it's not too bad, but still it feels like a jip...a scam...

Item: Skygazer, I don't believe MBV are the ones embarrassing themselves here.

Well, you can try and substantiate that statement with something or just throw that out there like that where it's meaningless.

I think if your MBV and your going to charge 16 bucks for NINE songs (in MP3 or WAV), the least you can do is not make an exercise in digital re-arranging for up to a third of it (that I've listened so far), that's just the actual last album re-sampled and re-looped in a shit way.

THAT'S FUCKING EMBARRASSING.
posted by Skygazer at 11:41 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

"Nothing Is" is clearly the hit.

I remember reading a Spin article about how long overdue this album was and how it would probably never come out...in a Wherehouse...in the 90s.
posted by anazgnos at 11:41 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Okay, I am not going to shank anyone.
But I still remember where I was the first time I heard Head Like A Hole, Smells Like Teen Spirit and You Make Me Realise.

Of course, I remember where I was when I heard Love Shack for the first time.
And Never Gonna Give You Up, which I can see in the YouTube sidebar.

Have people been rickrolling?
posted by Mezentian at 11:43 PM on February 2

YEAH, BUT THEY'RE NO MEDICINE!!

SOMEONE GET THE PHONE IT'S BEEN RINGING FOR LIKE 15 MINUTES NOW?!!

DID YOU JUST SAY SOMETHING?? WHAT?
posted by not_on_display at 11:43 PM on February 2 [4 favorites]

I can't wait to hear this under the appropriate influences.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 11:49 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

okay, I saw MBV and Swervedriver back in the day, both in 1992 I'm pretty sure. Based on the live experience, there really is no comparison. Swervedriver were a strong and interesting act, well worth the price of admission. MBV was beyond anything I'd ever heard or seen. Still is. And no live recording, no video, no artifact I've ever heard since has come close to doing that live experience justice ...

It was psychedelic, without the drugs.

Whereas Swervedriver -- well, I just haven't thought of them much for about fifteen years.

As for Slowdive, I never saw them but I've always liked them in a sort easy listening, end of a long night sort of way.
posted by philip-random at 11:50 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

Phillip-Random: I'm currently listening to it via my laptop's shitty speakers.

Well, I don't know what that's coming to you as soundwise, but one of the really things about Loveless was that it's one of the few records I bought in different media formats because each one seemed to excavate a new sound I hadn't heard before...

I got it in cassette tape (kids look that up if you need too...), and then got it on CD, and then vinyl and with different headphones and speakers and I damn, but the EQ-ing and compression on that record and the mastering is an absolute marvel...each different listening set up has rendered up new aural treasures.

{The live show was a weird joke, but I like the sound of jet engines and enjoyed it anyway....I digress...}

Now, I can see them (them?? It's really mostly Kevin Shields...) wanting to leverage that richness and sample from Loveless, but it's a fine line between doing that and making a new song from it worth listening too, or producing kack and selling it for a shit-ton of money to just take the money from all the babes who think MBV is or was, some sort of perfect Godhead group...that's just lame...and cheesy...
posted by Skygazer at 11:51 PM on February 2

Skygazer enough with the thread moderation already
posted by anazgnos at 11:53 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

Phillip-Random: Whereas Swervedriver -- well, I just haven't thought of them much for about fifteen years.

I saw them twice in the last three years and they just destroyed both times...well worth seeing if they come around again, especially with their original drummer who's phenomenal.
posted by Skygazer at 12:04 AM on February 3

XhaustedProphet: "I can't wait to hear this under the appropriate influences."

I know right, these next five minutes are gonna be hell.
posted by mannequito at 12:08 AM on February 3 [6 favorites]

The implication that they literally just sampled from Loveless is pretty... uh, yeah, that's a thing. I'm pretty sure they didn't do that.
posted by flaterik at 12:47 AM on February 3

I'm one of those weirdos who preferred Isn't Anything to Loveless but I'll probably give this new album a shot, despite the dangers of awakening the most fierce and ancient beast of nostalgia and regrets.

And thank you Skygazer. You are not alone. Swervedriver may not have been as innovative but, good fucking god, they were brilliant and wonderful and easily had a lot more heart than MBV. Their first two albums, plus a handful of the live bootlegs, would be at the top of the desert island playlist.

The early 90's was such a beautiful time for music. Bark Psychosis and the sexy minimalism of the Insides, along with Swervedriver, definitely did their part to keep me sane.
posted by honestcoyote at 1:17 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I'm familiar enough with Loveless to know they didn't sample it.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:17 AM on February 3

A selection of opinions, there. Many of which criticise the very same aspects that others consider virtues. It may, therefore, be considered an instant classic. I love it, incidentally. And yeah it sounds reassuringly like a My Bloody Valentine album but better than my very brief expectations and not simply a retread of Loveless. As long-awaited albums go, I'd put it above Kraftwerk and Portishead. And they're not too shabby. So there.
posted by steganographia at 1:38 AM on February 3

I wondered vaguely why they'd decided to tour again, as I snapped up tickets. New album will take a while to get used to. But then all good music does.

All hail My Duncan Bannatyne.
posted by Pericles at 2:12 AM on February 3

MBV are playing ATP in 2 weeks time in Melbourne.

I AM GOING.

REALLY.

THE BAND I WANT TO SEE MOST IN THE FSCKING WORLD AND THE ONLY ONE THAT WOULD MAKE ME TYPE IN CAPS LOCK.

Sorry.

Normal service is now resumed.

Anyone other MeFites going along? Or buying tickets to Melbs right now?
posted by sien at 2:41 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

{The live show was a weird joke, but I like the sound of jet engines and enjoyed it anyway....I digress...}

OK, you're trolling, right? MBV live is as near a transcendental moment as you can get without the aid of chemicals and/or a near-death experience. Saw them a few years ago at the Roundhouse in Camden and they were breathtakingly, shockingly amazing. The last 20 minutes of the set (it may have been longer, I kind of lost track, ice ages may have come and gone) was just a wall of sound and noise so loud it had a physical presence. Fuzz and feedback and bass and drums smashed together to produce an aural Rothko; a flat monolic block on initial impressions but beautifully complex upclose.

I was standing there, jaw somewhere down by my knees, being physically battered by this magnificent noise and David was head down, throwing all kinds of old school shapes whilst all these kids were just flowing past us, leaving in droves. 20 years old, skinny jeans and trilbies, all there because they'd been told they should like MBV and when it come down to it, they just did not get it, defeated by the most glorious sound I'd ever heard.

MBV live are amazing and I'm so excitied about seeing them next month my heart is thumping in my chest just thinking about it
posted by fatfrank at 2:44 AM on February 3 [11 favorites]

I've seen MBV twice; once on the Loveless tour (so 91 / 92?) and the first reunion gig at The Roundhouse. The second had pretty bad sound quality (circular room acoustics?). The vocals, while never prominent, almost inaudible.

Hoping for better next month.
posted by Pericles at 2:55 AM on February 3

You know there's people still wearing "Lance is Innocent" T-shirts who look askance at mbv fans thinking "Man, this hero-worship is a bit much"

If they do some gigs I wonder if they'll line everyone up and charge them for a high five.
posted by fullerine at 2:59 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

Listening to this on YouTube, I have to admit that I am underwhelmed, but I can also imagine getting into it when I listen to it correctly. I guess either the album is not as good as I would have hoped, or maybe it's not a good idea to offer a substandard listening experience for something like this.
posted by snofoam at 3:30 AM on February 3

So, I was at their warmup gig last week.

Afraid to say it really wasn't that great. They had massive sound problems, they stopped and started songs a few times, Kevin said "this is like playing at the end of a three-mile tunnel". You couldn't hear the vocals - admittedly, they usually mix them very low live, but last week you could see Belinda and Kevin singing, but not hear a thing. Most disappointing of all, the "holocaust" in 'You Made Me Realise' [what fatfrank was talking about] was completely weak and only lasted about five minutes.

Now I've seen them before and they've been better (Manchester in 2008, where the holocaust lasted about 20 minutes and nearly had me running from the venue in a panic. So hopefully they'll have things sorted for the tour.

Here's a review from a better writer than me [disclaimer: I know him vaguely] and here's a somewhat more pretentious review of the same gig.
posted by Infinite Jest at 3:40 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

" Suddenly it was this now: a strange zephyr, crushed with strawberry and de-materialised beyond the realms of the purely representational. And infinite. It was neither surreal nor psychedelic, but like a thought, or a coincidence, or grace: a saving/destroying nothing that was also everything, to here knows when."

You're not wrong about "more pretentious". That author's copy of Word should've put a quintuple squiggly line under most of that review and refused to acknowledge the save command. 24 carat bollocks.
posted by Pericles at 4:24 AM on February 3 [4 favorites]

I put MeFi down for a few hours, and this is what I miss?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:47 AM on February 3

You know Kevin Shields is on hold with GoDaddy right now, wondering if he has time to tweak the third track just ONE MORE TIME.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:53 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

Their site's back up this morning, btw. Not going to guess for how long once the east coast hipsters wake up some time after noon.
posted by ardgedee at 5:05 AM on February 3

Maybe that's why their site is still down.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:05 AM on February 3

> I think if your MBV and your going to charge 16 bucks for NINE songs (in MP3 or WAV), the least you can do is...

Dude, that's less than a dollar a year.

Calm down and listen to something you like and quit trying to be our one-man consumer protection service.
posted by ardgedee at 5:07 AM on February 3 [10 favorites]

While this record won't change my life, it is far better than most albums released decades after the band stopped being a thing, and I'm happy for the fans who love them. Does this mean we should prepare for a shoe-gazer Nirvana moment? Who's the young band that's going to repackage this stuff and make it blow up on [MTV]?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:08 AM on February 3

Is the site still down for people? Weird. I had no problem reaching it (7:45 AM-ish, EST) and even downloaded the album in HD WAV format without difficulty.
posted by ardgedee at 5:11 AM on February 3

I saw them twice in the last three years and they just destroyed both times...well worth seeing if they come around again, especially with their original drummer who's phenomenal.

That Bowery Ballroom show last spring was fantastic, I will absolutely give you that.
posted by mintcake! at 5:15 AM on February 3

Is anyone else torn between "I kind of like this record" and "I can't hear anything that suggests to me any reason why this couldn't have come out in 1997"?
posted by .kobayashi. at 5:26 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

I have both of those.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:32 AM on February 3

They played here in 1991 or so, and by all accounts it was the worst live experience anyone had seen.
Apparently they hadn't played live in a while, and apparently they hadn't practiced much beyond the sound check.

But if I could find most of those people now I reckon most of them would think fondly on it.
posted by Mezentian at 5:40 AM on February 3

Honestly a great album on first listen. So looking forward to 2034 for the follow up.
posted by milarepa at 5:48 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

thank you gazed god
posted by porn in the woods at 5:56 AM on February 3 [2 favorites]

Is anyone else torn between "I kind of like this record" and "I can't hear anything that suggests to me any reason why this couldn't have come out in 1997"?

Yes, very much so.

No one I know in real life is into mbv, so I was shocked and unhappy when I found out their Tokyo shows had sold out.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:01 AM on February 3

YouTube playlist for the album:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIo6ROdk1D0BoUplvewL7n6YSdYdUuUgC
posted by ancillary at 6:07 AM on February 3

It's almost as if some people like this record and some do not, what a bizarre and peculiar reaction that we are all not reacting exactly the same.
posted by nathancaswell at 6:10 AM on February 3 [6 favorites]

TAKE THAT, THREAD.
posted by mintcake! at 6:23 AM on February 3

No this is the My Bloody Valentine thread. The Take That thread is over there --> .
posted by Pericles at 6:24 AM on February 3 [4 favorites]

I love you.
posted by mintcake! at 6:25 AM on February 3

Watch now, he'll release the follow-up next month just to mess with us.
posted by shortfuse at 6:28 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

Yes, but it'll be Dubstep remixes.
posted by Mezentian at 6:31 AM on February 3

Somewhere 16-year-old me is going, "I told you so! Now shut up! You're not the boss of me!"
posted by Kitteh at 6:33 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Setlist from the Seoul show last night. Attached note on the repeated play of To Here Knows When: "Played again as Kevin wasn't satisfied with the first performance". Oh Kevin.
posted by shortfuse at 6:49 AM on February 3

Yes, but it'll be Dubstep remixes.

Or IDM remixes, to go along with the "it feels like the early '90s" theme. Only Tomorrow (Autechre qbOP37-ZxW Remix), New You (Global Communication 83:19 Remix), etc.
posted by shortfuse at 7:15 AM on February 3 [6 favorites]

I was going to give a track-by-track take a try. But this early Quietus review does it well. I agree with much of what's being said there. Especially "There's next to nothing that caused me a sense of utterly alien surprise and a lot of that has to do with how long I've been listening to things in general as much as My Bloody Valentine in specific," which is probably something I need to get past to hear this album on its own terms.
posted by .kobayashi. at 7:17 AM on February 3

> Only Tomorrow (Autechre qbOP37-ZxW Remix), New You (Global Communication 83:19 Remix), etc.

That's pretty funny, but I also think it's a brilliant idea.
posted by ardgedee at 7:21 AM on February 3

Oh man, Loveless. Eighteen years ago some friends and I drank some rather exotic tea and put on Loveless and we all had this, like, quadruple-transcendent experience with all the shimmering vibrato guitars doing amazing visual things to the walls, and the cat.

And every time I would listen to Loveless after that, having had that experience would add that quadruple-transcendence to the already-wonderful music that I love so much.

And I could never really listen to an individual song on Loveless. It's not something to mix in on shuffle with the other stuff I listen to. If I'm going to listen to it it has to be the whole deal, start to finish, and sure as hell not while driving.

So now the new album is out after decades, plural. I've got two teenage kids in the house who have just got home from an overnight church trip, and I probably have to go to the grocery store later, and am socially obligated to go to this goddamn football-game barbecue thing, and I need to study some materials for a class I'm facilitating next week if I can find the time. Then tomorrow is Monday.

So I'm going to figure out how to listen to this new work. But twenty years means I probably won't be able to have a Loveless experience ever again and that's OK because I got to have it back then. And if I get just a little magic out of the music it will have been worth it. And If I don't, I'll still always have Loveless.
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:25 AM on February 3 [10 favorites]

Metafilter: your favorite band's brand new record sucks.

It's weird that in 2013 there's no better solution for a band doing direct sales of an album. Is there some standard shopping software underneath the site they're using, or is it entirely custom? Amazed they didn't just sell through Warp/Bleep, or Amazon, or iTunes, or whatever the indie hipsters are using. (What is that?)
posted by Nelson at 7:49 AM on February 3

Wow, I had no idea MBV could still stir such passion in the hearts of (now much older) Gen Xers.

I still have a signed CD copy of "Loveless" if anyone *cough* wants to find a way to get it off me.
posted by fungible at 7:50 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Fuckity fuck. Of all mornings for a new My Bloody Valentine Album. I'm still deaf from last night's Mudhoney show in Seattle. It's going to be at least 3 days until I can hear this properly.

Yes, Mudhoney, My Bloody Valentine. The Niners are in the Super Bowl. It's 1992 all weekend and I'm wearing flannel. You all can come over and party on my lawn.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:51 AM on February 3 [11 favorites]

Ok what was that Loveless cover album that I'm sure was posted about but doesn't seem to be tagged with mbv, mybloodyvalentine, or cover? It was different artists per track, a year or two ago… This is reminding me how much I liked the interpretations, admin, please hope me! (It wasn't the recent one from Japan, either.)
posted by kenko at 8:15 AM on February 3

Kenko, was it this thread?
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:27 AM on February 3

I read carefully through this thread and no one even mentioned that this could actually be the album that Shields scrapped. Teach the controversy, people.
posted by user92371 at 8:41 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

I wonder when in the past 21 years their store was built. Why do I need to create an account and provide them with a gender and a billing address to buy one digital download via PayPal? :P

The album though? It's good.
posted by Foosnark at 9:23 AM on February 3

it sounds exactly like it came out in 1994

Yes. This is exactly why I'm not really getting into it yet. I'm a child of the Zeroes, really, so I'm a lot less nostalgic for the alternate universe 90s shoegaze (which were ruled by the likes of Slowdive and Adorable, anyway) and a lot more annoyed that there's no...growth evident anywhere, so far. I've only skimmed around a little, rather than listening attentively in full, so maybe it's all me, but...it sounds exactly like I would've expected it to in the early 90s. After Kevin Shields' lovely tracks on Lost In Translation, after a two decade absence, that's really...weird?

Confession: I like MBV, but their reputation really annoys me. People STILL treat them like the only shoegaze band, when they're really not even one of the better shoegaze bands. They're legendary for introducing a whole bunch of people in their most sensitive years to a particular sound. Everyone knows it, and by now the hype around the band has reached this level of meta-hype where I honestly can't tell if people are being sincere or if they're being over the top to make fun of the hype itself. Like, everyone saying mbv (the album) is worth throwing away ALL MUSIC EVER in the past twenty years is just cuckoocrazy or really, really high right now. Loveless is a pretty good album that spawned a surprisingly much better Japanese tribute, but that's about it. This sounds like Loveless 2, which, okay.

[/crankywhippersnappercontrarian]

P.S. I'll probably turn around and declare this album genius after all of you are bored with it in a week, btw. Fair warning.
posted by byanyothername at 9:23 AM on February 3 [2 favorites]

I wonder when in the past 21 years their store was built. Why do I need to create an account and provide them with a gender and a billing address to buy one digital download via PayPal? :P

This annoyed me too, so I didn't fill it out and was able to complete the purchase. Only the top 4 or so fields are required.
posted by cj_ at 9:40 AM on February 3

I was standing there, jaw somewhere down by my knees, being physically battered by this magnificent noise and David was head down, throwing all kinds of old school shapes whilst all these kids were just flowing past us, leaving in droves. 20 years old, skinny jeans and trilbies, all there because they'd been told they should like MBV and when it come down to it, they just did not get it, defeated by the most glorious sound I'd ever heard.

This is Vancouver, The Commodore, 1992, in a nutshell. Except those jeans were baggy, not skinny.

The venue was packed, a thousand in attendance. The warm-up acts were Yo La Tengo and Buffalo Tom. Yo La Tengo's set was very cool, low key and moody. Buffalo Tom did a tight set of indie-pop. A lot of people really liked them. My Bloody Valentine hit the stage and the first minute or so was impressive, a nice sort of rolling groove (something from Side-2 of Loveless as I recall).

And then something happened.

A switch got shifted. What once had been a strong conventional three-dimensional live music experience erupted into five-D overdrive. It was, to use a word that should almost never be used to describe a live music experience, astonishing.

And yeah, they ended with the noise -- a version of You Made Me Realizeto which not bootleg will ever do justice. By the time all was complete, I doubt half the original crowd was still there. The rest, as a friend said, had been frightened away.

MBV live are a force of nature for which many are not prepared.
posted by philip-random at 9:42 AM on February 3

Parts do sound like they are right out of the Loveless recording sessions. Other parts don't to me, particularly as you move through the album. To me, it's amazing they could get the old sound to sound so good. It doesn't feel all that dated to me. Some recent music is still not so far off. Those earlier tracks act like a little musical bridge over 20 years to the later songs that don't sound particularly Loveless to me. And the parts that are so Loveless, it feels like discovering that great hidden gem of '95 hip hop that you missed and would love to hear as a new release come out today because it would do something so much better than what those one-dimensional out of breath modern swagrappers can do. The only difference is this did album did come out today.
posted by milarepa at 9:47 AM on February 3

Shortfuse: Watch now, he'll release the follow-up next month just to mess with us.

Yes. This. That. Maybe not a month though, just MBV's dog-years conception of a month which I think is about seven years.

I'm listening to this again with fresher ears this morning and there's much to like, indeed and much too love in a "awww...did the drums do that pat-pat-pat-pat-pat thing they used to do way back when...and did that guitar really just change keys so hard on that chord, it feels like being seasick in the middle of an orchestra sorta way...awww...how cute...etc..."

As to the people complaining about my attitude towards this thing; Look, I'm going to have fun with this bitches, MBV and I go way back and our relationship is fucking deep and wide, and absurdly complex. There is hate and there is true LOVE, I have lived and died spiritually to their music (and seen real friends actually die in the interim) and there is annoyance and frustration, and I'm just not going to put up with the same old dated sleepy attitude. I'm not going to sit hear and give them a pass like some bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Oberlin 20-something with a six foot bong who's going to go back for an Ivy-law degree just as soon as their over their little arty hipster phase...

21 years have passed whether they acknowledge it or not. And that is something pretty huge to ignore....one could even say ignoring it and producing this record is an accomplishment of vision and stubbornness and passion unto itself. So I'll give them that, begrudgingly.

Anyhow, if this record is way back after a 21 year haitus, to subvert and provide a conduit and connection mechanism (and an income stream to help with) a 100% up and running MBV, that's good reason enough for it.

Quite enjoying If I Am, at the moment....
posted by Skygazer at 10:01 AM on February 3

Confession: I like MBV, but their reputation really annoys me. People STILL treat them like the only shoegaze band, when they're really not even one of the better shoegaze bands.

Shoegaze is a very contained music -- stuck between the shine on the guitar player's shoes and his/her eyes, with the audience invited to sort of look in over their shoulder. MBV takes this glow and runs it through some magical, weapons grade mirrors and filters and somehow manages to bend time with it, hotwire it directly into the listener's soul. This is why so many are troubled that this new stuff sounds so 1992. Because it is 1992 in the flesh, via some quantum curve in space-time that even Einstein couldn't pin down. Get the volume right and perhaps the chemicals and you are suddenly outside of all defined continuums, at one with the music of the spheres.

What it is finally is art -- never what's expected, even if its utterly familiar.
posted by philip-random at 10:06 AM on February 3

... and that's all the hyperbole I've got in me for the time being. Time to feed the dogs.
posted by philip-random at 10:07 AM on February 3 [2 favorites]

Byanyothername, those are the kind of heretical words that get people burned at the stake. If I could reinstitute the Inquisition, you would be sentenced to spend the rest of your life in front of a live performance of You Made Me Realize, to bask in the Lord's Glory as you perish from exsanguination through your ears.

No seriously, I was in the right time and place for shoe gaze. When Isn't Anything came out, there were already a thousand bands playing drone-y distortion and I saw them all. Does anyone even remember when Smashing Pumpkins fit into this niche? A lot of them were already becoming tiresome. When the Glider EP came out, something caught fire. It was a very distinctive, astonishing new sound. I hate to call it a you-had-to-be-there thing, because Loveless stands on its own, but most of us who gush about MBV don't lump them in with other shoe gaze bands because at the time they seemed to completely transform music. In my lifetime, there have been few moments like this. I mean, grunge or Sonic Youth or the rise of hip hop, but nothing so monumental in one band, one album.

Or maybe it was the drugs.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:17 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Kenko, was it this thread?

No, each track had a different artist, and they were proper covers, not attempts to recreate.
posted by kenko at 10:21 AM on February 3

I listened for 20 seconds and ordered the vinyl immediately!
posted by molecicco at 10:56 AM on February 3

For a second there I thought it was new Bullet For My Valentine. Moving on...
posted by MikeMc at 11:18 AM on February 3

I have ordered this just on the first 2 tracks I listened to on NPR.

What I really really want though is a new God Machine album. Which is never going to happen. Here's to Jimmy Fernandez *raises glass, weeps for what was lost*
posted by arcticseal at 11:20 AM on February 3

"Nothing Is" is perfect.

I am on my first listen and while I had been loving it that was the one that pulled me away from paying attention to anything else. I wanted to write this while listening to the song but it was not possible.

It builds, it grows SO FUCKING SLOWLY, so beautifully.
posted by mountmccabe at 11:43 AM on February 3

in another way take me back to clubbing way back when in the early 90's...
posted by KokuRyu at 11:56 AM on February 3

Yeah, the last two songs are phenomenal. They are driving and powerful, yet fully My Bloody Valentine. This is a thing they had not done on record, really. No one else could have made these songs.
posted by mountmccabe at 11:56 AM on February 3

To me this album does not sound like the 90s. I threw on a couple comparison tracks ("Feed Me With Your Kiss", "You Made Me Realise", "Sometimes") and they just so limited. I don't see that this production would have been possible in the 90s. Or other bands would have sounded like this.

The songwriting, though, makes me think of MBV from the old days but that is entirely unsurprising. They (presumably) haven't been writing and deleting new records since then.

The songwriting on Forth sounded like the Verve from the 90s even though it came out in 2008. Same for the songwriting on ONoffON after a 20 year break from Mission of Burma (though again that album was clearly not recorded or produced in 1983).

Of course MoB has continued to put out new records and the songwriting has evolved significantly but it took time.
posted by mountmccabe at 1:04 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Nice soundopinions podcast on shoegaze as a genre.
posted by stratastar at 1:14 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]

"Feed Me With Your Kiss"

Well, to be fair, nothing on Loveless really sounds like that song, or any of the songs from Isn't Anything (LP from which that song originates). Even though, Isn't Anything (1988) came out a mere three years earlier...

If this new release is a bit of a stitch in time and conduit/aural re-introduction to the band, than hopefully the next LP, will combine the songwriting chops and performances of Isn't Anything with the landmark EQ-ing/compression and aural engineering brilliance of Loveless.

I'm actually interested to hear the FLAC's of the new stuff off off MBV though, as I'm listening to early FELT on FLAC for the first time, (Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty / The Splendour of Fear LP's. My favorite records by my favorite 'Creation Records' band. Period.) and FLAC really is an eye-openingly and gratifyingly pleasing sparkling technology. Sounds way better than even 320kbps - mp3 files. All the instruments sound like they have so much greater depth and resonance, and there's just a general sense of lovely s p a c e and everything soncially in it's right place...
posted by Skygazer at 2:14 PM on February 3

Skygazer - I've been interested in diving into Felt for a long while. Are those LPs good starting points? How about a quick roadmap? All I've known is the Liz Fraser guest vocal thing, Primitive Painters.
posted by shortfuse at 2:21 PM on February 3

Listened to it. It's good. Very good. It pretty much perfectly balances between the two things that could have potentially ruined it - on the one hand, it might have been a completely derivative stuck-in-early-1990s Loveless remake. On the other hand, they might have reinvented themselves with a new modern dubstep sound, if you know what I mean. Instead, it's new, but it's My Bloody Valentine, and that's really all I ask. Nice work.
posted by Jimbob at 3:23 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]

Shortfuse: I've been interested in diving into Felt for a long while.

Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (1981) and The Splendour of Fear (1984) is absolutely the place. Those two records are packaged together and are as about perfect a combination of songs as I've ever heard, and after 25 years of listening to those two records back to back, I'm still enthralled and seduced with the sound and with what they accomplished. Just fantastic fantastic and easily in my top 5 all time faves.

In general, I prefer the early more sparkling guitar, Cherry Red Records version of the band which had the brilliant classical guitarist Maurice Deebank in the band and that includes those first two records and the more pop (less Velvet Underground-y compared to the CTAB and TSOF, that is..) The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories , and Ignite the Seven Cannons which is the album with the Liz Fraser backing vocals for Primitive Painters, and you can already hear the keyboards begin to take more prominence on that record and the one following where Mauricke Deebank left, the band and the whole sense and sound of the band became very keyboard driven on Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (Creation Records, 1986), and the records following that which have some weird experiments like Train Above the City, and The Pictorial Jakcson Review and Me and You and a Monkey on the Moon, Which I think I listened to once upon buying it in 1993, shuddered with how bad it was and haven't played since...

(It might be time to unbury it and give it another listen though...)

Anyhow, I guess the other record I like by them is Poem Above the River, which is one last guitar driven ep of songes, with a some great moments, including the first line of the first song by spoken/sung by vocalist founder Lawrence ("I will be the first person in the history of the world to die of boredom.") which I always get a kick out of.

There is a greatest hits type thing, called Absolute Classic Masterpieces, but I would totally begin with that Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty / The Splendour of Fear (1984) double album on Cherry Red Recs.
posted by Skygazer at 3:46 PM on February 3 [3 favorites]

As overjoyed as I am to have more in the vein of their classic sound, I've always been disappointed that Shields never further explored he path he laid out on MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill 'em). It sounded as monstrously powerful and futuristic as his MBV work but in a radically different way.
posted by kaisemic at 4:26 PM on February 3 [3 favorites]

I like this record.

I wish, though, that more people would listen to the best "comeback" record of the last 25 years: Dinosaur Jr's "Farm", which is freakin' fantastic. It might be their best record ever.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 5:44 PM on February 3 [6 favorites]

Big words, BOP. I love Dinosaur Jr.'s SST stuff, though, so I guess I should check it out.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:53 PM on February 3

Wow, no-one's mentioned the Japancakes cover-album of Loveless?
posted by notsnot at 7:21 PM on February 3

BitterOldPunk, I've listened to Farm more than any other Dinosaur Jr album. The guitar solo in 'Ocean's in the way' is my favorite D. Jr. solo of all time. Here you go, you're welcome.
posted by dobie at 8:46 PM on February 3

A couple days late to the party, but man.

I can't even begin to analyze this. I'm too busy enjoying the fuck out of it.

I'm in the unusual position of having only discovered MBV a few years ago (I was listening to bands like Curve and Lush in the 90's, but somehow completely missed MBV-- music discovery then was not the frictionless experience it is now...) So when I finally heard Loveless, it instantly filled a void I didn't even know existed. I can only imagine how amazing this must be for those of you who have been waiting 21 years!

Music is a kind of communication between people, right? Let's just say, I have missed these people very much, and am glad they have something new to say to me.
posted by otherthings_ at 9:11 PM on February 3 [5 favorites]

I'm expecting to hear Only Tomorrow on radio stations hoping not to overwhelm listeners away. And it's so pre-compressed, their limiters can go out for a smoke.
posted by Twang at 9:32 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

I came late to the party to make a Chinese Democracy joke, but found a bunch of people already had. I guess making this an entirely pointless comment...
posted by kaibutsu at 12:45 AM on February 4

Good, bad, breaking new ground, a retread of Loveless, whatever. The mere fact that this exists is a thermonuclear flash of "anything is possible." Squeee!
posted by whuppy at 6:21 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

I've been waiting for this album, with wildly varying degrees of anticipation, for MORE THAN HALF MY FUCKING LIFE.

Christening my new Pan Am with this as I type...
posted by the painkiller at 8:09 AM on February 4 [2 favorites]

"New You" is a perfect little slice of sunshine that makes me wonder about all fantastic things that could have been the past two decades. I love it.

"Nothing Is" is a half-finished idea that hints at even more. I love it too.

Everything else sounds like its been sitting mouldering in Kevin Shields' basement for a decade or more.

Also, 2nding this in a big way:

I've always been disappointed that Shields never further explored he path he laid out on MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill 'em).
posted by googly at 9:17 AM on February 4

Christening my new Pan Am with this as I type...

Whoah. What is that, and what kind of speakers are you running with it?
posted by Skygazer at 9:56 AM on February 4

Yeah, the world does not need another Loveless. It was over-rated and over-hyped the FIRST time around.
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 PM on February 2 [+] [!]

I would like to take back this comment. The world definitely needs a new "Loveless".

I don't know if MBV is that, but I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would, now that I can actually hear it on FLAC. Even Nothing Is, is taking on a mesmerizing complexity in the low frequencies where the drums and the repetitive power chord are dancing around and battling each other that just wasn't present on the YT preview.

Anyhow, to clarify, what the world doesn't need is any facile overblown deification of anything, especially MBV, because they can really come across as a bloodless outfit.


Seconding the hope that Shields would eventually further pursue the MBV ARkestra or the excellent song on the Lost in Translation soundtrack.
posted by Skygazer at 10:21 AM on February 4

Unlike some people reading this, I discovered MBV and Loveless relatively late in life. So I haven't been waiting 21 years for this.

My impression, after listening to most of the official YouTube versions: MBV covered so much new stylistic ground with Loveless that Shields and the band could easily spend the rest of their lives exploring what has already been uncovered. And my guess is that he has spent a lot of the intervening time attempting to do just that, with lots of false starts and trial and error.

The new album is interesting and difficult and strange and intriguing. I want to listen to many of the tracks multiple times to discover more in them and to decide how I feel about them. So I would rate this album as a success. I plan to buy it.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 10:28 AM on February 4

Whoah. What is that, and what kind of speakers are you running with it?

tl;dr - It's a (cheap/reasonably/extravagantly)-priced baby tube headphone DAC+amp that I think sounds fantastic. I'm using Grado SR-60i headphones. MeMail sent for more info.
posted by the painkiller at 10:36 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Listening now and loving it. Close enough to Loveless for continuity, different enough to feel fresh. can't wait for the vinyl to get delivered!
posted by molecicco at 11:38 AM on February 4

Loving the album. There are times - particularly on the last track - when I was reminded that Shields was telling journalists in about 1995 or 96 that he'd been listening to a lot of jungle. I wonder if anything recorded then ended up on this?

That last track is astonishing, actually. They are still capable of making noises I've never heard before and cannot figure out for the life of me. I'm not sure why I'm surprised about this given their track record.

I have mixed feelings about them live: I saw them three times, once following Isn't Anything, the others after Loveless. They could go from painfully bad to just transcendent in one gig.
posted by GeorgeBickham at 12:10 PM on February 4 [2 favorites]

It's a (cheap/reasonably/extravagantly)-priced baby tube headphone DAC+amp that I think sounds fantastic.

Man, that stack is teeny. Now I have a new thing to lust after.
posted by arcticseal at 12:32 PM on February 4

Also, listening to "wonder 2" on my headphones and thinking how on earth they got a jet engine into the studio?
posted by arcticseal at 12:33 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

I'll just say that this album, on repeated listen, makes me smile.

I don't have no fancy new-fangled vacuum-tube headphone amp. I'm listening to 320kbps mp3s on my iPhone, with some $7 in-ear bud headphones. My favourite headphones. They last about 3 months before I have to go back to the same store and buy them again, but in the quality/price equation they consistently come out on top. So I lie down on the couch, put the earplugs in, and listen to mbv, and I get a huge goofy grin on my face. I don't know the last time anything I listened to did that for me.
posted by Jimbob at 3:18 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Finally had the chance to give it a proper, full-volume listen twice in a row this morning as I made breakfast and did some work around the house. It's fantastic. I think I like it more than Loveless, although I'm in the group of people who didn't discover that album until later (approx. 5 years ago). Grantland had a good piece on it today, I'll quote the part I found the most revealing:

In an even more fortuitous, retro, and probably accidental twist — though probably not accidental because Shields is just that much of a controlling perfectionist genius — My Bloody Valentine’s website crashed almost immediately after the album was posted, which meant fans had this record sprung on them, and then had to wait several hours before hearing it. Following along on various social media platforms as people waited for the website to come back up was the closest thing to standing in line at a record store for a few hours before midnight.

While monitoring Twitter, I watched Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, an absurdly violent, not-quite-profound riff on the mysteries of the creative process and the search for spiritual harmony amid humanity’s chaotic senselessness. Colin Farrell plays Marty, an alcoholic screenwriter who announces in an early scene that he wants his next movie “overall to be about love ... and peace, but it still has to be about seven psychopaths.” My Bloody Valentine owns, in rock music terms, the emotional quality that Farrell’s character describes — the tension between beauty and violence that is both soothing and discomforting, gory and celestial, and loaded with gut-level power and yet not tangibly of this Earth.

On Loveless, those elements were jumbled together in a big disorienting blur; on m b v, they’re separated into distinct elements stacked on top of each other, culminating in a roundhouse wallop in the record’s final third. The first six songs on m b v play like a reward for loyalists — they’re essentially elaborations on Loveless, using those familiar snoring-angel guitar tones on the “loud” songs and the whispery, “I’m crashing at 6 a.m. after doing E all night in the early ’90s” atmospherics on the “soft” songs. The feeling you get from this part of the record is relief; after so many years and so many bands doing half-assed approximations of Loveless, it’s nice to know that nobody does as good of a job sounding like My Bloody Valentine as My Bloody Valentine.

The reassuringly pretty part of m b v ends with what’s by far the record’s poppiest cut, “New You” — the song’s arms-crossed funkiness makes it this album’s “Soon” — and then violence and disorder take over. I’ve played m b v four times now — three listens late Saturday night, and one listen Sunday. Based on this limited sampling, I lean toward declaring m b v a legit “great” record, and that’s due almost entirely to the last three songs. I really like the first six tracks, but the final three come closest to justifying My Bloody Valentine’s rep for blowing the backs off skulls.
posted by mannequito at 4:16 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

From the pitchfork review of Only Tomorrow which seems to be the single for now:

It causes you to realize the unfair advantage My Bloody Valentine has over all their shoegaze imitators: they're allowed to sound like My Bloody Valentine,
posted by philip-random at 4:27 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

It causes you to realize the unfair advantage My Bloody Valentine has over all their shoegaze imitators: they're allowed to sound like My Bloody Valentine,

... but further to this, after a few listens, I find myself thinking that mbv (the album) is at its best when it's not explicitly reminding me of 21 years ago. That is, the most familiar tracks (Only Tomorrow, Who Sees You) though nice in a flashback sort of way, are ultimately kind of disappointing. Yeah, they sound like Loveless but for that very reason, they don't feel fresh (and to be honest, seem to lack some of the power moves that made things like Soon, Only Shallow and When You Sleep personal faves).

But come the last three tracks on mbv -- In Another Way, Nothing Is, Wonder 2 -- this what makes the 21 years worth it. Like a cool old friend who's been out of touch for a long, long time and it warms my heart to know he hasn't just been wallowing -- he's been growing.
posted by philip-random at 5:01 PM on February 4 [4 favorites]

From the pitchfork review of Only Tomorrow which seems to be the single for now:


"Singles" are still a thing? Who knew?
posted by Jimbob at 5:15 PM on February 4

Also, kinda figured "new you" would be more of a single. YMMV.
posted by Jimbob at 5:17 PM on February 4

In case anyone hasn't bought it yet, the site is still having problems but on checkout via CC/Debit. I had to select Paypal (I don't have a PP account) then checkout through them as a guest.
posted by popaopee at 6:39 AM on February 5

I like it more than Isn't Anything already. It really does make you imagine an alternate universe where this was released in '95 or so and only good things happened from that point forward.

Hank Hill weighs in.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:20 AM on February 5

I think I gotta say after numerous listens I have warmed up to mbv considerably, and while I still think the hype could still stand a massive army of flamethrowers directed at it from the collective nerdgasming so as to cull it back to more earthbound hyperbole, it, is, indeed, a quite nice record. Yay. Ahem.

The song that really gets me excited repeatedly is the catchy In Another Way.

It sounds breath-tak-ing-ly H U G E. The bass swoops the fuck down from the top of Everest the Rockies, winged like, and the drums find a nice swinging little pocket. Also, take note of the significant part the keyboards/synth play in the song.

I'm listening to 320kbps mp3s on my iPhone, with some $7 in-ear bud headphones.

Good recordings should work from a number of acoustical approaches.

Some of us need more head-melting release than others. It's a good addiction, though. And I definitely wish I had a snazzy headphones pre-amp/DAC with some Russian tubes on it.

To each his own.
posted by Skygazer at 3:10 PM on February 5

About 46:07 of "it's good, I guess, but is this really what I waited 21 years for? I doubt I'm ever going to want to listen to this again."

Followed by 30 seconds of "oh no! It's almost over! What time do I have to be up tomorrow?" And then 40 seconds of furiously pouring a beer and hunting for the play button. And then 46:37 of trying to figure out how to make the journey to and from work last exactly 46:37.
posted by K.P. at 6:09 PM on February 5

Its opening up after repeated listens, not sure of the last two tracks though.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:15 PM on February 6

I like this band -- they sound like a mix of Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine. Who did you say it was again? Oh, it is My Bloody Valentine? Well, okay then.
posted by not_on_display at 9:37 PM on February 8 [1 favorite]

Early Stereolab (think Peng!) was far better than anything MBV ever did.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:47 AM on February 9

Early Stereolab was far different from anything MBV ever did.
posted by item at 10:12 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I was a big fan of early Stereolab, caught them a live a few times in the early 90s. They had a cool thing going, working the German motorik groove by way of a sort of Paris cafe pop, and of course, they were mostly English.

But to call them better than MBV is to call Bryan Adams better than Bruce Springsteen. It's looking for an argument, and if reason prevails, you will lose.
posted by philip-random at 10:49 AM on February 10

It's pretty hard to compare the two, and probably unfair to both. What MBV do in creating such a collection of incredible guitar sounds no one does better, and the new record has brought that home to me again.

But than again, Stereolab were such a prolific and consistently brilliant working (as in highly functioning) groop who put out half a dozen or more excellent records that were tuneful, grooving and experimental and pushed sonic boundaries, without falling prey to their own heavy glamorous futurism inspired moodiness.

You could say Stereolab looks for their futurism in the retro-past and MBV looks for the future in the future itself, which is actually old-fashioned...(thinking out loud).

At any rate , I saw Stereolab at least a dozen times throughout the 90s and they were almost always severely intoxicating and fun even as their performances morphed into some seriously mindblowing extended moog and feedback meltdowns that I wished would pretty much never end...


tl;dr: Apples and Oranges. They're both great bands in their own way.
posted by Skygazer at 6:30 PM on February 10

sounds like they (Stereolab) grew over time. The two times I saw them (the latest being 1994), they didn't really live up to my expectations. Solid for sure but hardly transcendent. But then I do remember friends being rather blown by them around the time of Emperor Tomato Ketchup ... which is a hell of an album.
posted by philip-random at 8:08 PM on February 10

Yeah, by the time the excellent Emperor Tomato Ketchup, rolled around Stereolab were firing on all cylinders something truly beautiful. Their live shows were incredible. The set list just going from strength to strength, to total extended kraut-rockin' full bore female harmony-ed / Moog toned, minimal guitar-ed, crazy infectious rhythmic Neu-ian rave-ups.

Losing Mary Hansen in 2002 (guitar and vocals) was a a huge blow, understandably. They didn't put out a new record until 2004 and I can't recall the last time I saw them live was...I may be wrong, but don't think they've toured since Hansen passed away, or if they have it's been in very limited way.
posted by Skygazer at 8:51 PM on February 11