My Bloody Valentine - m b v

My Bloody Valentine - Who Sees You

Runs for: 6:12

That slow groove! That wailing slow riff! Them drums! Dream done right.

After 22 long years of waiting, My Bloody Valentine decided to reclaim the shoegaze throne and release ‘m b v’. The album is covered in 90s juice. Literally drenched in this rich retro wall-of-noise sound that is not only bearable, but hugely addictive too. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the album, and yeah, while I’m on board the hype train to hypseville – It’s completely worthy of it. Hear me out.

The general sound on most tracks is layered with so much noise and fuzz that the instrumentals become difficult to decipher, creating this wicked wall of sound. Half the fun in tuning in to the tracks lies in hearing when various instruments change what they’re doing, meaning every spin of the album acts like I-spy for the ears. Some tracks will have a great rolling rhythm on the drums, other tracks will be brought together with a unison of guitar riffs and keyboard work, but overall the tempo of the songs really seems to bring it all together with subtle hints of 90s song structuring – everything is crafted perfectly around all this which is an incredibly rare thing to find in music. Listening closely, the only other bands I can find who are pulling off the 90s vibe well in this day and age would be Dinosaur Jr and of course, the loveable 90s revivalists Yuck.

I think the one thing this album does exceptionally lies in its musical contradiction. The tone and mixing of tracks comes off as damp, or even soft – yet it is still very loud and listenable without blasting treble to a point where your ears explode. By this I mean that other shoegaze/dream bands will either suffer from grindy or tinny noise as is the problem with New York band ‘A Place To Bury Strangers’or most dream music (I find) gets boring after three songs such as with dream-pop wank cultivators, ‘Beach House’. Save for about one or two tracks around the middle, m b v isn’t a boring album. It makes you want to crank the volume up to a point of self harm, and yet the beauty of it lies in flawless delivery of dream style music with a dash of 90s rock on top – AND it gets better every listen. Get. On. It.

My Bloody Valentine - In Another Way

Runs for: 5:30

Diggin the drum rolls and the general energy of this one. 

Weird thing for me is that some people are saying this is one of their lesser favourites on the album?