Being My Bloody Valentine’s first album in over twenty years, you would want this one to be well worth it (I thought it was a little coincidental that they released it so close to the actual Valentine’s Day, but I could just be a hopeless romantic at that).
I hadn’t heard much about this band before; they are completely out of my musical comfort zone, and when they were relevant, I was only a toddler. So when I heard all this hype about their first album in over twenty years having just been released, I figured that I should give it a listen and see what all the fuss is about.
I’m not a huge fan of the ‘shoegazing’ movement; sure it’s nice and chill. I even own a couple of vinyls similar to this to have a listen to while I’m having a few drinks with mates. But I would not usually listen to this type of music in any other situation.
The first few songs remind me of being stuck in an atypical acid trip in the sixties: I can almost feel the disorientation and see the bright swirling colours. Kevin Shields’ vocals are definitely haunting. I can barely make out what he is singing, and that delves into my intrigue.
Who Sees You is a lot more concentrated, and I immediately sit up and take notice. The guitars are gently warped and make you feel like you’re stuck on a triptastic merry-go-round. The songs are a gentle mix of authentic sixties and sixties reflux in the nineties. None of these songs would be out of place in either era.
This and Yes opens with otherworldly organs and a faint drumbeat, that seems to mimic a heartbeat. I can almost smell the smoke machine. Whilst I am almost in love with every amazing song, I have no idea what each song is about. This is not something that I will dwell on, but they could be singing about how much they love running down pedestrians for all I am aware of.
Tame Impala have both gained critical and commercial success by dipping their toes into the shoegazing movement whilst keeping it lyrical and upbeat. They’ve successfully straddled the lines and have only benefited from doing so. I’m going to say this album by MBV is a dead-set winner, but to gain commercial success out of the inner music circle is something that these guys are definitely not going to achieve. But hey, that might be something that they don’t want to accomplish.
