My Bloody Valentine - m b v vinyl

Yesterday it finally arrived, 22 years after the last album was released. My Bloody Valentines new album arrived in the mail!

I wrote a short blog about the album after the first listen a month ago.

When I wrote that blog I was perhaps a bit negative as I was hoping for some more material like the earlier stuff the band did, pre "Loveless". I still think that "You Made Me Realise" and some songs on "Isn't Anything" are the best songs the band has made, whereas "Loveless" is arguably the best album they made.

I've been listening to the album a lot the past month as I got a free download when I pre-ordered the vinyl and it has grown and grown. It's a perfect progression in the band's career and it is amazing how it is possible to pick up like this where you left of over 20 years ago. It feels like an album that was released just a couple of years after "Loveless". They are not in anyway repeating themselves but they are still on the path which started with some (in MBV terms) pretty straight forward material in the early days where started to experiment some on "Isn't Anything" and then with "Loveless" they went all out, with was possible at the time. I've read somewhere that Kevin Shields record the guitars for the album and then put effects, after effects, after effects and finally erased the original guitar tracks, so that it's actually the least guitar based guitar based album ever, if you know what I mean?

Side A on "m b v" it's pretty as straight forward as you could expect from My Bloody Valentine today, it's beautiful soundscapes and you can sense some sort of melodies, not as clear as on "Loveless" but just as beautiful. The B side gets really experimental with almost drone parts and repetitive drums and guitar loops that will get your girlfriend ask "are they finished soon?". Oh, how I wish it wouldn't! But it does eventually, after 46 minutes of musical beauty. I still feel the album finishes incredibly strong with the six minute monster "Wonder 2".