Does anyone REALLY like My Bloody Valentine?

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Sundar, I saw a CD by one 'L. Subramanian' in Fopp the other day. Is that you?

haha I wish. If the CD is the 1987 En Concert, you should rush to pick it up though. (Lots of others are good too.)

― Sundar, Monday, 26 February 2007 03:02 (seventeen years ago) link

it must be really irritating, sharing your surname with a famous musician!

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 03:06 (seventeen years ago) link

"Subramanian/Subramaniam/Subramanyam/Subrah.../" is extremely common in the south of India, actually. There were two others just in my residence complex (in Buffalo NY) last year. The question does come up often enough though.

("You Made Me Realise" is a pretty good tune FWIW.)

― Sundar, Monday, 26 February 2007 03:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i like air formation ok but i don't really consider them one of the leading lights of newer shoegaze. much the same could be said for the greater proportion of good but unsatisfying stuff that club ac30 releases.

― electricsound, Monday, 26 February 2007 03:26 (seventeen years ago) link

have you heard the new record yet?

New shoegaze bands I like include Serena-Maneesh, Engineers, Jesu, Jaga, M83, Mew and WFANFC, and their highlights should probably have given me pause to retract my statement, but the song 'the dark has fallen' would sit at the top of any of these bands' career rosters.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it's interesting that Nick S likes the album so much (assuming he still does; in 2002, I probably would have ranked it amongst the greatest albums ever too.) I find it very overcompressed, which is amongst my problems with it.

Haha, yeah, my opinion of it is less now than it was five years ago (and good grief, this thread really is nearly five years old!), but that's more because of all the stuff I've been exposed to in the meantime than anything else.

I don't mind the way it uses compression; it's definitely a stylistic choice here. Loveless just wouldn't work if it sounded live, and it's not as if the flattening and fuzzing distorts in unpleasant ways or produces side-effects - it's done as an ingredient of the psychedelic experience.

These days I'd take issue with the rather linear songwriting, the boring-as-hell rhythms ("Soon" excused, possibly) and the lack of real bottom-end. But those guitar sounds, dude - particularly (I think) tracks five and six (I'm useless with titles at the best of time) where they get riffs going over and over towards the end - are just delicious.

Considerably lower than 21st these days. But still very, very good.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 26 February 2007 13:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Air Formation are a bloody tribute band. Seriously. Not that there's anything wrong with doing a tribute to a form of music that lots of people love. But there are so much more interesting things going on in Nu-gazing.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 26 February 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

The beat of 'Soon' is actually what has progressively turned me off the song, which used to be my fave. Now that shuffling beat and that little keyboard riff really screams early-90's.

What's the Terry Riley effect mentionned upthread?

― baaderonixx, Monday, 26 February 2007 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link

While I feel "Loveless" is overrated in terms of songwriting, I don't really understand actively hating it. It's just so pretty and bright. And "Sometimes" is still a nice, yearning little song.

― Turangalila, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

The songwriting isn't about ornateness (well, except 'Loomer' which wins on EVERY COUNT GOING), but about massaging both the conscious and the unconscious with some of the most perfect sound-patterns ever committed to disk.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:34 (seventeen years ago) link

In summary: No. No one REALLY likes My Bloody Valentine.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Except me.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

NOBODY likes the rap music.

― PappaWheelie V, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

my ranking (track number):

- when you sleep (5) uplifting, has punch, otherworldly, psychedelic, killer tune
- only shallow (1) a little on the heavy side but belinda's voice provides the dreamgaze
- what you want (10) noisy power pop. another gem of a tune.
- sometimes (8) slow, melancholic, feeble, il s'écrase, the power lies in the calmness, the song is a living thing, the features which are blurry in the beginning are revealed later on. not for short term attentionists. not for premature ejaculators.
- i only said (6) starts on a slightly annoying loop kind of thing but evolves. the sluggish-plaintive guitar is carrying it. heavy-sad. the soon synth line is kind of anticipated and repeated ad infinum.
- soon (11) the dance track which finishes it all. never liked the repeated keyborad/synth bit. too obvious. but belinda kind of saves it from turning into total disco stupidity. and the mighty guitar which is not too distorted.
- loomer (2) i don't like belinda's voice in the beginning. but when the groove sets in, a silly riff i imagine, everything's ok.
- blown a wish (9) too mellow, too soft, too much belinda. not bad per se. has its charms but is too twee for mbv.
- touched (3) a weird instrumental interlude. is there an elephant calling? to here knows when is buried in this bit. and i like that i only imagine it. it is better in my imagination than in reality.
- come in alone (7) doesn't work. too heavy. pointless.
- to here knows when (4) is this phil glass or what? minimal pop rubbish. i hate it. belinda's voice can't save it. pretentious kitsch.

― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link

swervedrive is SO much better...

― Mike McGooney-gal, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:05 (seventeen years ago) link

The truth comes out!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:12 (seventeen years ago) link

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:09 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, i REALLY like them

i've played the records a hell of a lot however, so i confine listening to them these days to when a certain mood kicks in

― Charlie Howard, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 05:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Meltzer posited Sgt. Pepper as signaling the death of art forever.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 05:18 (seventeen years ago) link

worst thread evah

― latebloomer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, dumb thread but Glider was something of a disappointment.

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:22 (seventeen years ago) link

― i, grey, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 08:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I've tried numerous times, I mean, really, really tried, but no go: it still sounds like okay pop songs swathed in occasionally interesting noise sheeting. Maybe if the drumming wan't so spastic...I dunno, the appeal truly escapes me.

― i, grey, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 08:05 (seventeen years ago) link

"- to here knows when (4) is this phil glass or what? minimal pop rubbish. i hate it. belinda's voice can't save it. pretentious kitsch"

mmmh...

― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 09:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I still think this album is very very good.
Unfocused in the most controlled way possible. Original in the truest sense of the word: back to the source of classic pop to find something personal. Personal, warped and classic: you can't ask for more from a record.

― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 09:30 (seventeen years ago) link

The genius of this album can never be overstated.

FACT

― SeekAltRoute, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Loveless is often cited as being the death-knell of the shoegaze genre, due to its insurmountable greatness. That's up for debate, of course. But is there any other album that is similarly regarded as a genre destroyer?

interesting and kinda wrong, considering that the very excellent -- and very shoegazy -- souvlaki space station (to name just one example) cam after loveless. which, upon rereading the above, kinda proves that the notion that loveless was the death of shoegaze is very debatable.

― Eisbaer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

As I've already said, it was really the BIRTH of shoegaze!

My own favourite 'shoegaze' album (although it's a tenuous description of a record that combines shoegaze with more conventional art-pop) is Ride's GBA, which came a year or two later.

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link

how come that there are no song reviews of loveless on amg? i was looking for a review of soon and to my great astonishment i found nothing at all. ned to thread!

actually i wanted to know about that rhythmic high-pitch synth sample which is all over the song, especially at the end where it is repeated ad infinum. i remember having heard it in luxembourg in 1990 but i am almost certain that it was used in two different songs, one being soon of course. has anbody an idea which could be the other song and if mbv were the first to use it?

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link

"- to here knows when (4) is this phil glass or what?

MBV wishes.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

MBV may have been the godfathers of shoegaze but Loveless wasn't the birth of it.

Ride's "Nowhere" came out in 1990, before "Loveless". If you must, you could say "Isn't Anything" was the beginning of this things, but then you might as well keep going backward and saying the JAMC started it.

― Trayce, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:46 (seventeen years ago) link

but then you might as well keep going backward and saying the JAMC started it.

yeah -- i was gonna say that psychocandy kinda got the whole shoegaze thing started. some may argue that the cocteau twins -- or even the porcupine-era bunnymen -- had a hand in this thing.

― Eisbaer, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Indeed so, only in a proto-sense though (ditto VU to be honest).

The Actual Shoegazer Scene however, if memory serves, was an NME concoction anyway and invlolved bands like Ride, MBV, Lush, Slowdive etc etc.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:31 (seventeen years ago) link

As I've already said, it was really the BIRTH of shoegaze!

er... wrong, considering all their contemporaries in 1991 (oops sorry, Trayce already said it..)

was an NME concoction anyway

the NME? I recall them being frequently scathing in print. It didn't offer them the easiest of rock'n'roll angles (okay Ride were pretty cuet but...), which is why "the new wave of new wave" and Suede (new glam??) had to be invented...

load of indistinguishable tuneless sexless how the hell do we write about this? where the BIG RIFFS at? where the outrageous frontmen? it wasn't all covered that way, but there was an impression of "hmm, we can't quite control this scene... therefore we shall undermine & slag it" to me. My memory is crap tho'

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I knew that statement would raise a few hackles!

It was definitely the birth of a certain form of shoegazing, which prevails to this day in various forms. I'll admit that there were shoegaze bands before Loveless, and many to boot, but they weren't mining the same seam.

― unfished business, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I do think Loveless is really a bit overrated though... even if it's *sound* is not. The linearity of the songs gets (sadly) quite wearing. And even though it's sonically in some other universe by anyone else's standards it's never been the closest to my bosom for that one reason alone. It's a tiring album to digest whole.

Would Sonic Youth be this heavily fetishized if they had only ever released three-ish albums?

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:53 (seventeen years ago) link

melody maker rather than nme? i can't really remember. slowdive and chapterhouse were definitely among the first to be referred to as such.

― electricsound, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:54 (seventeen years ago) link

i haven't consciously listened to loveless this decade. i hope that one day i can listen to it relatively free of the burden of everything that surrounds it. right now (and for most of the last ten years) i'd much rather listen to the stuff dave conway sings.

― electricsound, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Does anyone REALLY REALLY REALLY like My Bloody Valentine?

― DavidM, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Fuck, if ONLY Sonic Youth had released 3 albums, then I'd go out and buy them all and love them. As things stand I'm utterly daunted by their output...

(btw I just got Isn't Anything TODAY and I'm about to listen to it for the first time...so fingers crossed!)

The linearity of Loveless is a) in its case actually quite helpful (in that it forces one to look for extra details within each sound pattern, and cherish what one has found) and b) not extended for too long a period (not even 'I Only Said', whose coda I once hated but now I utterly, utterly adore).

― unfished business, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Louis, I think pinning that certain sound to 'Loveless' alone... I mean argue on if you wish but I think you're just toeing the canonical line here (and you should know better considering how much you still listen to this stuff, the music of MY youth) in avoidance of how things probably panned out in reality, at least credit MBV's own earlier ep's for the rather more bent angle of shoegaze...

By the time Loveless came out there seemed to be glut of all this stuff frankly, like 60% of every indie chart (on The Chart Show, on tv) every week. Catherine Wheel, Curve, Slowdive... tons & tons of it.

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:01 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost - no it's not, it's an ANNOYING contrast that stops me getting 100% drowned in the sonics. The melodies are just too predictable, too much of the time for me. Sorry.

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:04 (seventeen years ago) link

True. Shoegaze = JAMC + Cocteau Twins + Spacemen 3 + Loop. All early to mid-80's.

― everything, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:07 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost by the way.

― everything, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:07 (seventeen years ago) link

actually, I think it's only really When You Sleep/I Only Said/Come In Alone... I feel this way about, and maybe Blown a Wish just because "Sometimes" doesn't up the tempo much before it... "What You Want" FUCKING KILLS though. Cosign that.

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, as I just said I'm about to discover MBV's previous offering, and I'll be able to judge it in comparison to others. I may be toeing a certain line, in that I regard the sound of Loveless as unique, and more astonishingly layered than any other guitar-rock I've heard, but I don't regard it as the be-all and end-all of shoegaze, far from it.

Slowdive and Ride (and to some extent Catherine Wheel) had their own distinct things going on. If MBV were the pinnacle, the paragon of pure shoegaze, Ride were the absolute masters of composition and Slowdive (with Pygmalion) the most varied electronic and arguably innovative of the lot. Catherine Wheel did a fantastic job combining a metal aesthetic with shoegaze (although this has obviously been done MUCH better more recently by others).

― unfished business, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I get annoyed with using the skip button on this record :(

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:09 (seventeen years ago) link

i.e. I prefer Ride (and Pygmalion >>> Loveless, rly), but the sound of Loveless is the birth of a modern 'shoegaze' ideal that none have matched or surpassed, owing to Shields' unmatched ambition/drive/genius/whatever.

― unfished business, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:12 (seventeen years ago) link

okay, that I can get on board with... I guess I just have troubles with ideals sometimes. Compared to "the ideal", I find myself wishing 'Loveless' would just go the extra 10% and it never -quite- does... very very very good though!

Does anyone remember a shoegazey band called "Flood" btw? Just an old e.p. 'Honeymoon Striptease' I have I've never been able to find out a thing about in all the years I've kept it around...

― fandango, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:34 (seventeen years ago) link

never heard of flood the band, no

ride have dated among the most to my ears, with the possible exception of the occasional pre-'nowhere' track. slowdive sound positively fresh these days

― electricsound, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:37 (seventeen years ago) link

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