The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

First listen track by tracks are nothing new

they're not new, but their prevalence is - it's very common now. They've always been awful it's true, when labels used to do listening parties there was never any review more wretched than the "I took notes while listening in a supervised environment here's what I thought!" - which is basically the entirety of the discourse now. this is related to my pointless rage at post-game interviews in which the interview asks the winning/losing QB/boxer/pitcher "how are you feeling right now?"

What's happening, User?

"which is basically the entirety of the discourse now"

What are you talking about?

I mean, is this just some, it were all fields round here in my day whinge, or is there actually something that can be done?

*dusts off writing pad after 25 years in cupboard*

One thing I was trying to do was have a cold but not first-time 'whoa' reaction to things rather than being shaped by what I'd already read -- now that I am reading some other thoughts, I'm getting further ways to regard a number of the songs, which is always good, but not the stopping point.

I can certainly say it is a nice album to fall asleep/wake up to.

There are loads of people - I can guarantee it - who will revel in pointing out what all the first listen track by tracks missed out when they come to writing their 'proper' reviews. And so it goes...

First listen track by tracks are nothing new
they're not new, but their prevalence is - it's very common now. They've always been awful it's true, when labels used to do listening parties there was never any review more wretched than the "I took notes while listening in a supervised environment here's what I thought!" - which is basically the entirety of the discourse now. this is related to my pointless rage at post-game interviews in which the interview asks the winning/losing QB/boxer/pitcher "how are you feeling right now?"

― available for sporting events (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, February 3, 2013 9:26 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you should definitely watch some spurs games, or at least youtube gregg popovich's greatest courtside-reporter hits

I believe I said "this is some old man yells at clouds shit" in my initial post, Mr. Get-Mad-And-Defensive Doran, which is U.S. for "it were all fields round here." I don't suspect there's anything that can be done, no - I'm saying that the nature of discourse about music has entered into a very dull stage of "everybody weighs in as soon as possible," and while you're theoretically right that that doesn't preclude deeper discussions, it generally does in practice. Twere ever thus etc. I'm sure, as I say it's just so pronounced when there's a big release/event - which really ought to be the cases in which one would say, well, this is kind of an event, a lot to digest, my first impression probably isn't particularly valuable - but in fact the opposite occurs, a great deal of weight is put on the value of the first impression.

I have enough trouble coming up with year-end favorites, so much so that I stopped doing it entirely. Short of my top one or two records a given year, it's unlikely I'll return to one of my top 10 in the coming year, both because of old stuff I want to listen to and new stuff I want to listen to, which at least personally degrades/devalues the whole notion of a top 10, which is pretty arbitrary to begin with. I mean, there are albums I've been listening to for decades that I'm just starting to get a grip on.

That said, I have no real problem with flash reactions, as long as they're unattended by flash dismissals. But the press of time will (hopefully entertainingly) taint every review of this thing currently being rushed out of the gate. By necessity, every single one will either be rife with hedging, leaving the potential that this album will improve/degrade over time, or, more cynically, will competitively commit too firmly one way or the other.

you should definitely watch some spurs games, or at least youtube gregg popovich's greatest courtside-reporter hits

it's tempting. my current favorite of the post-game/bout nonsense questions "walk us through how you're feeling right now"

Am I wrong or is my impression correct that a lot of athletes sign contracts with provisions saying they'll have to do that kind of shit?

"First listen" posting is a good thing except for those extremely rare times when you wait twenty years for the follow up to one of the best albums ever and then it suddenly appears with almost no advance notice. The usual stuff about sitting through multiple listens and trying to gain some perspective hardly seems to have any meaning right now.

it does to me? idk.

there's a pretty good riff about the post-game interview thing in the dfw essay on tracy austin, i.e. that the banality of most athletes answers might be understandable and humanizing if you compare it to the insane and inexplicable genius they show in play. that said, there are just about no working music critics* who'd qualify as geniuses to offset the banality of these first-listen reviews.

*except me.

links to first-listen reviews?

currently watching a spurs game, weirdly enough

confident enough in my speakers + immersive listening habits to state that 'only tomorrow' and 'in another way' tower over the rest (and most music, in general) so far - they're fucking beautiful, wild songs, gorgeous melodic change-ups mangled thru mad sonics, but more than that, they shock me to a higher state of detachment and focus - the way only the best music can. also, 'in another way' made me post this fairly incongruous and unrefined spiel to ilx, another sign of its greatness

actually, I'm not going to post yet because there are only 2 tracks left. aeroboot hath taught me the value of temperance

...

...

you can add 'wonder 2' to that list. much as it will insult aeroboot's sensibilities to so brutally section off three songs from the remainder of the artistic document they are an irreducible part of, just be glad i didn't choose a single riff or ten-second melody to ringtone away. songs are songs for reasons of delineation. and these three songs, on a very good album that may get better, are extraordinarily pleasurable for me

third eye foundation is a reference-point i want a few others to pursue

the nature of discourse about music has entered into a very dull stage of "everybody weighs in as soon as possible,"

music and everyeveryeverything

Listening to this, and I say this as the biggest MBV fan around, totally fucking with the new album, but it makes you wonder though: They could have released this in 1994. Kevin must have LOLLED so hard postponing this until now. Fucking twisted genius he is.

What would be even funnier to me is if he never scrapped ANY of the stuff he was working on in the 20 years since, and will be releasing a brand new album without warning every 2 weeks from now til end of the year.

Hannah Arendt covered this well in her scathing essay "The Banality of First Listens."

A thing can take years to open up, but sometimes its not awful to trust your ear and your first instincts too. Sometimes typing up a crappy post is a way towards reflection and your own deeper understanding, sometimes not. xps

it sounds like mostly y'all are just mad at people for being boring.

"I believe I said "this is some old man yells at clouds shit" in my initial post,"

For some reason I thought you were talking about Shields.

I'm not mad at the moment... hitting a nice upswing on my cycle. I get what you're saying and you're definitely right about music boards settling for a consensus very quickly but then music boards mainly thrive on consensus anyway. I don't see that 'proper' reviewing would be any different with or without track by tracks on sites and in magazines though.

idk last night was super fun on ilx imo; it was great seeing ppl who had been waiting for this longer and more longingly than i had been get to hear it

I should clarify that my "hardly seems to have any meaning" comment is relative to whatever "normal" first listening is ... IOW, normally I feel I can listen to a new album and have something halfway intelligent to say about it right away, but in this case I have absolutely no confidence that anything I say right now will have any bearing on how I'll feel about this album in a week or month or year's time. Anything I say or write today (including this post) is really just a diary entry that I can read in a few years time and remember "oh, that's how I felt right after hearing the new MBV album".

get what you're saying and you're definitely right about music boards settling for a consensus very quickly but then music boards mainly thrive on consensus anyway.

I thought they thrived in dissent!

also of all the albums that could possibly be released in 2013 i think i am least likely to need the guiding light of careful and considered criticism for this one

""First listen" posting is a good thing except for those extremely rare times when you wait twenty years for the follow up to one of the best albums ever and then it suddenly appears with almost no advance notice. The usual stuff about sitting through multiple listens and trying to gain some perspective hardly seems to have any meaning right now."

LOL @you for hanging out on a message board going over first listens forensically in that case.

I'm not that bothered because I don't even think Loveless is the best MBV album let alone one of the best of all time.

currently beginning my third listen to 'in another way', have that you archephonophobes

and it's going to be hard beaten as song of the year. next stop autechre

I didn't say that first listen reactions aren't interesting, but expecting professional sounding reviews and criticism after a few hours of perspective is asking a bit too much.

xpost

third eye foundation is a reference-point i want a few others to pursue

― imago, Sunday, February 3, 2013 2:46 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree with this. iirc a large proportion of writing about 3EF from say 1996-98 focused on "remember when ppl were saying Kevin Shields was writing drum'n'bass tracks, well guess we'll probably never hear those but check this guy out"

I don't even think Loveless is the best MBV album

on this we are agreed!

i don't think its an album that is hard to talk about after a first listen. sounds EXACTLY like my bloody vslentine.

scott otm

valentine even

xps to mencap: well, yeah. more people should hear 'the dark' (3EF's brilliant 2011 record), there are parallels with this new mbv but it's longer, more monolithic and more (imo) transportingly intense, albeit far, far less pop

that said, the highs on m b v are skysearing

i think most fans will love it forever and be really happy that they can put it right next to the other stuff. its in keeping/part and parcel/a welcome addition/etc.

What scott said.

i mean i guess years ago when millions of people would run out and buy an album the day it was released things were different pre-internet but not that different. took longer to get other people's reactions but there were always lots of quick opinions. i miss when radio existed and they would actually debut an album and talk about it. that was cool.

it totally hit the spot last night. even on youtube! like being denied a drug you really like for a long time. oooh that's the stuff...gimme that guitar tone, baby.

Yeah I loved the comparisons from a couple of folks like Elvis T. about how this felt like lining up in front of Tower before midnight.

since they have made such a big deal about the all analog vinyl thing they should really release this on reel to reel tape. that would be amazing.

I wonder how the actual vinyl or cds will sound

As a fan, yeah, this is lot of fun. But I kind of pity the people who have to review this in the next week.

Re: TEF, this sounds nothing like "The Dark", but "Wonder2" could almost be an outtake from "Semtex".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lxu8nbARYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gH6UOatmAM

Looking back at this article, it seems to me Kevin's take on this material is very accurate:

Shields also gave some indications as to what the third album might be like: "It's not going to sound like Loveless where it's like looking into another world," he said "More like Isn't Anything, where it seems to be of this world, but with one foot in another world. The songs on Loveless had more in common with folk-blues music to me, just a verse and an instrumental passage, circular. The new songs are more... sometimes it's just that, and sometimes it's songs that have one verse, then a musical part, then something that's totally different. More elongated... and more raw. A lot of the guitars are very aggressive."

Nah, the good reviewers will have to work extra hard because of all this. The best reviews will be dead good because of it.

One good example of massive amounts of discussion of a record before the publication of reviews being obviously a good thing was before Let England Shake came out. It really felt like a lot of information was being shared and opinions were changing on a daily basis.

I'm not saying they're comparable records of course.

Should have been XP.

my first reaction is like, I wnana go home and put this on loud speakers