The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

if you your speakers properly placed, on stands, and sort of pointed in a V pattern towards the chair you're sitting it, you really do get a lot of those stereo effects you associate with headphones on speakers

i've only listened on headphones, it sounds great

this band is so weird to find a volume for, they have this odd effect of being quiet and super loud at the same time that i can't quite put in words

yeah i don't generally listen to music superloud on headphones but this morning i on my first listen i kept turning it up more and more

The first couple of times I played the album, it was on computer speakers, played at a low-to-moderate volume. A lot of it just seemed like ambient noise. Not an entirely bad thing, but headphones opened it up a lot for me.

Last night as I was listening loudly on headphones i was wondering maybe i should just put it on my speakers and turn it down really low.

i'm really fucking enjoying this...maybe even more than some because i like MBV but i don't have a ton invested in them other than, like they were a band that i heard in college and liked, like a lot of bands i thought were good and unique...

honest to god there's times i almost want to challops and say this is their best album but probably just because it's new

that will probably fade but overall this sounds like MBV and is good and i don't know how anyone could have possibly expected anything more

Yeah, this is as good as you could expect from any band after 22 years, especially a formerly gamechanging one.

I'm still wishing the phased/flanged drum loop right at the end of 'Wonder 2' went on for a bit longer!

i'm trying to ignore the 22 year thing when i listen to this, and just treat it as a third album by a band i like. the way it comes across as more loose, more fun than loveless really shines for me through that lens.

It definitely sounds like a helicopter taking off at the end. The only thing bad about this album is that it's too short.

i've seen the "it's too short" criticism a few times, which is funny because even though i agree, it's 45 minutes long!

really? it seems a lot shorter

i'm trying to ignore the 22 year thing when i listen to this

Me too, although I am interested in the effect this has. Thinking about what how the reception would've differed if it had come out in '94, '97, '05 and now.

But yes, if you think about the 22 years, it's hard to not want it to be 7.3x better than Loveless.

I do wonder if this will win over anyone who wasn't already converted. 2012 might be timely - a lot of dream pop is getting attention, a lot of the people who are listening to it weren't even alive when Loveless came out!

i like your review nick, especially as it has that preliminary stamp written all over it, it is amazingly modest of a critic admittig that he/she hasn't parsed the object of criticism yet and needs some more time. one small question concerning the review of "summer sun" and some other yo la tengo albums a couple of weeks ago. was there a reason you never published my comment or did the bot put it into the spam comment bin?

is that 909 percussion I’m hearing on ‘New You'? I think it might just be, especially the open hi-hats.

Agreed, this seems to fly by in a flash

I've listened to this like 5 times today so far.

just the play stats of the songs of the new album on the mbv youtube cannel, i am surprised about the clear lead of "she found now". it probably has to do with the faact that it is the fisr song, after that most people just seem to give up.

she found now 239.229
only toorrow 95.500
wonder 2 87.613
who sees you 82.964
is another way 50.834
new you 50.209
nothing is 39.763
is this and yes 37.238
if i am 37.137

Woah Wonder 2 is doing well.

It's so crazy. From the first time I heard "Loveless" til i met someone else who had was years. And now you can look up exactly 87,613 people listened to "Wonder 2".

^^ OTM to the OTM'est of OTM's

wonder what last.fm stats are

the album has one listener on last.fm, presumably me

I think it'll take a while for the new scrobbles to settle.

http://www.last.fm/labs/popularrightnow

Yeah, I've just had a look and the information on each song isn't showing up for me yet.

On another listen last night, it struck me that the craziness of the last 3 tracks, but in particular "in another way", gave me a similar sonic experience than the one I had the first time I heard "DI Go Pop" (the song not the album) by Disco Inferno. And then it occurred to me that the main sampled riff in DI Go Pop is an MBV guitar riff....

Those stats look pretty standard. It's basically the sequence of the album top to bottom but with the tracks that seem to have been mentioned most bumped up the list. I think Wonder 2 is the track most people mention. Strangest thing is how many people skip If I am.

http://i.imgur.com/Tdfa3fr.jpg

fuckin lumineers

'If I Am' is such a grower.

Its "is this and yes" that leaves me the most "meh", but I think its a context thing. In the right ambient surroundings it'd be pleasing but buried in this album it just feels like an odd, droning pause.

I see tracks like 'Is This And Yes' and 'New You' as moments of relief, for want of a better term. Placed in the albums sequence to allow the listeners to catch their breath a little bit.

'New You' especially, gives the listener a little bit of time to clear their minds out in preparation for the sonic onslaught of the last three tracks.

That just assumes kids these days actually listen to albums all the way through like they're supposeter >:|

Alex, I honestly don't know what happened to your comment on Yo La Tengo; it's not in my list now but I always approve everything not trying to sell drugs! Please make it again if you want to and I'll keep an eye out for it.

Is that a mellotron on "New You"? Sounds like a mellotron flute sample.

I LOVE the rewinding thing that follows "If I Am". The wah guitar is so cool. And the '90s beats of this thing are amazing. Sooner or later someone was bound to come up with the perfect '90s retro record and i think this is it!

But recording the drums live was a good idea, it doesn't sound consciously affected to sound retro. The songwriting is just timeless My Bloody Valentine. This record could have come out in 2093.

The coldness of "Is This and Yes" contrasts nicely with the previous tracks. It's like a moment of stillness leading into the album's low-intensity second act.

the cover art really is amazingly ugly. especially the violet mbv lettering. don't they have an art director or somethig?

nick, i made that comment at least two times, apparently it got lost in the aether. it really doesn't matter and i am happy that it wasn't you who deleted it.

Yes, it's bloody awful. I made my own classier one to replace it:

http://i48.tinypic.com/w7hdt0.jpg

It's because Kevin just made us this awesome mixtape called "mbv" and he dropped it on the internet and while it was uploading made this in photoshop.

Please tell me that's a Lost in Translation background.

Oh that would've been a good idea, but unfortunately it's just a photo I accidentally took once.

I love the artwork. Place it side by side with Loveless, and it all makes sense.

On RateYourMusic at this moment, top rated album of 2013 is Riverside's Shrine of New Generation Slaves, 3.74 from 305 ratings.

If you drill down to M B V, already its at 3.77 from 1446 ratings. Ie, enough ratings in 1 day to give it a lock in the top 5 RYM albums were it released in 2012.

I'll probably got shot for this, but it's better than the Glider EP cover.

otm

I love the artwork. Place it side by side with /Loveless/, and it all makes sense.

OTM

yes