It’s been 22 years, that’s more than a generation since My Bloody Valentine dropped their last release [Loveless] on us, and I tell you true, over the years, as the calendar pages have flown off the wall, I’ve grown comfortable with the fact that MBV would never release a new body of work. But then, one must consider that MBV has always done things one their own time schedule, in their own way, foot dragging and revamping endlessly ... if one remembers back to Loveless, even after we heard that it was mastered and in the can, it took nearly four years for the outing to see the light of day. At this stage of their career, it seems to me, that they should be working on some huge boxed set, remastered with colourful artwork, and some outtakes of unheard pieces of music. And of course that would be followed by the endless begging for a tour, or even a twelve date mini tour, one that’s expanded in Europe, and then an the announcement that they’d been working on a new album, and the release date was intimate.
See ... if they’d done it that way, they might have had something new to present to us, instead of a 22 year re-make of their seemingly effortless past adventure with Loveless, where horizons were pushed, layered fuzzy pedaled guitars sounded fresh and inviting, where swooning lush androgynous vocals mixed with instrumentation pleaded for the enchantment of nightfall. Instead, for the most part, the band sounds claustrophobic, locked into an endless tape loop of stumbling misadventure and self-exploitation that’s so dense I doubt there was much breathable air in the studio. Mind you, all of the songs are not so disingenuous, “She Found Now,” “If I Am,” and “New You” are surprising intoxicating etherial delights that instantly brought to mind the light-handed layering of The Beach Boys.
I’ve had this discussion before, and while there’s no winner or looser, it’s my thinking that MBV, whom I’ve seen in concert several times, are first and foremost a live band ... they never needed to put out a record in the first place, they just needed to wrap themselves in sound and muster on.
Review made by Jenell Kesler / 2013
© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com / 2013
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