Album: Isn't Anything
Artist: My Bloody Valentine
Artist: My Bloody Valentine
Born: Dublin
Released: November 1988
Genre: Shoegaze
Influenced: Ride, Primal Scream, Boards of Canada, Mogwai, Spiritualized
Few bands have used guitars as expressively and sensually as My Bloody Valentine. On tracks like Cupid Come, there's some of the abrasiveness of other innovative guitar groups of that era, especially US acts like Sonic Youth, Husker Dü and Dinosaur Jr, but MBV charted a very unique path in music history. Given Kevin Shields' dual Irish-American roots, I've always seen him as a bridge between American punk, especially the Stooges and Ramones, and that particularly English strain of gothic rock pioneered by Siouxsie & the Banshees and Joy Division. The Birthday Party's Junkyard was also clearly an influence on the band's sound, as MBV mutated throughout the 80s from punk mimics to shoegaze originals, aided by the superior studio facilities they had access to when the band signed with Creation Records in 1988. Shields was largely the creative force behind the band's original approach of creating guitar reverb and echo and then deleting the sound of the instrument, to leave just the lush textures created by the effects unit. The results were even more revolutionary than the guitar sound of label mates The Jesus & Mary Chain, with MBV upending standard song structures with a new stop-start formula and also bringing in elements of hip hop production. One good example of this is opening track Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside). These softer songs are contrasted with much more aggressive tracks like single Feed Me With Your Kiss, which sounds more like grunge than Nirvana's first single, Love Fuzz, released the same month as Isn't Anything in November 1988.
As well as the core male duo of Shields and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig, MBV was enhanced in the mid-80s by the addition of two female English musicians, bassist Debbie Googe and backing vocalist Bilinda Butcher. One of their first first recordings together was the single Strawberry Wine (1987), which is one of the most valuable assets in my vinyl collection. Lose My Breath and No More Sorry are two of my favourite songs on the first side of Isn't Anything, both conveying moods that fit perfectly with the words. The first is clearly sexual, the second darker and more sinister, relating to Butcher's experiences of abusive relationships. All I Need sounds like it could have appeared on the band's follow-up album, Soon, with its melodic swirls and rich sonic experimentation, though the noisy intensity and songwriting comes more to the fore on Isn't Anything. Nothing Much To Lose is the best example of this on side 2, with screeching guitars and Colm's impressive and loud drumming giving way periodically to a melodic chorus about a beautiful but superficial girl ("your big brown eyes / with a small, small heart"). Having listened first to MBV's masterpiece Soon, I found it hard initially to love Isn't Anything to the same degree, but over the years that's started to change.
Few bands have used guitars as expressively and sensually as My Bloody Valentine. On tracks like Cupid Come, there's some of the abrasiveness of other innovative guitar groups of that era, especially US acts like Sonic Youth, Husker Dü and Dinosaur Jr, but MBV charted a very unique path in music history. Given Kevin Shields' dual Irish-American roots, I've always seen him as a bridge between American punk, especially the Stooges and Ramones, and that particularly English strain of gothic rock pioneered by Siouxsie & the Banshees and Joy Division. The Birthday Party's Junkyard was also clearly an influence on the band's sound, as MBV mutated throughout the 80s from punk mimics to shoegaze originals, aided by the superior studio facilities they had access to when the band signed with Creation Records in 1988. Shields was largely the creative force behind the band's original approach of creating guitar reverb and echo and then deleting the sound of the instrument, to leave just the lush textures created by the effects unit. The results were even more revolutionary than the guitar sound of label mates The Jesus & Mary Chain, with MBV upending standard song structures with a new stop-start formula and also bringing in elements of hip hop production. One good example of this is opening track Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside). These softer songs are contrasted with much more aggressive tracks like single Feed Me With Your Kiss, which sounds more like grunge than Nirvana's first single, Love Fuzz, released the same month as Isn't Anything in November 1988.
As well as the core male duo of Shields and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig, MBV was enhanced in the mid-80s by the addition of two female English musicians, bassist Debbie Googe and backing vocalist Bilinda Butcher. One of their first first recordings together was the single Strawberry Wine (1987), which is one of the most valuable assets in my vinyl collection. Lose My Breath and No More Sorry are two of my favourite songs on the first side of Isn't Anything, both conveying moods that fit perfectly with the words. The first is clearly sexual, the second darker and more sinister, relating to Butcher's experiences of abusive relationships. All I Need sounds like it could have appeared on the band's follow-up album, Soon, with its melodic swirls and rich sonic experimentation, though the noisy intensity and songwriting comes more to the fore on Isn't Anything. Nothing Much To Lose is the best example of this on side 2, with screeching guitars and Colm's impressive and loud drumming giving way periodically to a melodic chorus about a beautiful but superficial girl ("your big brown eyes / with a small, small heart"). Having listened first to MBV's masterpiece Soon, I found it hard initially to love Isn't Anything to the same degree, but over the years that's started to change.
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