Do you ever wonder if Kevin Shields knows what he’s doing sometimes?
The year is 2013 and countless promises of a new My Bloody Valentine record were echoed through the vast halls of the Internet. Kevin Shields had announced on January 27th that the new record would see the light of day within “2 or 3 days.” How casually he expressed this should foreshadow the events that follow.
Six days later, with no warning or promotion, the band announced that they would be releasing the album, simply titled m b v, on their website. As expected, the Internet imploded. Initial claims of a hoax were quickly silenced as the lucky first few began to lay claim to digital downloads and place their vinyl orders. The unlucky later found that they had provided an unbelievable amount of traffic to My Bloody Valentine’s website, thus crashing the server, thus rendering them unable to order the album. Enraged fans were once again at the mercy of Kevin Shields: a man who uploaded one of the most desired albums of this decade with the same elegance your grandmother uploaded your baby photos to her geocities website.
When finally obtained, the album itself is beautiful work. While most would want to compare it to the band’s last full length, Loveless, let’s face it: Loveless came out in 1991 and this is a different album for a different era. m b v still retains the same spacey, lo-fi overtures from their previous album, but it’s a lot calmer and more sensual. It’s the type of music you can cuddle a girlfriend to. “She Found Now” and “Only Tomorrow” illustrate this: a hazy ocean of guitar followed by a happy jingle that is surprisingly easy on the ears.
As you progress you realize the beaming, loud guitars that you heard on Loveless have been scrapped for Spacemen 3-esque keys. “Is This And Yes” is a surreal, synth-based departure from the rest of the album, and flows back into a world of reverb with the catchy “New You.” The final track ,“Wonder 2,” brings both keys and guitar sounds together as a noisy crescendo underlined by a vicious beat.
Simply put (or not so simply put), this album is too complex to say it is a follow-up to Loveless. Kevin shields puts his best foot forward by experimenting with sounds we have not heard or would expect from his band, yet at the same time providing the listener with a comfortable background that is the established sound of ‘My Bloody Valentine’. Now all that’s left is to teach this band how to properly host an Internet server, and then we’ll be all set.