Album of the Week #1: "Isn't Anything" by My Bloody Valentine

John

The first album of the week is My Bloody Valentine's album Isn't Anything. Decided it would be a nice way to start this album of the week deal off considering they are probably the best band ever to come out of Ireland.

So what are your opinions on this album? Overrated? Genius? The best thing they ever did or just a poor man's Loveless?

dalk

Coincidently, i listened to this album at the weekend for the first time in ages, and was reminded how original and timeless a piece of work it is.

The mind bending tremelo guitar work, the innovative mix, the hazy lazy sensuality, the drummer trying to sound like the Jesus and Mary Chains drum machine, the originality... the wonderful beautiful NOISE of it! I could go on.

I can still vividly remember hearing my first MBV song 'I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)' on the radio played by Dave Fanning, at the end of '88. It demanded my attention. It demanded that i buy the album and listen to it every day for at least 2 years afterwards...

I can also remember my ears humming for 2 days after seeing them play live in Belfast...

So, work of genius... no contest.

If 'Isnt Anything' was the conception, then 'Loveless' was the pampered love child...

EDIT:

I would add that you should also get:

Feed Me with Your Kiss E.P.
You Made Me Realise E.P.
Glider E.P.
Tremelo E.P.

You are not missing anything by not listening to their earlier stuff...

magpie

If you have to have one MBV reccid, Loveless is the one to have TBH.

On a slightly connected note I got a terrible CD in Road Records at the weekend called "The Foamboy Deluxe Arkestra - Our black hearts" on a recommendation that it sounded like RIDE / MBV. It just sounds like MBV only with a sh1t drum machine. Avoid.

Manchegan

dalk wrote:

I would add that you should also get:

Feed Me with Your Kiss E.P.

Seconded. "Emptiness Inside"? Think "Helter Skelter" with swagger.

dearheart

'All I Need' seems to be a predecessor of sorts to 'To Here Knows When'. Strange that the album seems to suffer from bad/cheap production but comes up with sounds as in the aforementioned, 'No More Sorry' [possibly one of the oddest & most beautiful songs ever written about child sex abuse] and 'I Can See It [But I Can't Feel It]'.

I hope Shields remasters it at some point; it'll give the album some justice.

jack nance hair

Kevin Shields complains about the noise

Earthhorse

If you didn't love Loveless is Isn't Anything worth investigating?

magpie

"As a musician I really object to being forced to listen to music I don't like while someone else makes money".

What a great quote.

radiospan

jack nance hair wrote:

Kevin Shields complains about the noise

Ha brilliant!

He's still producing too. I've heard his stuff for Joy Zipper, and he has a Go! Team remix coming out soon. (and of course the Lost in Translation OST)

nlgbbbblth

The first My Bloody Valentine song I heard was Strawberry Wine back in 1987. I thought it was pretty impressive albeit jangly (like a lot of indie records back then) but it paled into significance when John Peel played You Made Me Realise the following summer. Along with the House Of Love's Destroy The Heart, also released in August 1988, I was blown away.
An amazing track with four killer b-sides on the 12". The follow up single Feed Me With Your Kiss was almost as good.

Isn't Anything came along that October and between then and Christmas I played it on a daily basis while supposedly studying for my Leaving Cert. I found it an amazingly dense record with deep-buried melodies and a perfect fusion of harmony and distortion throughout.
My favourite tracks remain No More Sorry, You Never Should and Lose My Breath.

I finally got to see them play in April 1990 around the time of the Glider EP - a somewhat uneven gig in McGonagles which was hampered by sound problems. I felt that the SFX gig two years later was a far more enjoyable experience. I'm glad I wore earplugs.

Loveless, while a stunning record from a particularly memorable year for music, did not hit as many heights as Isn't Anything.

My theory is this: the majority of people who prefer Loveless heard Loveless first and then worked backwards to Isn't Anything. People who were old/fortunate enough to discover Isn't Anything at the time of it's release tend to favour it.

As for the early material. The first album, This Is Your Bloody Valentine (1985), which I finally heard when it got a reissue on Dossier in the summer of 1990, is pretty woeful. Dave Conway sings and comes across as a bad Nick Cave. Their debut single, the Geek EP is quite unmemorable too.

They steadily improved with The New Record By.. and Sunny Sundae Smile singles. And then came Strawberry Wine in the summer of 1987. I think it was Dave Fanning that played it. The Ecstasy album is a serious step-up in quality. The band were becoming harder and fuzzier. Check out the Ecstasy and Wine [Ecstasy LP + Strawberry Wine 12", albeit a different version of SW] which is easy enough to pick up second hand.

The long awaited box sets, if ever released, will be the best ever.

jd

dalk wrote:

I can also remember my ears humming for 2 days after seeing them play live in Belfast...

.

Was that a gig they did in Queens after playing ii McGonagles in Dublin? Would have been 1990 - maybe?

nlgbbbblth

jd wrote:

Was that a gig they did in Queens after playing ii McGonagles in Dublin? Would have been 1990 - maybe?

McGonagles gig was April 1990
SFX gig was May 1992

nlgbbbblth

poll on Isn't Anything vs Loveless here

dearheart

I turned six in '91.

Valmont

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

My theory is this: the majority of people who prefer Loveless heard Loveless first and then worked backwards to Isn't Anything. People who were old/fortunate enough to discover Isn't Anything at the time of it's release tend to favour it.

Not really. I first heard of My Bloody Valentine when I bought the Lost in Translation OST (2006). I then chose Isn't Anything without knowing anything about either albums simply because it was 5 euro cheaper than loveless. I listened this one to death then bought loveless and the rest is history. I couldn't possibly pick one over the other though.