Comments on: Soon

By: Tim Annett

Tim Annett — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:53:29 +0000

Henry, I think you’ll find that the “Lost in Translation” material is good, but not quite as good as you’d like it to be. There are hints of Shields’ genius for textures and simple, contrapuntal melodies. But I’m somehow left with the impression that those tracks, solid as they might be by any other standard, were somewhat tossed off by KS. I had the good fortune of seeing MBV perform with Dinosaur Jr. way, way back when, and to this day I’m not entirely convinced that my hearing has come all the way back. MBV was singularly LOUD live, though surprisingly clear (at least when I saw them; I imagine if they were being handled by an inexperienced sound tech things could have very quickly turned disastrous) and I don’t know that I’ve seen many bands replicate that since. A show I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor do in the fall of 2000 at Bowery Ballroom in NY was close, in its sort of hypnotic power, but only close. And while I’m of course a tremendous fan of “Loveless,” I feel as though “Isn’t Anything” is often unfairly overlooked. Those beautiful, scraping guitar bits on “Soft As Snow” still give me goosebumps.

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:16:04 +0000

Yeah, it’ll be out real soon. And Spiritualized will put out a recording as good as their first one. Fair point – but I reckon that the chances of a compilation of unreleased plus live stuff stands a better chance of hitting the shelves sometime in the next decade than a genuinely new album. Agree on Spiritualized (although for me the first two albums are interchangeably great – it’s with Ladies and Gentlemen that they start going downhill fast). Yeah – the MBV/Arkestra mix rocks – the best thing that Shields has done since ‘Loveless.’ I’m not so keen on his other remixes – Mogwai should have been a natural, but doesn’t quite work, while his version of the Pastels is anodyne. Haven’t heard the ‘Lost in Translation’ soundtrack yet though.

By: jack the lad

jack the lad — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:31:22 +0000

“What am i missing?” As the original poster said, MBV is possibly the best band in the world. Not to worry! Despite MBV’s greatness, The Smiths is obviously the best band in the world to anyone with two ears! That would explain your confusion.

By: felixrayman

felixrayman — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:28:14 +0000

My Bloody Valentine will be conducting music releasing program-related activities in the near future. Sure, sure. I’ve been hearing that since the day I saw them in a concert that ended with them stretching out You Made Me Realise into a wall of feedback, playing the same chord for 20 minutes. Yeah, it’ll be out real soon. And Spiritualized will put out a recording as good as their first one. Any day now.

By: nick

nick — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:18:20 +0000

Let me clarify, reg: Loveless is one of those albums that justifies buying a pair of Grado SR60s.

By: nick

nick — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:15:40 +0000

What am I missing? Your sense of hearing? There’s melody—there are about a dozen melodies, stacked up atop each other—and you just have to listen. (And I have to thank Annie Nightingale for introducing me to ‘Soon’ back in 1991. Also, the MBV Arkestra remix of Primal Scream’s ‘If They Move, Kill ‘Em’ was worth the wait.)

By: Reg

Reg — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:07:34 +0000

I don’t get Bloody Valentine. All the other music I like suggests I should be a big fan. I can’t stand the shit. There is no melody, it is just noise. What am I missing?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 05:19:46 +0000

I bought “Loveless” for my brother about 10 years ago because he liked rock bands with female singers. I had heard the song “Only Shallow” on the radio, and I thought he might like the album. He didn’t. He said it was “too noisy.” Not wanting to waste the purchase, I gave the album a spin. After scraping my cerebellum off the ceiling, I realized I possessed one of the all-time greats. In fact, a couple of years later, Rolling Stone listed it in their “All-Time Top 500” issue (not that it has any more credibility than any other “top whatever” list, but it was one of the few recent albums in that list, and it really was a selection out of left field). Anyone who wants to investigate Kevin Shields’ output outside of MBV would do well to start here. Also, Kevin wrote a song for the “Lost in Translation” soundtrack. I sure wish he could strive to achieve Frank Zappa-like levels of productivity.

By: sacha

sacha — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 02:38:28 +0000

Slightly off topic, though still relavent, I’d thought I’d point out that this post made me feel very nostalgic, so I booted up WinMX to steal some music. Doing a search, however, for My Bloody Valentine, revealed half the entries to be a single song by Good Charlotte (listed over and over), which I found depressing to a very high degree.