Better Than Nevermind - No. 7 : My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (Creation)

What is the best Irish band ever? No not those old rockers. Well the singer is awesome but I mean who invented shoegaze and therefore does not need introductions? After hearing the song Soon off the EP Glider, I couldn’t wait for the full length album to come out. I had already grew tired of Pearl Jam and Nirvana when I finally got my hands on the CD in late December, but before I got it I saw the video for Only Shallow, the first track on the album, and I was blown away. The simple rhythm augmented by the distorted bass punching holes in your eardrums and distorted layers of guitars giving way to an ethereal female voice and gentle strumming while the bass and the drums keep pounding, until the very end was just amazing. Then the guitar become a swirling cloud that gives way to Loomer, where the female voice is surrounded by amorphous riff blobs and smudged bass lines that linger behind. MBV take the lessons from Cocteau Twins but find a voice of their own, a case in point the one-minute Touched is symphonic strings over a simple drum machine and distorted guitar that sounds like a broken machine. To Where Knows When has several guitar layers swirling like an ether cloud around the sliver of female vocals while the subdued bass and drums are barely audible in the background and ends with a backwards guitar loop. The new modus operandi of MBV is now clear, and When You Sleep only slightly catches you off guard, the guitars sound both abrasive, light and lifting while the voices of Shields and Butcher are tender and soothing yet slightly unnerving, over the disarmingly simple high pitched bass and muffled drums. The keyboards whistle the refrain with the vocal duo, ending in droplets of keys. The next song, I Only Said, subdues the drums and the bass but also the guitar, with a murmur of a distortion accompanied only by a fluted keyboard sound and barely audible soft vocals from Shields. The hypnosis is completely and agreeably subjugating. When Come In Alone starts, we are back to the beginning, with loud, deep bass and martial drums superimposed to more swirling distorted and ethereal guitars, with this time a screech and a back and forth high pitched riff meandering as a refrain. Butcher sings alone this time and the voice is even more drawn out. With Sometimes, the drums and bass becomes almost irrelevant, as if Shields took over all the instruments; a quick heartbeat pulsates under three layers of distorted guitar that never soar, just hover, added to an acoustic strumming while Shields sings dejectedly, and the keyboards intone a melancholic litany. Blown A Wish dips again in the swirling guitar ether while Butcher indulges in her lull-inducing singing. The drums is almost anemic, repetitive and thin. The bass is drowned in the plaintive and soft wails until a wah-wah pedal is activated and more soft wails layers are added. What You Want sounds like a leftover from the previous album Isn’t Anything, but since that was a very good album, is not ‘du réchauffé’ as the French would say. Drum and bass throb adequately to sustain the guitars which unleash clouds of distortion accompanied by plaintive keyboards. Butcher and Shields are the perfect counterpoint to all the noise, again the perfect combination of otherworldly warbles takes the listener yet to greater heights. The endless whistling and swooshing at the end seamlessly connects with the beginning of the last song, the sprawling 7 minute Soon, which is one of the best MBV songs and of all shoegaze period. The guitars riffs are burst of pure distorted joy, bent by Shields playing with his pinky finger on the whammy bar at the same time, while the keyboards soar over and over and brings everything to another dimension. Never has demented chaos sounded so blissful and soothing.