My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything

I was in Bela Dubby, which is a coffee shop type place here in Lakewood, the other day and this album was playing on their small stereo and found myself really honing in on each song. Between this album and their second album Loveless (1991), I had always leaned toward Loveless as my favorite. It took the shoegazing super distorted guitar sound up ten notches and really just stood out in my music collection because of it. But something really kicked in that day in Bela Dubby, as I heard these songs again for the first time in a long time. I'm finally giving this album a second thorough exploration these past few days.

My Bloody Valentine formed in Dublin, Ireland in the early 1980s, but during their long career only released two full length studio albums, amongst a number of EPs and singles. The band was composed of founding members Kevin Shields (guitar/vocals) and Colin Colm Ó Cíosóig (drums), along with Bilinda Butcher (guitar/vocals) and Debbie Googe (bass). Their sound on Isn't Anything (1988) was, as I mentioned above, less about distorted guitar and more traditional alternative/indie in sound, though a fair level of distortion and sound experimentation existed. The song structures tend to be simple, though variety exists thanks in part to the experimentation in sounds and occasional lead vocal switches between songs.


My Bloody Valentine - "Lose My Breath"

"Lose My Breath" gives example of a Bilinda Butcher led song. The pace is a wonderfully methodically slow plod during the sung lyrics. The breaks formed during the softly sung chorus part act as beautiful clearings amongst the darker portions surrounding. The percussion moves to a tom roll that though lost somewhat in the mix is really the difference maker in the pacing/tempo of the song. This is also an example of the simplicity of song structures that fit into the more introverted dazed feel of the shoegazing genre.


My Bloody Valentine - "[When You Wake] You're Still in A Dream"

Kevin Shields takes the lead on this catchy guitar and vocal driven song. The backing vocals soothe as they are sung behind Shields' smooth lead vocal delivery. They act similarly to the softly sung breaks in  "Lose My Breath" as a juxtapose to the rough guitar driven instrumental parts of the song. Once again song structure is simple yet effective as the song length is relatively short.

The fifth song on the album, "No More Sorry", is a departure in structure and make-up from the remainder of the album's songs and appears to omit any percussive beat choosing to be more string instrument based. "All I Need" provides a peak into the type of guitar distortion and sound that would evolve into Loveless. "Sueisfine" is one of the more straight up catchier songs within, while "Nothing Much To Lose" stands out with it's extended drum rolls appearing around the song's mainline parts and could be judged as good as anything else on the album.

My Bloody Valentine myspace page,  album available in the U.K., and in the U.S..