Another obvious choice I know but what're ya gonna do? My Bloody Valentine are one of the most important bands in my musical life. They completely changed the way I thought about music in the late 80s. Until 1989 I was on a strict diet of Heavy Metal. A friend of mine lent me a number of "indie" records which included the first Dinosaur Jr album, Pop Will Eat Itself's "This Is The Day..." LP and "You Made Me Realise". As a fairly closed-mind 16 year old I had dismissed all indie as either jangley pop or metal for people that couldn't do guitar solos. So imagine my initial horror at a song that was both grungy and jangley at the same time and with 45 seconds of noise where the guitar solo should be. But somehow it stuck. Strangely, it was a good number of years before I started to collect MBV records myself. I eventually bought "You Made Me Realise" from a second-hand shop in Liverpool while I was at University in about 1992, but I didn't buy Loveless or Isn't Anything until I was in Manchester 94/95. Consequently I never saw MBV live until their reformation a few years ago, three nights out of the four at the Roundhouse in Camden.
So, anyway, the singles. Starting with the "You Made Me Realise" EP. As well as the astonishing title track, this EP contains the brilliant "Thorn" and "Drive It All Over Me". In a way, this is a transitional EP, containing experimental wall-of-sound treated guitar as well as more traditional indie pop more akin to their previous output on the Ecstasy mini-LP.You can close your eyes, but you might as well commit suicide
Next is the "Feed Me With Your Kiss" EP. Just the two b-sides as the title track is on Isn't Anything.
Crawl around and kiss the ground
A limited number of the 1988 Isn't Anything album came with a free 7" that I paid £15 for considerably later. It contains two instrumental tracks including one with that famous Public Enemy drum loop (think Madonna's "Justify My Love")Security of the first world
A two year wait for the next release, while Kevin Shields perfected Loveless, nearly bankrupting Creation in the process. I often wonder if this would have been a good thing. Downside - possibly no Teenage Fanclub, Swervedriver, Ride, Medicine, Super Furry Animals or Sugar. Upside, possibly no Primal Scream or Oasis. OK, on balance probably worth putting up with the crap for all the good stuff. Anyway, the Glider EP...Wake up, don't fear
A late addition - a vinyl rip of my Glider Remixes EP for completeness. It contains a mix of Soon by Andrew Weatherall and a ten minute version of the instrumental Glider.
Here we go!
Finally, my favourite MBV release, the Tremolo EP. Yes. Even better than Loveless. Or maybe not, but I prefer it. There is no other song quite like "To Here Knows When". It is simply genius. Even the incidental/segue music on this EP is brilliant, between THKW and "Swallow", and between "Honey Power" and "Moon Song".
Close the door, I want you more
Fabulous, thank you.
ReplyDelete