My Bloody Valentine
OK! I admit it! I was quite late in finding out about My Bloody Valentine. I had heard of them many times before, but nothing sparked my curiosity enough to actually check them out. How I regret this today! It would only be two decades later, on a very dark swedish winter morning (at approximately 4:30AM to be precise) that I first heard one of their songs. I had just woken up and was getting ready for work in a book binding factory (I couldn't speak the language back then, so this was the best I could get - just thinking back to those days depresses me, very difficult times). I was watching television while drinking coffee and eating breakfast and on that morning, the brand new - back then - MTV2 Europe was on. Clips of classic Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth and other early nineties hits were on. I had picked up the dishes, put my winter coat on and was about to turn the television off when the video for To Here Knows When by My Bloody Valentine comes on. WOW! I was immediately transfixed! Although I had heard similar sounds before like Lush or Slowdive, there was something different and much more powerful about this track. I couldn't put a finger on it back then, but with time it hit me: the song is incredibly beautiful, almost ambient and peaceful, yet it's noisy as hell at the same time! The noisy parts don't jump up at you right away, but they're there and they're louder than they appear. It's simply brilliant how these artists have managed to balance out two complete opposites within a pop music frame.
Unfortunately, My Bloody Valentine's legacy would limit itself to two albums and a few EPs. I consider Loveless a masterpiece, but I still don't know much about the group. I am aware that Kevin Shields (the brains behind the group), went on to live a recluse-like life, emerging here and there with a few compositions. His most noteworthy later efforts is his soundtrack work for Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation. Regardless of the ephemeral aspect of the group, the little they have left us with is incontestably timeless and will be revered for decades to come
LovelessLabel: Sire Records Company Release: 1991 Format: CD Cat. no: CD 26759 |
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