Review Summary: I love what you do, but we're coming home
Bias is an unshakable presence in every human mind. Trite and omnipresent clichés such as “hindsight is 20/20” only serve to reinforce the fact that the human brain is more illogical and emotionally driven than any member of the species would care to admit. Enter the observer-expectancy effect, a phenomenon in psychological research where an observer will unconsciously seek out patterns that conform to their preexisting expectations. “m b v” was never going to be a better record than “Loveless”; even a record in that ballpark would be revered as one of the greatest albums of all time. 22 years is nothing short of an eternity in the music industry, and an eternity’s worth of expectations surrounded “m b v” from the time its existence was a mere myth to the time it became a polarizing reality. It’s a strong possibility that the record sounded the best to its listeners before they ever pressed play; imagination is a hell of a drug, and lacing it with two decades of expectation is a dangerous game. These expectations of artistic evolution dominated the dialogue surrounding My Bloody Valentine’s sudden resurgence in 2013, but eight years onward, it’s funny to observe how “m b v” shines brightest in its most traditional moments.
This isn’t to say that “m b v” doesn’t take risks, but it is to say that nobody was more keenly aware of the expectational pressure surrounding the record than My Bloody Valentine themselves, and it has a tendency to show in some of the album’s more experimental tracks. The moments on “m b v” that try to reinvent the shoegaze wheel sometimes result in nothing but a flat tire; “nothing is” would be the main culprit, a cacophonous assault of guitar noise that opts to identify as entirely harsh, rather than juxtapose its abrasive nature against the band’s signature ethereal atmosphere. On “new you”, the group attempts to alter its sound through artistic regression, composing a derivative late-’80s pop piece that sounds more like it came from a time capsule than anything else on the record. I can’t help but feel as though the band’s perception of their audience’s expectations is responsible for these two tracks, in which they find themselves traveling in completely opposite musical directions and losing sight of what makes them My Bloody Valentine. That’s not the case with every track here, though; author Jim Kwik once bafflingly wrote that “the most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing”, and when the band does this successfully, the results are stunning.
“she found now” shines like a red giant for this exact reason, functioning as an earth-shattering continuation of “Loveless”, a watershed musical experience that only My Bloody Valentine themselves could do justice to. Kevin Shields’ heavenly vocals are suffocated beneath wall upon wall of titanic guitar tracks, with a distant war drum pounding over the ridge. It manages to meld the pulsating tension of “Sometimes”, the crushing atmosphere of “Loomer”, and the angelic beauty of “To Here Knows When” to create what may very well be their best song to date. Elsewhere, “who sees you” and “if i am” deliver timeless listening experiences through unforgettable texture and melody, while “wonder 2” meets expectations with flying colors due to its combination of electronic influences with MBV’s signature glide guitars.
“m b v” is far from perfect, and its two major blemishes are pretty significant for a nine song tracklist, but it serves as a testament to the importance of staying true to oneself as an artist. The reason why so few shoegaze albums post-”Loveless” worked is because they all tried to be “Loveless” in some way, shape, or form. My Bloody Valentine is not “Loveless”; “Loveless” is My Bloody Valentine. It’s their sound, their innovation, their technique, and their musical soul. “m b v”, when it’s truly firing on all cylinders, is My Bloody Valentine in the 21st century; smarter, subtler, and more refined. It swings big and occasionally misses big, but if it’s the last we ever hear from this band, then it’s a swan song to be proud of.
