Music Review: My Bloody Valentine – M B V

Released: February 2, 2013
Label: Pickpocket Records
Website: http://www.mybloodyvalentine.org/
Reviewed by: Laura Spurlock

‘MBV’ is My Bloody Valentine’s first full length album release since ‘Loveless’ in 1991. The highly anticipated My Bloody Valentine album has finally given MBV fans something to lust over after 22 years of anticipation. Kevin Shields has been stringing die hard MBV fans along for years. The album release date was mentioned in 2007 to be November of 2012, but wasn’t released until February of 2013. On February 2nd, the odds were not in favor for MBV fans since the website the album was released on crashed only three minutes after the release to the public. However, that doesn’t stop the album from being pure gold. Shields is at it again with his luscious shoe gaze-y, alternative jams. The layered guitars make you feel as if you’ve been put under a spell, while Shields’ smooth vocals backed by Bilinda Butcher tell you a story in which you can barely understand. The album starts out giving homage to 1991’s ‘Loveless with the song titled “She Found Now.”  Twenty two years of silence didn’t change MBV’s identity, which led the sound behind the first track to be very familiar. Shields said that “It sounds like what we sounded like—different but not radically different.” The fourth track on the album “Is This and Yes” is basically the climax in the middle of a great musical novel that takes you on a loopy ride. “Wonder 2” wraps up the album’s story with mind-spinning, catastrophic sounds that will make you want to run circles around your bedroom. Listen to ‘MBV’ on some big speakers so you will be able to hear all of Shields’ magic. The build up and anticipation before the release of ‘MBV’ only makes this highly anticipated album so much sweeter.