After 22 long years, My Bloody Valentine suddenly came out of hiding this past Saturday. The legendary band behind the undisputed masterpiece Loveless released an entire new record online and sent music fans and music critics into an orgiastic frenzy. It was always the very first punishing chords, which gave way to the unexpectedly lush, melodic first verse of Only Shallow that mesmerized me completely and would keep me a fan of MBV for more than two decades. Loveless is, as the Washington Post put it perfectly, "an album that still feels like a trip to the ocean floor -- beautiful, wondrous and crushing from all sides."
The new material doesn't grab you right out of the gate. In fact, while the band was a definite influence on Radiohead, in context a lot of it sounds like the more experimental material that followed the complex art rock/psychedelic hybrid that was the hallmark of Thom Yorke and company's late-90s sound. The Kid A to Loveless's OK Computer.
Regardless, there aren't words to describe how good it is to have My Bloody Valentine back.
Here's If I Am.
