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Rating: Damn! I missed this album when it was released in 1987. Had I listened to it then, a song like "(Please) lose yourself in me" would have made me jump out of my chair. It alone would justify the existence of this album, perhaps the least known in My Bloody Valentine's discography. Simultaneously with this, the 12" "Strawberry Wine" was released, a song that, justifying its title, gets you drunk without you realizing it, as it ensnares you in a rich and languid guitar jingle-jangle characterized by the sensual vocal counterpoint of the tender Belinda Butcher.
So, let's get things straight: the record in question was released in 1989, but is practically the algebraic sum of the 12" "Strawberry Wine" and the EP "Ecstasy", both from two years earlier. Before these, My Bloody Valentine had released a series of Mini-LPs characterized by a pure garage sound. The first, the elusive "This is your Bloody Valentine," released by the German Tycon in 1985 solely in Germany, is pure sixties-punk exercise, with fuzztonic inserts and some shifts towards the softer style of the Doors. The second "Geek" from the same year repeats the experiment, making us realize that Shields and his companions' initial passion was not directed at what was happening in England, but at the more chaotic and primitive sound of the origins rediscovered at that time thanks to people like the Fuzztones and, even earlier, Cramps. Only with the subsequent MLP "The New Record Of My Bloody Valentine" and the 12" "Sunny Sundae Smile", do they change their attitude and adapt to the domestic sounds of the Creation and Postcard school, a more tranquil and accommodating pop shown at that time by the leading figures Smiths and, subsequently, Pastels and Joseph K. The influence exercised by Jesus and Mary Chain is also undoubted, but paradoxically, only the essence was grasped: pure unadulterated pop, stripped of the feedback chaos, which, on the other hand, was waning even from their undisputed owners: "Darklands" by J&MC of that year is exemplary in how it refines their sound without altering it. Only later would MBV reconsider the wall of guitars to conceive "Isn't Anything" and the masterpiece "Loveless."
"Ecstasy and Wine" is therefore a transition work without disgrace and without praise. Innocent indie-pop already circulated in the form of 45s by Primitives, Primal Scream, Shop Assistants, on which, however, already a vague scent of Velvet Underground was grafted, and the famous guitar games that would become the stylistic hallmark of the quartet in the future, were beginning to peek through (peek through. what a beautiful phrase!). It is nevertheless advisable to recommend this album because it includes "Strawberry Wine", "Clair", and the surprisingly still today "(Please) lose yourself in me", an indefinable, killer song with a circular and alluring rhythm that would fit well on Loveless with appropriate guitar treatment as we know My Bloody Valentine can do.
We await the next release, said to be imminent, and - I bet - it will be yet another surprise.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Strawberry Wine (02:33)
Misty morning in the springtime
Close your eyes, crystal eyes
On the darkside let the light shine
Please, please stay with me tonight
These lips will find strawberry wine
I was looking at your window
Lurking there beneath my feet
Cherry apples, long grass meadows
(Searching) I, for dreams in sleep
These lips will find strawberry wine
Misty morning in the springtime
Lurking there beneath your feet
On the darkside let the light shine
Think of me, don't let me keep
These lips will find strawberry wine
03 Can I Touch You (03:15)
You can sit up
And look out at the sky
Still, you're out on your own at night
I can hear you, I can hear you
And the make up
Is going to go along
The things we have done that are wrong
Can I touch you, can I touch you
Look into your eyes
I never ever wondered why
I need you to blame
I feel, I can feel the same
Look into my eyes
I bet you never thought that I'd feel
Things I thought I'd take
Were not there that way
And we sit up
And look out at the sky
The year as we (wished) flew bye
Can I touch you, can I touch you
06 I Don't Need You (03:08)
Do you think that I still love you?
If you act the way you think I wanted you to
Throw away the love that we once had
With the time we've loved
Thought we could never be sad
Don't touch my girfriend
Don't look cross in the eye
She's still my girlfriend
I'm thinking of you through the night
The way that you talk, the way that you smile
Could make me happy for a while
Things that you see, the things that I do
The way that you walk, the things that you say
Makes it hard to go away
Don't be so sad 'cause I thought that you knew
(That) I don't need you
If I could talk to you, would you turn away?
I convinced the girl there was nothing I could say
I knew there was a time when we were close
All this company, that's when you loved me the most
08 Clair (02:33)
See me
Climbing through the clouds
The world is changing, colours clash
Ohhhhhhh
See me
Climbing down the stairs
I cut you with a piece of glass
Ohhhhhhh Clair
Now I catch the shining sun
And i'm walking through the long wet grass
Ohhhhhhh
Tear up clothes you used to wear
And you act as if you just don't care
Ohhhhhhh, Clair
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