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Before the release of the eternal masterpiece “Loveless”, My Bloody Valentine released an unusually eclectic record, “Isn’t Anything”. The impression is that the band wanted to unify all their influences into one work that would present them separately. “Isn’t Anything” does not yet have the uniqueness of its successor, as it keeps the elements as separate from each other as possible.
It is thus a highly varied and wide-ranging work. The band certainly does not play immediate songs, and moreover, assimilating so many deep-rooted musical impulses is not easy. This album needs to be listened to with patience, attention, and without expecting anything on the first listen. It may fascinate you immediately, but it may also leave you indifferent or annoy you. Nevertheless, its greatness is undeniable.
In the palette of colors, we immediately find the acid green of psychedelia. “Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)” indeed plays on disorienting rhythms, with denaturalized singing forming something intricate and gasping. “All I Need” further expands the sounds, like lava flows penetrating our mind and clearing it of everything, leaving only the magical beauty of the singing. The hypnosis is so intense it becomes painful, unbearable, too visceral. “Several Girls Galore” recalls the psychedelia of the first track, with a brilliant use of rhythm, contrasting the singing.
However, it quickly shifts to softer, almost blurred tones with “Lose My Breath”, a ballad immersed in an impenetrable fog. A fairy-like voice accompanies our perceptions, almost making us feel wrapped in a snowy mantle. Cold and poignant. The sensation of cold returns with “No More Sorry”, but this time it feels like standing under a waterfall, watching passively as the birds glide gracefully.
All of My Bloody Valentine's music is a perpetual clash between noise and beauty, between animalistic violence and divine sensitivity.
“Cupid Come” shows how Shoegaze could easily become a successful mass genre without losing value. We are indeed faced with a piece of melodic punk of the highest quality, supported by the typical rusted sound of guitars. The contrast is striking.
“(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream” does even better, accelerating the pace, raising the adrenaline with a perfect guitar riff. Here, it paints with the bright red of punk, with strokes that are abrupt yet graceful, in a sort of further ramification of the punk idea, culminating in a whirlwind of sweetness and visceral anger. “You Never Should” is a furious and splendid ride through icy lands, still marked by an almost hardcore speed.
“Feed Me With Your Kiss” follows the path of the aforementioned tracks, with a greater contrast of music and singing, here unbalanced and psychotic. We begin to see the colors mix.
“Sueisfine” makes us lose our bearings, combining speed, hypnosis, violence, and a sweet melody.
The group’s preferred colors are now well outlined, yet the finishing touch is still missing. Nonetheless, the result remains excellent.
The album’s absolute masterpiece is perhaps “Nothing Much to Lose”, with its insistent, continually ascending rhythm, splendid melody, and those sudden hysterical shifts that explode without warning, only to vanish immediately. Angelic voices and noise fumes accompany the track, which combines formal refinement with simplicity in execution.
Where we began, we end. “I Can See it (but I Can't Feel It)” is a drunken ballad, deliberately burdened by a wall of distorted guitars.
In conclusion, “Isn’t Anything” carries with it all the seeds that will bear fruit in 1991, yet it maintains its distinctive profile. Deafening noises, melodic sweetness, punk, and psychedelia are the fundamental bases of this unsurpassable crucible of sounds, an entwining panting of piercing distortions and vocal brilliance. A psychedelic and virulent vision of our world.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Only Shallow (04:19)
Sleep
Like pillow
No one there
Where
She won't care
Anywhere
Soft
As pillow
Touch her there
Where
She won't dare
Somewhere
Sweet
And mellow
Softer there
Feel
Like you grew
Stronger there
Speak
Your trouble
She's not square
Soft
Like her silk
Everywhere
Sleep
Like pillow
Comfort there
Where
She won't dare
Anywhere
Look
In mirror
She's not there
Where
She won't care
Somewhere
02 Loomer (02:40)
Tiptoe down
To the holy places
Where you going now
Don't turn around
Little girls
In their party dresses
Didn't like
Anything there
Pretty boys
With their sunshine faces
Carrying their
Heads down
Tiptoe down
To the lonely places
Where you going now
Don't turn around
04 To Here Knows When (05:33)
Kiss
Your fear
Your red button
Falls from my mouth
Slip
Your dress
Over your head
It's been so long
Move
On top
Because that way
You touch her too
Turn
Your head
Come back again
To here knows when
05 When You Sleep (04:13)
When You Sleep
When I look at you
Oh, I don't know what's (true)
Once in a while
And you make me laugh
And I'll see (you) tomorrow
And it won't be long
Once in a while
Then you take me down
Then you walk (away)
When you say 'I do'
Oh, I don't (believe) you
I can't forget it
__ ___
When you sleep tomorrow
And it won't be long
Once in a while
When you make me smile
07 Come In Alone (04:00)
Come in alone
You'll love
To let go
And I'll turn
You around
When your hopes
Gave me doubts
__ ____
Why I don't need
To believe
What you see
To look up
And around
You were gone
(Words came out)
To a sound
Feel
I'm alive
You will see
(Why I'm alive)
Felt like crying
Over her
I will go
To ____
___ f___ s___
08 Sometimes (05:21)
Close my eyes
Feel me now
I don't know how you could not love me now
You will know, with her feet down to the ground
Over there, and I want true love to grow
You can't hide, oh no, from the way I feel
Turn my head
Into sound
I don't know when I lay down on the ground
You will find the __ __ hurts to love
Never cared, and the world turned hearts to love
We will see, oh now, in a day or two
You will wait
See me go
I don't care, when you're head turned __ _ __
You will wait, when I turn my eyes around
Overhead when I hold you next to me
Overhead, to know the way I see
Close my eyes
Feel me now
I don't know, maybe you could not hurt me now
Here alone, when I feel down too
Over there, when I await true love for you
You can hide, oh now, the way I do
You can see, oh now, oh the way I do
09 Blown a Wish (03:38)
Midnight wish
Blow me a kiss
I'll blow one to you
Make like this
Try to pretend it's true
Show me all your favorite things
Show you all mine too
Make a wish
I'll give it all to you
Welcome to your promises
Welcome to mine too
Caught like this
I'll turn it in with you
Fall apart my bleeding heart
Nothing left to do
Once in love
I'll be the death of you
11 Soon (06:58)
Wake up
Don't fear
I want to
Love you
Yeah (doll of pain)
I let you get to me
Yeah yeah
Come back
Don't be
Afraid of me
Soon
That (I'll harm you)
Your eyes are blue
Blue jewels
Yeah yeah
Come back
Have faith
Someone like you
Can find the reason
Of what I did to you
Yeah yeah
Wake up
Don't fear
I want to
Love you
Yeah (doll of pain)
I let you get to me
Yeah yeah
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By jeremy
If Van Gogh had been a rocker, he would have sounded like this.
Melodies that tickle the unconscious, unlocking distant memories and unspoken desires.
By R13557436
Listening to this album is undoubtedly the greatest sensory and metaphysical experience a person can have.
Loveless is proof of the existence of the divine, a unique work that even escapes itself.
By joe strummer
"Loveless stuns with an unheard power and immediacy. Here lies the entire essence of rock. Violence and purity. Hypnosis and spontaneity."
"This album is exactly that, a huge accumulation of distortions, combined with the typically English melodic urgency and an unprecedented electronic framework."
By theJOKE
If you think an album must be immediate, concise, and catchy... then don’t judge this rare unique jewel of the world.
MBV managed to imprint transposed and metaphysical images on a musical album.
By Taxirider
"Loveless should be appreciated in its entirety, like a hallucinated and disorienting suite that gently leads us into the recesses of our minds."
"An open door to another dimension... that’s what My Bloody Valentine were."
