Saturday, November 28, 2009

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything

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I often wonder and even people at Bionics wonder, how is it that I enjoy Slowdive before My Bloody Valentine? My Bloody Valentine are definitely up there is the Shoegaze department. They remain as one of the biggest Shoegaze bands in one of the shortest lived scenes ever to exist. With the shoegaze genre beginning to grow once more with bands such as Panda Riot, Swoon, Ride, Autolux, and hell, Silversun Pickups can fall into that category, one can't forget the pioneers.

Isn't Anything is very different from their Loveless album. The first song has you thinking of everything but Shoegaze. The fuzziness isn't prominent and is instead pushed to the back. Drum are far higher in the mix and vocals actually have a chance of being heard and deciphered. The clear production disables the brightness in a sonic sea of distortion. Everything is so prominent and clear that the music is handed to you on a silver platter rather than having to analyze the song.

It isn't a bad album, but it isn't really shoegaze, there are moments in which distortion is heavily used, but as soon as it ends you may think it's a different band. Small moments of Shoegaze at times define a song but overall the album lacks what I loved in shoegaze, the necessity of critical thinking.

5.5/10

It Really Isn't Anything

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