My Bloody Valentine To Release "New" Album This Year

Download: My Bloody Valentine - "Only Shallow"
Download: My Bloody Valentine - "Loomer"
Download: My Bloody Valentine - "Never Say Goodbye"
Download: My Bloody Valentine - "The Things I Miss"
Download: My Bloody Valentine - "Glider"
Download: My Bloody Valentine - "Off Your Face"
Download: My Bloody Valentine- "Come In Alone"


Check it out at the Daily Swarm. In sum, My Bloody Valentine are back together and may release an album as early as this year.

These are the two key quotes from the piece (well, one would be a quote of a quote in this case). First, from Kevin Shields himself, in an video interview that's due to air Monday on Soft Focus (which is quoted in the TDS piece):

We were making a record in the 90s, around when the band broke up in 1995…and I continued with Belinda. We kinda made we made most of an album….It’s going to be this ‘96/‘97 record half-finished record finished, and then a compilation of stuff we did before that in 1993–94, and a little bit of new stuff.

I pretty much know what the one that’s going to come out this year is going to sound like because its already pretty much 3/4’s done already…it sounds like what we sounded like – different but not radically different. People will go, “Yeah, it sounds like My Bloody Valentine.”

So the first "new" record isn't really new, per se. Having said that, I don't think there's a single soul on the planet who doesn't want to hear this material.

The second key quote comes from the TDS piece itself:

While Shields claims a My Bloody Valentine album is due this year, he gives no indication of exactly when or how it will be released. When the group split up in 1995 they had already left Creation Records and signed a legendarily ill-fated deal with Island, but it is unlikely that the contract remains in effect after all this time. The band recently activated (the official MBV website) and Shields’ manager confirmed the the site is being built by Debbie Goodge, the band’s bass player. It is possible that the album will see an independent, Internet-only, Radiohead style release, and a release date could be announced at any time.

As for My Bloody Valentine’s return to the stage and possible appearance at Coachella 2008, we have no new news to report (the subject does not come up in the Soft Focus interview). According to sources close to the band and the festival, discussions are ongoing and no final decisions have yet been made.

So there you have it. It would seem to me that any material by MBV - whether its "new" or new - would be analogous to Dinosaur Jr's reunion album Beyond, which was released earlier this year. That is, the record would find the band picking up where they left off, as if there had been no delay, break-up or hiatus at all, and expertly continuing their sound. In other words, well-received, but not groundbreaking. But really, how could it be? Loveless, like all genre-defining masterpieces, is both timeless classic and huge albatross. The best thing the band could do is pretend 1995-2007 never happened.

One last quote, from a typically restrained Pitchfork:

So what did we learn today? That My Bloody Valentine are indeed back together in some configuration or another. That they've recorded new material. That they have at least two releases on the way, one of which may very well come out this year. And, last but not least, that Loveless has a follow-up and IT WILL SOON TOUCH THE EARS OF HUMANKIND.

Wooooooooooooo!

(Jonathan Graef)