m b v

This album is certainly very good, but moreso at the beginning and end. The middle is a bit less interesting to me. But overall it's nice while it's on. 3.5/5 -> 4/5

Not my favorite album on the list by far, but I'm surprised by just how negative a lot of the reviews are. It's perfectly fine background music.

I thought it was alright, but nothing stood out to me.

Ох щось мені прям зовсім не зайшло. Та і загалом я розлюбив шугейз, якщо чесно.

I remember when I first listened to this and I was pretty disappointed by it. Coming off of Loveless it's much more lethargic and relaxed, while also bearing in mind that this was the follow-up (a whopping 20 years later) so everyone was expecting something a little more. Being disappointed by this album is probably something all MBV fans go through (especially those waiting two decades for them to finish the album lol) but it seems to be a bit more respected nowadays, including by myself, and in hindsight I think this was the right direction to take. Loveless was a revolutionary album, any act following an album with that level of esteem is in for a tough time, and doing something too similar to it would come across as Loveless but worse rather than something that can stand the test of time in its own right. Not to say that this album deviates too much from the Loveless formula, the wall of fuzz is still a prominent hold over from the Loveless days (comparing to Isn't Anything) and a lot of the songs do sound like Loveless but more laid back.

I don't like it quite as much as the first two records, but I think a lot of that is down to me hearing those albums first and not having heard anything like them before, at this point their sound is well established and no longer groundbreaking, but they're still good songwriters. The best word to describe this album is "unremarkable", but I mean that positively.

Oh golly. I’ve been listening to a lot of shoegaze on my own time lately, so it’s probably a good time to get this as homework. I wasn’t blown away, but it sounded surprisingly relevant and modern for a band who’s been doing it since the 80s and took 15 years to record this (12 years ago). Maybe shoegaze is one of those genres that just - nah, nevermind, I’ve listened to plenty of older shoegaze records that don’t stand up anymore. Listen, good on them for nailing this. I wish more songs had defined percussive guitar melodies like “only tomorrow”, without things like that shoegaze starts to kinda run together a bit.

Like I said, not blown away but if someone told me MBV was their favorite band, I don’t think I’d judge them too much.

The music might be interesting, but the many layers of thick, murky fuzz ensure that the final product is nothing more than tolerable.

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a My Bloody Valentine album before. Going in, I was half-expecting depressed-teenager / emo vibes, so I pressed play on mbv with an open mind.

This can be summed up very simply: listening to this album was a miserable experience. The vocals are buried to the point of being unintelligible, the sound is endlessly droney, and nothing ever really goes anywhere. It feels shapeless and joyless, like a wall of grey noise with no hook, no tune, and no payoff. I get that this is “the point” for some people, but for me it was truly dreadful.

Favourite tracks: I honestly couldn’t pick one. Every track blurs into the next, like indistinct mumbling background noise that offers absolutely nothing.

Least favourite tracks: She Found Now, Is This and Yes – some of the most boring, aimless tracks I’ve ever had the misfortune of sitting through.

Album artwork: Really cool cover. Easily the best thing about the album.

So this is shoegaze! So much reverb.
I did like some songs but I wasted my time listening to “nothing is”, which is literally just the same section repeated for 3 whole minutes. That turned me off from the rest of the listening experience. (2.5-3)

Irritating like a short blanket.

I almost enjoyed the few moments of this album that sounded like music.

Mbv really captures the most dreamy parts of the My Bloody Valentine sound.
Only Tomorrow captures the most interesting guitar sound-scapes on the whole album, and the last three songs are really cool too. But the middle few are just fine. The dreamy stuff here sounds pretty similar, but it is enjoyable. Even though this isn't Loveless, it is cool, and MBV experiments with their sounds in really cool ways. Overall, this is not a bad last album of the year. Happy New Year, let's enjoy more albums

Ok but not as good as original. Ashlee and the girls hated it.

1.11

An aweful lot of noise, with nothing else that would really make this enjoyable to listen to.

Seems like endless experimental guitar fuzz. Hard to locate an actual song anywhere on this one.

Just another ex-1001 album!™
http://1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie.wikidot.com/album-artists-a-z-ex

Such miserable tripe! Cliché shoegaze.
We get it, they found the distortion pedal and couldn't figure out how to give it a rest.

I thought i liked shoe-gaze....maybe i dont.

I always thought MBV was an emo band before hearing a single song of theirs.
This is a lot of droney guitar distortion. I'm in a small music club in Portland.
Anyway, it's fine, not for me, not sure why it's here. 2*

W/ not a whole lot to hold onto, m b v gets its power from the band's honed and oceanic guitarwork: its vague and muddled sound yet displays a true-to-life vastness, an atmosphere of droning as well as drowning. The group, like Spiritualized, has always been impressively dedicated to the production of their craft, and I admire their ability to engender a music that feels nearly impossible to make, but shoegaze is, by definition, a genre dangerously at risk of ethereal stagnation, and on their third record, the band by all means stagnates. I say 'by all means' b/c they do it well, and I could get down w/ its most songy tracks like 'new you,' but m b v is no Loveless. It's honestly lifeless and, at the end of the day, kinda bad for you. Bad meaning good?