TS: 'Isn't Anything' v 'Loveless'

And what about the You Made Me Realise EP? Surely thats as arguably their highpoint?

my own feeling is that MBV are at their best when they sound like they are playing "real" instruments but doing radically new things with them, rather than when they are playing samplers and sequencers. Hence my preferene for Isn't Anything.

The Glider ep is G*R*A*T*E too.

Similar feelings for me Stevo. I think there was huge anticipation for the MBV fans who closely followed the British music press throughout 89-91 and had welcomed Glider and Tremelo as manna from heaven. The whole shoegazing scene also heightened the wait for the follow-up album as MBV seemed to be namechecked in every live or record review. Hence they're was a slight initial anti-climax in November 91 when Loveless was finally in the racks with Soon and To Here Knows When on the tracklist. By early 92 however it all made sense to me.

Then I read that they played a tape of kids' voices, recorded at a playground, amongst some fo the feedback passages just to mess with our heads.

as for mbv live, i liked the way they had a flutist doing the bits that (i read somewhere) was actually sampled and reversed guitar feedback during the loveless tour.

(offtopic: the bloke who's always outside shepherd's bush tube station in the evenings was doing bob marley on a flute the other night. odd mix of things but worked nicely)

andy

There is more variety, if you like, with Isn't Anything (and a grand, awe-inspiring album it is, flat out -- and yes, I had heard that first before Loveless). But Loveless just sends everything up to a next level and stays there for me, can't put it any more simply than that.

I prefer Loveless. It was the one I heard first, and prob my favourite album ever. I found "Isn't Anything" disappointing at first, but I have since grown to Lurrrve it too. There are one or two ropey tracks on it, which are ok, but a little clumsy when compared to the dreamy majesty of Loveless (I'm particularly talking about "Cupid Come" here).

Or maybe that's because of what was going on in my life when I heard both records for the first time. But I haven't been on lithium in ten years, and Loveless to me is still the sound of lithium.

http://www.jao.com/gdead/dead01.jpg

sorry for posting that...

*barfs*

but they can learn from the dead's flights of improviastion so they can achieve true grebtnesss!

Another shoutout for the Creation-era EPs here... can't wait for the compilation that Sony is meant to eventually be putting out. Apparently there will be peel sessions n' stuff.

It's hard to pit them against one another, but I prefer the variety of isn't anything, and Soft as snow(but warm inside) reigns as my fave MBV tune--although Come In Alone is close behind.

I've only listened to it a couple of times so far. And I'm underwhelmed. But I'm thinking I'm underwhelmed because of my assumptions about what I was gonna get, which I suppose, include guitars used madly and avant-garde beauty. I thought that the point of MBV was to astonish, in a way. And what I seem to have got is an album that sounds like it was recorded on a four-track, pretty basic songs, effects used in a way I can hear done better elsewhere, and that's it.

Which could still be pretty good. I'm not making a stupid claim that MBV are shit based on the couple of times I've listened to this one record. What I'm saying is that I'd got the impresssion that the way they sounded was essentially the point. And I've heard enough to know that the sound of them isn't gonna be enough for me. Far from it. I will play this record lots more times, in the hope that these songs (which I've certainly not heard enough to judge) are great. Are they? Is that what you all love about them? If so, I'm surprised only because I had presumed that the traditional songwriting side of this band was the least of their appeal.

ahh, my youthful naivete

i just bought isn't anything and i think i like it better too!

I prefer it; it is a bit more rockingg (hahaha there's a rubric you'll seldom hear out of me) and IMO a lot sexier AND more...unsettling? I guess I use the latter word bcz of 'No More Sorry.'

For me, Isn't Anything sounds better than ever.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/my-bloody-valentine-isnt-anythingyou-made-me-realise-ep-round-9-toms-selection/

^ You're not Scik Mouthy, are you?

I can't contribute anything totally enlightening to the thread, but I will say that Isn't Anything has always been my car-driving record and Loveless has always been for my headphones. I've always felt Loveless deserved my complete attention whereas Isn't Anything can be listened to passively and still draw the same effect (the seemingly never-ending repeating bit at the end of I Only Said was something I skipped past for weeks until I decided to hunker down and deal with it... you put your mind in oblivion and, I hope I don't roll too many eyes when I say this, you are literally transported into MBV's weird, warm TV-static abyss. It's the closest thing to meditating as there is with music).

I still give a 1-up to IA for the variety, tho. If it came down to a desert-island scenario, IA just might be that fated record.

I can understand why you might think Scik Mouthy would be in a club of one, but in this case there are actually more than one of us!

The correct answer is Isn't Anything.

Tom!

I just found an original vinyl pressing of Loveless (I don't know how I accumulated such karma, but...). I'm sitting here blaring it and reading various things online about it (it's actually been a couple of years since I played it). P-fork's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s" features a hilarious defense from Br3nt D. about the decision to put it at #2, behind OK Computer, and I'd share the chuckles:

"Loveless, a masterpiece of form and noise, impresses the brain like stylized photography. Surely, it is breathtaking. It provides the senses with a romantic, heightened ideal of music, experienced through an unbreakable medium. The sound overwhelms to such an extent that multiple listens are unnecessary and taxing. OK Computer , in contrast, sounds crystalline and liveable--a true, enterable aural landscape..."

MULTIPLE LISTENS ARE UNNECESSARY AND TAXING. Good Christ.

The correct answer is Isn't Anything.

The correct answer Isn't is Anything.

That is the correct answer to a different question!

Isn't Anything by MILES

I love gravy. Really love it. A properly-made gravy, say by sloshing a glass of white wine into a pan of fried lamb juices and a spoon of flour, and then adding a spoonful of mint sauce, is absolutely the best part of a meal sometimes. As with food, with music. Gravy gravy gravy.

I probably like Loveless more, but only just.

Loveless.

Isn't Anything is fucking brilliant though... 'Lose My Breath', 'No More Sorry', 'All I Need'...

Are we going to revive every MBV thread ever started?

I am glad to see my love for "Isn't Anything" is not a solitary one.

As of this sitting, I am in the "Isn't Anything" > "mbv" > "Loveless" camp though I realize that's a very lonely camp.

Not that I've changed my mind (big surprise) but I finally give IA its formal due:

http://thequietus.com/articles/14061-my-bloody-valentine-isnt-anything-review

for years i've went back and forth between feed me with your kiss & (when you wake) you're still in a dream as the best, but now i realize the correct answer is nothing much to lose? i love the rest of the album as well, but these three are so loud and furious and melodic.

The remaster of isn't anything sounds really great, the guitars have way more "body"

Chris De Burgh meets MBV

http://nobilliards.blogspot.nl/2015/05/chris-de-burgh-flying-colours.html

(the seemingly never-ending repeating bit at the end of I Only Said was something I skipped past for weeks until I decided to hunker down and deal with it... you put your mind in oblivion and, I hope I don't roll too many eyes when I say this, you are literally transported into MBV's weird, warm TV-static abyss. It's the closest thing to meditating as there is with music).
― brodieopolari.... oh fuck it (kelpolaris), Sunday, June 5, 2011 3:51 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is perfect... sometimes why i need to change the track if i'm listening to this while driving

After three listens, I must say this ISN’T ANYTHING special!! Hyuk hyuk.

No, seriously, Loveless blows this out of the water. I finally get around to this after all these years, and my reaction is kinda “Eh”. I guess I expected better production.

Also: their early stuff really ain’t too shabby. I like the Nick Cave singer dude!

Who’d’ve thunk the first two songs on their first album would be a swingin’ jazzy good time?!?!

do any of the songs stand out to you? it's tough to compare anything to loveless, which is just monumental. but isn't anything is the one i listen to most these days.
how do you feel about about "(when you wake) you're still in a dream"?

“Feed Me with Your Kiss” has a REALLY cool main guitar riff that keeps my rhythmic head spinning. Is it in 7/4? 5/4? Too bad the vocals are so dopey.

FMWYK adds a 'dung' to the bar each time up to 9 or something.

I taught myself 'You Never Should' and that's a fun simple indie rock tune to play.

All I Need stands out as a "sonic experiment" I think. If that's the beatless one.

Isn't Anything is about 1000x better than Loveless.

Isn't Anything is better for me, but "To Here Knows When" is in my top 10 for the decade.

Some discussion in these two posts between the various members of DRC:

https://devonrecordclub.com/2011/06/05/my-bloody-valentine-isnt-anythingyou-made-me-realise-ep-round-9-toms-selection/

https://devonrecordclub.com/2015/01/16/my-bloody-valentine-loveless-round-77-nicks-choice/

never really got the fuss about loveless tbh - isn't anything 4 lyfe

You Made Me Realise EP >>> both

'All I Need' of course isn't beatless as I said above, but it is drumless apart from that heartbeat pulse.

Playing a few tracks from IA last night, the way the bass guitar only appears brifly twice in 'Several Girls Galore' also stood out.

Yeah MBV are total masters of dynamics even when it sounds like a fuzzed out wall. Cranking "To Here Knows When" is like wind chimes on a pillow inside a tsunami.
brb just reporting myself to worst music writing thread

I remember getting Isn't Anything and thought it was creepalicious. But I listened to it recently and I've changed. It's not really a period I care to revisit, so I have to vote for Loveless, because you can dance to it. But I guess I really stan for the EP's.

happy 35th to 'isn't anything'

I love Isn't Anything because it was the first music I heard that sounded wrong in a way I found so interesting that I kept listening to it until it sounded so right.

“all I need” is probably the most loveless sounding track, the glide guitar just annihilating everything in its path like it would on “to here knows when”

Also love "All I Need" but need to point out there is no glide guitar on the track, it's an acoustic sped up 4x then fed into an alesis midiverb 2 set to reverse and spx 90 set to Hall.

"There was a drum machine beat just going like a heartbeat effect. I played an acoustic guitar to it and then it's basically an Alesis Midiverb II, it's the reverse reverb program. If I ever had a secret weapon it's the Alesis and the SPX 90 and again, it's the reverse reverb program. We wanted an SPX. In the '80s in the small to midrange studios that was the kind of reverb. You wouldn't have the higher-up Yamaha things it was just like one unit. I got into it, oddly enough, reading a Bob Mould interview going, "I used reverse reverb before U2 and people like that" and I was thinking, "What is this reverse reverb?" It reverses the envelope — it creates a sort of simulated effect, you get kind of a rhythmic effect out of it if you have any transients, anything with attack, the attack comes back slightly but you wouldn't know it from listening to the record. We did was we took the whole track and put it on a tape and sped it up a few times so it's just the sound of some really high frequency thing, and that's just the track flying at four times the speed and there's not other guitars on it, no bass on it. If you can hear a tambourine then there's a tambourine. But, basically, it could've been done on an 8-track except for the fact that I just did four or five vocal tracks."
KShields

ah very cool, thx!

thank you I am here for your 1987-1988 MBV geartalk whenever necessary.

love All I need, it blew my mind first I heard in 1998!