I feel like Kevin Shields right now. I’ve been putting this review off for a little over a week now, because I’ve been wanting to really process what I’ve heard. This album is so loaded with history and sound that it can be a little overwhelming. However, today I decided to sit down once more, give it an intense listen, and review it. What do I think? Basically, it’s pretty great, but it’s not nearly as world-stopping as everyone is saying it is.

There are tracks on here that, thankfully, sound quintessentially like My Bloody Valentine. The opening track, She Found Now, is an incredibly gorgeous and spacious track that is lathered in reverb and a strange kind of melancholy. It’s a song that, with the quiet vocals and loud guitars and distortion humming over them, is truly what I expected, and wanted, from the group. Keep in mind that I didn’t want Loveless 2, but rather an album that expanded upon Loveless just enough to make it sound different and more daring, but not to a degree where it would be kind of off-putting. Thankfully, Shields and the gang avoided this for the most part.

Also, the production (which Shields said was recorded without any digital elements) is absolutely lovely. Every song feels big, dark, and spacious. They just kind of permeate throughout the air and wrap you in  a beautiful haze of distortion. Since this album does sound pretty old, it’s nice that the production doesn’t do anything to try modernizing it.

Now, at first I was kind of upset about how old the album really sounded. I mean, it felt like this as an album from 1993 that we just heard for the first time. Which, after thinking for a bit, I’m pretty sure that’s actually what it is. Yeah, the album sounds old, but that’s a factor that kind of gets thrown by the wayside after a few listens (And after 1 really deep listen).

Courtesy of Pitchfork

The vocals here seem to stick out more, and play equals with the guitars on many songs, which is pretty cool. Shields whispery voice has an odd understated command to it. It’s subtle without being ignorable. It demands attention without really outright saying it.  And then the guitars also have their job, too. I mean, there’s a solo in Only Tomorrow that really takes me back in time; assuaging me with its smooth yet oddly rough sound. Plus we still have songs that waver in and out of comfortable keys (Who sees You) that always end up being really great, since this effect just works for some reason. It feels like watching a wave hit a beach and then receding back into the water. Clearly, this is an incredibly beautiful album.

Lyrics on these albums are so hard to here that they’re almost negligible. In fact, the vocals act less as a tool of poetry, and more as just another instrument in the ensemble. The vocals mesh with the rest of the group without it truly coming across as having a vocalist there.  Plus, there’s so much reverberating beauty going around that lyrics are the last thing I’m worried about.

Now, there is some experimentation here, which sounded good, but may or may not have really met the standards of some of the rest of the album. Is This and Yes is pretty, but the cheap sounding 90s synths do feel out of place and uncomfortable on this Shoegaze album. It’s also a little overlong for my taste. Yet some do work quite well. The weird organ and trickling guitars on If I Am, while at first are a bit unsettling, eventually kind of mesh. It’s totally weird and makes little sense, but it just does that.

The big thing here is the difference in sound. Loveless was also beautiful, but it had somewhat of a more intense vibe to it. m b v (aside from the more wonky In Another Way and Nothing Is) is more grounded, smoother. It takes their sound and beauty and places it in a more chill mood. This is an album that would be gorgeous for a night drive or sitting in your room at 2 in the morning intensely thinking about things. If that’s something you do. Either way. The only thing I wish would have happened was that the last 3 tracks, while they’re good, would calm down just a little. I do like the tracks on their own, but the twist of the album from the smoothness to the intensity kind of threw me off. I understand their intention of making the overarching sound spiral like that, I’m just not personally in love with it.

This album is not (yet) loveless. It’ll take a lot of time, and a lot of rehearing for it to become that. However, this album still manages to be pretty great. Other bands have left the picture and came back with a comeback album, but they left is disappointed. My Bloody Valentine went on a hiatus for 22 years, and they managed to drop a pretty great album. Now I’m just excited to see how they follow this up.

Summary: m b v is just enough of the old My Bloody Valentine sound and just enough experimentation to work; plus the absolutely gorgeous songs and sounds don’t hurt.

Choice Cuts: She Found Now, Only Tomorrow,Who Sees You, In Another Way

4/5

Stream She Found Now below. m b v is available for purchase over on their site and is streaming on their YouTube account.