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Isn't Anything

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 190.157.238.103 (talk) at 19:11, 13 July 2011 (i corrected a little mistake i did, and, as i stated on my original change, this is credited for kickstarting the shoegaze movement, so it's better to name it like that than "alt rock"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

Isn't Anything is the debut full-length studio album by My Bloody Valentine, released in November 1988 on Creation Records after three years of issuing extended plays, singles, and mini-LPs.

Background

After the band's original vocalist Dave Conway left in 1987, to be replaced by Bilinda Butcher, the band continued for a while in their previous noisy indie-pop style before Kevin Shields returned to their avant-garde roots, and began to explore the possibilities offered by the studio facilities available after signing to Creation Records in 1988.[1] The first fruits of this experimentation was the single/EP You Made Me Realise, released in July 1988, with Isn't Anything following later that year.[2] Most of the album was recorded in a studio in Wales.[3] While recording the album over a period of two weeks, the band got by on about two hours sleep a night.[1][2] Bilinda Butcher described the effect of this on her vocals: "Often, when we do the vocals, it's 7:30 in the morning: I've usually fallen asleep and have to be woken up to sing. Maybe that's why it's languorous. I'm usually trying to remember what I've been dreaming about when I'm singing."[2]

Style

Dave Thompson, in his book Alternative Rock, described the album's sound as "dry ice-piercingly intense guitar drones and hefty nods to miasmic hardcore soup, oozing a contrary trance-spun drone. Noise becomes beauty as feedback is layered over vocals over feedback ad infinitum".[4] "Several Girls Galore" has been described as "a cubist take on the Jesus and Mary Chain".[1]

The album proved to be a major influence on many bands that would subsequently be described as "shoegazing".[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[5]
Entertainment Weekly(A)[6]
The Quietus(favourable)[7]

The album met with positive reviews on its release and has subsequently become regarded by many as one of the greatest albums of all time, being included in The Guardian's 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die,[8] The Irish Times' list of The top 40 Irish albums (#24),[9] and The Guardian's Alternative top 100 albums ever (#16).[10] It was selected by Pitchfork Media staff as one of the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s (#22),[11] UNCUT writer David Stubbs called Isn't Anything "one of the most important, influential British rock albums of the Eighties".[1]

UNCUT writer Stephen Troussé said of the album on its reissue in 2008: "In rock algebra you might deduce that they'd worked out some new equation involving the barbed languor of the Mary Chain, the speedfreak urgency of Sonic Youth, and a dash of the Vaselines' sauce - but none of that accounts for the savagely sensual results".[12]

Chart history

The album spent seventeen weeks on the UK Independent Chart, topping the chart in December 1988.[13]

Release history

The album was initially released in the UK in November 1988 by Creation Records on LP, CD, and cassette format, with an initial limited edition of the LP format including a bonus 7-inch single featuring two instrumental tracks.[14] The album was released on the Relativity label in the US. The album was reissued on CD in 1993 by Warners, and again in 2001.[14] It was reissued in remastered form in June 2008,[15] and it was first made fully available as a digital download in August that year.[16]

Track listing

All songs written by Kevin Shields, unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Soft as Snow (but Warm Inside)" (Shields, Colm Ó Cíosóig) – 2:21
  2. "Lose My Breath" (Bilinda Butcher, Shields) – 3:37
  3. "Cupid Come" (Butcher, Shields) – 4:27
  4. "(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream" (O'Ciosoig, Shields) – 3:16
  5. "No More Sorry" (Butcher, Shields) – 2:48
  6. "All I Need" – 3:04
  7. "Feed Me with Your Kiss" – 3:54
  8. "Sueisfine" (Shields, O'Ciosoig) – 2:12
  9. "Several Girls Galore" (Butcher, Shields) – 2:21
  10. "You Never Should" – 3:21
  11. "Nothing Much to Lose" – 3:16
  12. "I Can See It (but I Can't Feel It)" – 3:10

The initial vinyl LP copies came with a free bonus 7" which was packaged in a plain white sleeve. The songs on it were both titled "Instrumental". The A-side lasted 3:19 and the B-side 4:36, the latter featuring a Public Enemy drum loop (from "Security of the First World").[17]

Personnel

References

  1. ^ a b c d Stubbs, David (1999) "Sweetheart Attack: My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything is the Eighties rock album", UNCUT, February 1999
  2. ^ a b c d Reynolds, Simon (2008) "It's the Opposite of Rock 'n' Roll", SPIN, August 2008, p.78-84
  3. ^ Blashill, Paul (1989) "My Waking Dream", SPIN, May 1989, p. 12, retrieved 2010-04-25
  4. ^ Thompson, Dave (2000) Alternative Rock, Miller Freeman, ISBN 0-87930-607-6, p. 512
  5. ^ Phares, Heather "Isn't Anything Review", Allmusic, retrieved 2010-04-25
  6. ^ Entertainment Weekly, August 1993, p. 55
  7. ^ Parkes, Taylor (2008) "My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything, Loveless reissues", The Quietus, 10 June 2008, retrieved 2010-04-25
  8. ^ "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die: Volume 4", The Guardian, 21 November 2007, p. 3
  9. ^ "The top 40 Irish albums", Irish Times, 29 February 2008, p. 4
  10. ^ "Alternative top 100 albums ever", The Guardian, 29 January 1999
  11. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s", Pitchfork Media, 20 November 2002, retrieved 2010-04-25
  12. ^ Troussé, Stephen (2008) "MY BLOODY VALENTINE REISSUES SPECIAL- ISN'T ANYTHING/LOVELESS/THE CORAL SEA", UNCUT, retrieved 2010-04-25
  13. ^ Lazell, Barry (1998) Indie Hits 1980-1989, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-95172-069-4, p. 155
  14. ^ a b Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p.884
  15. ^ "My Bloody Valentine to remaster classic albums", NME, 15 May 2008, retrieved 2010-04-25
  16. ^ "My Bloody Valentine albums go digital", Reuters, 26 August 2008, retrieved 2010-04-25
  17. ^ "My Bloody Valentine's Instrumental B sample of Public Enemy's Security of the First World", WhoSampled, 2010, retrieved 2011-04-12


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