Twenty-two years after the release of Loveless, we’d come to believe Jesus would come back before My Bloody Valentine. Never thought we would occasion to type these words: HERE is the new My Bloody Valentine album. Tourists and the broke can listen HERE.
INSTA-REVIEW: Opening trio of wall-of-noise tracks are stunning and deathless (and progress-less, too) but the bottom kinda falls out midway (tracks 4-6) when they peel back the wall of noise to reveal that there ain’t that much there there. But it picks up again with a pretty fucking ass-kicking three-song homestretch. “In Another Way” and especially “Nothing Is” rock harder than should be conceivable for people of their advanced age. They go supernova on the last song. It will melt your face. That’s after one listen. Repeated listens could change any or all of these opinions but I doubt it. Ignorance is bliss and triggering bliss is what MBV does best. All told, pretty sure this could tide me over for another 22 years. — JONATHAN VALANIA
UPDATE: Upon second listen “If I Am” is a keeper, but I still think “Is This And Yes” way overstays its welcome and the album would flow better if those two switched places. And “New You” is just a b-side. Still, this unfortunate business aside, let us rejoice.