Listening in to the music scene of the mid ‘80s was not always a very happy experience. What we had in the charts was:
- Former post-punkers who’d sold out (if they’d ever really sold in), e.g. Feargal Sharkey, Annie Lennox, Sting
- Cul-de-sacs, e.g. Harold Faltmeyer, Paul Hardcastle
- Ageing Stalwarts: Phil Collins, Mick Hucknall, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, etc etc
- Female songstresses, Elaine Page, Jennifer Rush, Whitney Houston …
- Madonna and Prince in their prime
At the margins, things weren’t that interesting. Public Enemy were emerging, sure. The Smiths, REM, The Fall, New Order, the Bunnymen, the Jesus and Mary Chain and The Go-Betweens were on top. C86 created what we now know as indie.
But what is this shy species over here? Like the proto-humans on the African plain, scavenging for the marrow of dead wildebeest after the apex carnivores had had their fill, one band, barely noticed at first, was emerging blinking into the noonday mid-decade sunshine with a generic sound and little to distinguish them.
My Bloody Valentine.
But you never can tell.
Just as no one could have seen the journey from Warsaw to Atmosphere and from Atmosphere to Blue Monday, nor was anyone quite ready for You Made Me Realise and Feed Me With Your Kiss in 1988. Then the game changing album, Isn’t Anything. And then in 1991, 19 studios, 47 engineers and one bankrupt record label later …
Loveless.
It is, when all’s said and done, just an album. And yet. The last track on this show is from Alvvays in 2017 and sure ‘nough (‘n’ yes I do), there’s that signature Loveless sound. The soaring blur, the wall of attrition, the delicate vocals. It’s the blueprint (and like all blueprints not all the facsimiles have helped further the cause).
I’ve chosen here a few which I think are fine in their own right. Robust children of the Loveless mother or, like say, Mogwai and the Boo Radleys, imprinting their own stamp on proceedings. Enjoy the experience of lullabies over jet planes.
Tracklist:
Only shallow, My Bloody Valentine
Winona, Drop Nineteens
Lazarus, The Boo Radleys
Alison, Slowdive
Sometimes, My Bloody Valentine
Crasher, Astrobite
Glasgow Mega-Snake, Mogwai
Last rites, Swervedriver
When you sleep, My Bloody Valentine
Stare at the sun, Ringo Deathstarr
Blaster, Pinkshinyultrablast
In undertow, Alvvays
Blown a wish, My Bloody Valentine