My Bloody Valentine Album Recommendations: "Isn't Anything"

Album Recommendations: Isn't Anything

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

My Bloody Valentine

[#] Isn't Anything (1988)

Whoa, the walls are melting! Groovy.

Reviewed January 6, 2024

I don't like the way all shoegaze records have to be compared to Loveless. Loveless is a good album! It's a very specific album—not a lot of shoegaze records aim to be as rigid and yet warped as Loveless is. Worse yet, it's caused its predecessor and successor to fall into a sort of relative obscurity. Isn't Anything is the biggest casualty in its wake, a downright groundbreaking, odd, sonically drifting and grinding affair like nothing else from 1988 that walked so Loveless could run. Rarely do you hear much of anything about it next to its pink sibling, and I consider this a travesty. In songwriting, in performance, and in lyrics—Isn't Anything laps Loveless twice over, and I will take this take to my grave, yes.

Expect My Bloody Valentine's sonic trademarks. Belinda Butcher's voice is more an instrument next to Kevin Shields' boyish, sexual crooning, and the guitars still sound more like elephants than guitars. Here's what's better about it: properly audible vocals that depict harrowing scenes of domestic abuse ("No More Sorry") and lopsided relationships ("(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream", "All I Need") as much as they do hallucinogens and orgasms ("Cupid Come"), lots of acoustic guitars ("Lose My Breath"), Colm O Ciosoig's monstrous, jackhammer drums ("Nothing Much to Lose"), and a greater interest in mixing those vacuum cleaner instrument effects with proper pop hooks. I get that Loveless was massively influential and all—for actual listening, though, Isn't Anything is far more fit to wear.