Time for the quarter-year check-in: are you still listening to m b v?
After all the fuss surrounding its shock ‘n’ bore release, when the surprise of My Bloody Valentine finally releasing a new album seemed to trick a lot of people into a state of frenzy without much thought towards the, you know, actual content of the LP.
It was as if a certain breed of music fan suddenly mutated into the One Directioners of Shoegaze.
But not a ton of people are chatting about m b v now; not in the same way they still talking about the shock Daft Punk comeback, or the shock David Bowie comeback.
m b v is still not a bad album, but its massive online buzz is starting to look exactly that: a load of buzz that suddenly appeared and then suddenly disappeared.
Now, as then, my complaint is that m b v is just not revolutionary, and certainly not worth a 20-year wait. There are tons of artists out there now pushing the boundaries via a 20-hour laptop-fiddling session, as opposed to a 20 year ponder-athon.
Transmit Bliss may not ever make an LP as good as Loveless, but then few will. However, as an example of the kind of boundary-probing that is now routine, they are de rigueur.
Who knows what Xela Zaid twelve means. It’s not important. The sounds contained within aren’t really important either, although they are quite arresting and lovely and warm all at once.
The important part is that he is an artist freed of old boundaries, producing what they want exactly how they want to and getting it out to the world. Alan McGee didn’t need to bankrupt himself to get this made. No-one did. These are sounds that will connect with a few in a unique way, and that’s what is important.