Isn't Anything

Labels

• Creation Records (UK)
• Relativity Records ( USA)

Occupation

E- Guitar, Vocals: Kevin Shields, E- Guitar, Vocals: Bilinda Butcher, Bass Guitar: Debbie Googe, Drums: Colm Ó Cíosólg

Is not Anything is the debut album by the Irish shoegazing band My Bloody Valentine. It was released in November 1989 on Creation Records, after the band for three years only Extended Plays, singles and mini - albums were released.

Genesis

After the original singer of the band, Dave Conway, 1987 left the band, he was replaced by Bilinda Butcher. So the band went a long time continue with their noise- pop -like style, to Kevin Shields took the band back to more experimental way. The band found out what happened to the recording techniques was possible when they signed in 1988 with Creation Records record deal. The first fruits of this experiment were found on the single / EP You Made Me Realise from July 1988 until not Anything was followed later in the fall. The bulk of the album was recorded in a studio in Wales. When the album was recorded in a short period of two weeks, the band per night only slept about two hours. Bilinda Butcher described the effect of this lack of sleep on her singing:

"It was often half past seven in the morning when we took up the chant. Since I was mostly asleep and had to be awakened to sing. Maybe that's why it sounds so sleepy. I usually try to remember my dreams when I sing. "

These extreme production conditions were exacerbated still the sophomore album of the band, the Shoegazing Milestone Loveless in 1991.

Style

The album contains elements of the Ethereal ( " Lose My Breath", "No More Sorry" and "All I Need" ), noise -rock- like guitar songs ( " ( When You Wake ) You're Still In A Dream ", " Feed me with Your Kiss, "" You Never Should " ) and Dream pop tunes ( " Several Girls Galore "," Sueisfine "). Dave Thompson described in his book Alternative Rock sound of the album as "like dry cutting, intense guitar drones and vehement nodding in a contagious Hardcore soup, which leads to a contradictory trance- entsponnenen feeling. Noise is beauty because the Feedback is laid over the song and then back via the feedback ad infinitum. " The song " Several Girls Galore " was described as " cubist experiment à la The Jesus and Mary Chain ".

The album became a major influence for many bands that would be later described as shoegazing.

Reception

The album was well received at the beginning and has since blossomed for many critics one of the best albums of all time. So it listed in The Guardian 's list 1000 album to Hear Before You on The. The List The top 40 Irish albums of the Irish Times placed the album at # 24, and it finished the Guardian also ranked # 16 on the list of " alternative top 100 albums ever". Pitchfork Media chose the album as one of the " Top 100 Albums of the 1980s " ( ranked # 22) The UNCUT -author David Stubbs called "Is not Anything" "one of the most important, most influential British rock albums of the eighties ".

UNCUT -author Stephen TROUSSE said at the re-release of the album (2008): "If there were rock - algebra, you could say [ My Bloody Valentine ] have a new formula worked out, including the mischievous dullness of Mary Chain, the speed- crazy urgency of Sonic Youth and even a dollop of the Vaselines sauce. But none of this is the wild, wistful result. "

Title list

All songs were - unless otherwise stated - written by Kevin Shields.