Author: jprobichaud

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #23 My Bloody Valentine “new you”

<< #24    |    #22 >>

For many years, there was nothing but rumours, conjectures, and blind hope, and eventually, all that gave way to eye-rolling and running jokes.

Nevertheless, in 2013, Kevin Shields finally made good on his long-standing promise to follow up 1991’s “Loveless” and he did so in astonishing fashion. I fully admit to getting caught up in all the hoopla on February 2nd, 2013, when Shields had the Internet a-buzz with his announcement that a new My Bloody Valentine album would be made available for purchase from his website that very night. I think I remember reading somewhere that for most of that year’s Super Bowl weekend, “MBV” (or sorry “m b v”) was trending higher on Twitter than that hallowed sporting event.

But how was the album? Did it stand up to “Loveless”?

To be honest, I was in a slightly different situation than other music fanatics my age because I didn’t feel like I had waited the whole 22 years for “m b v”. Though I was aware of My Bloody Valentine at “Loveless”‘s release and liked a few songs at the time, I didn’t become a fan until much later and so my expectations weren’t as insurmountable. Personally, I liked “m b v” from the start. Yes, much of it sounded like it was recorded 22 years before, along with the sessions of its predecessor (except with better production), but for me, there were subtle differences and hints throughout at the direction Shields and company could have been looking to take should they have continued to make music.

Indeed, “m b v” was exceptional because it did something no other album had been able to do: stand up to the brilliance of “Loveless” and not flinch. I don’t think it could have been released at any other time than 2013. I don’t think we were collectively ready to be able to appreciate it as an album for its own beauty until then.

All that being said, “new you” was and still is my favourite track on the album and the one I point to whenever the album comes up in conversation. A double barrelled shotgun of plodding bass and funky drumming, looping guitars that soar and dive, and Blinda Butcher’s ghostly vocals. It is a song in constant climax – no ups, no downs – just pure joy as noise consummated. It is My Bloody Valentine and it is good.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Pale Blue Eyes “This house”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Pale Blue Eyes
Album Title: This house
Year released: 2023
Details: clear

The skinny: From the ‘in case you missed it’ files, I’ll be replaying my top five albums from 2023, albeit in a ‘vinyl love’ format, over the next few weeks; partially because I love these albums and partially because I have them all on vinyl and want to show off their physical beauty as well. My number five album of 2023 came courtesy of a band I hadn’t even heard of at the beginning of last year. Pale Blue Eyes is a trio that until recently hailed from South Devon, England, and formed just before the start of this pandemic madness. “This house” is the group’s sophomore record and as I wrote about it before: “It is 44 minutes of transporting music, songs that stick to your bones and seep into your skin, and make you want to live in the music and let it delay what comes next just a little while longer.” It also happens to be the last of this top five that I purchased for my shelves, ordered from the online shop of one of my trusted UK record vendors just back in November. It’s the standard clear pressing but you’ll hear no complaints from me on that count.

Standout track: “Simmering”

 

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #15 Camera Obscura “Suspended from class”

<< #16    |    #14 >>

Well here we are, four days into the new year: 2024. New years bring new hopes and positivity and of course, the promise of new music. Of all the new albums that are hotly anticipated, the long awaited return of Glasgow, Scotland’s Camera Obscura is one of those that will be the most welcome in my books. They had originally hinted at a full return back in 2019, after a hiatus that began with the death of their long-time keyboardist, Carey Lander, in 2015, but then the pandemic pushed things back a few years.

So it’s almost too perfect that this song should come up in my Best tunes of 2003 list, given that Camera Obscura’s sophomore record, “Underachievers please try harder”, was my introduction to band and still one of my favourites of their works. I had picked this one up after reading comparisons to and affiliations with Belle & Sebastian, another Scottish group with whom I was already a fan. And I found myself really digging the twee-heavy indie pop, especially of those sung by Tracyanne Campbell, who would eventually take over all vocal duties with the departure of founding member John Henderson after this album.

“Suspended from class” is the opening number on said album and a perfect mood-setter. It’s a jangly and peppy piece of sunshine pop but if you listen closer and on repeat listens, you’ll realize that there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

“I should be suspended from class
I don’t know my elbow from my arse”

This couplet is more than just a cheeky turn of phrase. It is a play upon words and hearkens back to a time when being “suspended” was the worst thing possible that we could think of to happen to us. It is the punishment for stepping out of line, for doing something that doesn’t follow the heavily regimented rules of the educational system. And here, it is a metaphorical kick in the pants for crossing the friend zone boundary, for taking a chance at something more, and being shrunk back down to size when those feelings go unreciprocated. The morning after, that eternal and timeless moment when regrets are enlarged to colossal catastrophes, tear-soaked pillows and mascara smears are all spelled out in Campbell’s delicate vocals and are felt in each tug on the guitar strings and accentuated by horn flourishes.

This is the kind of thing we’ve been missing for these last eight years. Such great storytelling and musicianship.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.