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

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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.

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Best tunes of 2013: #24 Steve Mason “Oh my Lord”

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My maxim for a number of years now has been “So much music, so little time.” As focused as I’ve been over the last couple of decades on keeping on top of the best music available, rather than settling in on the heap of proven music already in my collection, I often find myself behind and missing out on some great releases. Just as an example, I have a running playlist for which I post a part every quarter year, that includes songs from some of my favourite releases for those three months, but inevitably I discover a song or album or EP after the fact that I could have easily included.

Steve Mason’s brilliant sophomore solo album, “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, was one of those albums that I originally missed out on when it was originally released in March 2013. I came upon it months later, kicked myself after listening to it and catching interest mere moments after the spoken word intro faded into the reverberating and haunting “Lie awake”. And even now, I often lose sight of how compelling of a listen it is, until I come around to it again. Thank goodness I have these lists that I create that force me to go back and revisit all the music I’ve loved over the years.

…But I am digressing…

In the decade that passed after Steve Mason abdicated his post as frontman of indie buzz group, The Beta Band, he suffered bouts of poverty and depression, released a variety of material under multiple pseudonyms, and most importantly, seemingly rediscovered his joy for writing new music. And thank goodness for such small mercies. “Oh my lord”, the first proper single off of “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, appeals to my penchant and weakness for a good groove. The piano lays a jaunty riff and the drum beat jives easily with the laid back bass line while Mason leaves it all laid bare, a soulful turn on vocals. It just bleeds old-school psychedelic blues rock, à la Primal Scream’s “Give out but don’t give up”, but with more sincerity.

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

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Best tunes of 2003: #19 The Clientele “Porcelain”

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London-based indie pop band The Clientele have appeared on these pages a few times already. A couple of their albums have appeared high up on the Best Albums lists for the years in which they were released (see here and here) and in their first appearance with “Rain” off their debut release in 2000, I talked a little bit about my introduction with the band. This came in 2003 with the release of their sophomore album and first proper studio album*, “The violet hour”.

I remember being in constant discussion with Jez, my friend and colleague at the time, about the bands we were discovering during our shared favourite post-work activity: trawling the Internet for new and exciting bands. I’m not sure which of us happened upon this particular album first but we were both enamoured with it right off the bat and I’m sure that our other colleagues must have tired of us raving about it. It almost became a running joke to bring them up at least once a conversation.

I’ve been following the group ever since, through the various lineup changes and hiatuses, and though each of their albums have been special, “The violet hour” is still my favourite. It is a collection of tracks that sounded like nothing else at the time and at the same time hinted at music from a bygone era. Track eight was this mellow but peppy number called “Porcelain”. It shared the feel and environment of the rest of the whole, like dewdrops glistening in the bright morning sunlight and gauzy curtains billowing in the warm summer wind. Like the echo of a half-remembered dream. MacLean whispers and croons his la-la-las and the guitars and drums and even that wicked bass line that pops its head in for munchies, they’re all sopping wet with reverb. And the words are not a narrative as much as they are an oil painting.

“Sunlight on the empty house and sunlight on the fields
The cul-de-sac, the law, the tracks, the lane
But the world is porcelain
Yes, the world is porcelain”

Incidentally, “The violet hour” is the only one of The Clientele’s albums that I still don’t have a copy of on my vinyl shelves but this is only because it hasn’t yet been reissued. I was beginning to think I’d never have a copy because I’d heard that the master recordings were lost but I am pretty sure that frontman Alasdair MacLean has since announced that they were found. So far there’s been no reissues announced but perhaps this year for it’s 20th anniversary? One can hope.

*Given that “Suburban light” was more of a compilation of early singles and b-sides, much like Lush’s “Gala” ten or so years earlier.

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