m b v
| My Bloody Valentine
m b v
m b v is the third studio album by rock band My Bloody Valentine, self-released on 2 February 2013. Produced by the band's vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields, m b v was the band's first full-length release of original material since Loveless (1991). Part of the album was recorded prior to My Bloody Valentine's breakup in 1997. Additional recording took place prior to the band's reunion in 2007. m b v received critical acclaim. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
What My Bloody Valentine have done is take the precise toolkit of Loveless and made another album with it, one that is stranger and darker and even harder to pin down.
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Consequence of Sound
m b v creates a new timeline for My Bloody Valentine, and one that recalls the past in a broader and bolder light. They’re better for it, their catalog is stronger for it, and by album’s end, they’re still the best at swirling guitars.
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Paste Magazine
My Bloody Valentine successfully followed up a decades-old classic with m b v, an album that stands as confidently, beautifully and masterfully composed as its predecessor.
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Billboard
While the album contains fewer surprises than we might have hoped, there are enough new ideas here to tide us over for a while -- just hopefully not for another 21 years.
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The A.V. Club
MBV stands as something potentially timeless—and immediately breathtaking.
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Rolling Stone
MBV is music that rewards close listening, music that takes its time to give up its secrets. And the way Shields works, the world will have plenty of time to absorb MBV before the next chapter.
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The Guardian
The songs on m b v . . . are more melodically complex, intriguing and often pleasing than anything [Shields] has written before.
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Slant Magazine
m b v is the innovation and sonic warmth of My Bloody Valentine rekindled and made anew.
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SPIN
m b v seems like both the “logical next step” after Loveless (as if bands were subject to teleological pressures) and utterly contemporary.
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Live for Live Music
My Bloody Valentine, a band that has no bad songs, have proved to be worth the wait with ‘m b v’.
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NBHAP
It doesn’t want to compete, it doesn’t want to be anything, it just exists and creates its own world by denying everything else.
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Independent
As before, it's a woozy, deceptively desultory experience, with all sonic elements – and the dreamy murmur-whispers of Bilinda Butcher.
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Drowned in Sound
The album means nothing more than this: there are three My Bloody Valentine albums. And they’re all just peachy.
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Pretty Much Amazing
After 22 years, Kevin Shields has lost neither his aural curiosity nor his innate musical genius.
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NME
Let’s just say that if great albums are never finished, only released, we’re thankful Kevin Shields finally saw fit to let this one go.
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The Current
Layers pile on into a thunderous, chaotic musical landscape, and then it all abruptly stops.
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Our Vinyl
If you enjoy ‘Loveless’ then you owe it to yourself to listen to this one too as it has plenty to offer. Welcome back, My Bloody Valentine. You were missed and we can’t wait for the next release.
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Music OMH
The legend behind m b v, as well as its songs, have created something many will talk about for much longer than it’s taken to arrive.
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BBC Music
Two-decades 'overdue' it might be, but this is an astounding return.
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The Quietus
I'm happy with it. Not bowled over, not sent to another dimension, not stopped in my tracks. But I didn't want to be, not now.
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Premier Guitar
MBV makes songs, and here they float outside of time, high above the surly murmurs and stirrings of the zeitgeist.
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Pop Matters
Once the dust settles, we’ll probably all see m b v in much the same light, as a laudable re-flexing of musical muscle, a warm-up of old routines that reminded everyone of what was so appealing about this gang of shoegazers in the first place.
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Sputnik Music
Make no mistake about it: this album is that rare thing – an actual instance where an unbelievably long gestation period has not resulted in an album being noticeably reduced in quality.
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Velocities in Music
While this album contains only seven actual tracks (two are transitional), each track is absolutely overflowing with ideas and colorful musical textures.
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Northern Transmissions
The sound is eerily familiar but still offers us an interesting update to a band we almost forgot about.
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All Music
My Bloody Valentine are one of a kind; the subtlety to their melodies, instrumentation, and the way they blur together belongs to them alone.
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Smells Like Infinite Sadness
We’ll never get to shoegaze like it’s 1991, but it still sounds pretty damn great on 2013.
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The Fire Note
It seems with m v b that the veteran status of My Blood Valentine is secured. As their combining sounds of old and new manage to make m v b a pretty interesting noise cocoon.
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Timeout
‘m b v’ is a brilliant record – every bit as dreamily turbulent as you’d hope – but it’s not simply a sequel.
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Music Feeds
I’m going to say this album by MBV is a dead-set winner, but to gain commercial success out of the inner music circle is something that these guys are definitely not going to achieve. But hey, that might be something that they don’t want to accomplish.
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Secret Meeting
m b v is an album that has to be regarded as a singular entity.
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Puluche
Their newest, m b v, might not be the game changer that Loveless was, but it is a brilliant album that requires a devoted intimacy with the listener.
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Exclaim!
My Bloody Valentine are still the band everyone's talking about, and although it may not necessarily build on Loveless, there's no audible reason m b v shouldn't be spoken of in the same hushed, venerating tones.
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The National Student
A band that changed music in the 90s has yet again shown their worth not only as a band, but as an entity and an influence to all that follow.
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Treble Zine
Each song on mbv contains a piece of the My Bloody Valentine that listeners should come to recognize, but as the album progresses, an even larger piece seems to get chipped away. But that kernel remains, and its metamorphosis and outgrowth is one of the most exciting things to happen in music this year, or even this decade.
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The Skinny
m b v isn't so much a successor to Loveless; it’s heavier, less immediate, and by the third listen sounds like nothing less than a triumph for Shields.
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Tiny Mix Tapes
Disdain or starry-eyed worship. I honestly feel a little of both, and I’m not sad or troubled by that at all.
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Orlando Weekly
Reawakened affection for My Bloody Valentine's signature sound.
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Readbuzz
Loveless was released before I was even born, and I know I’m not alone in saying that in one way or another, I’ve been waiting a lifetime for m b v.
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Golden Plec
If ‘Loveless’ was a giant leap forward for music, then ‘m b v’ takes another few steps, and should be treasured and admired as much as its predecessor.
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Scott's Spectacular Song Selections
m b v is a fantastic album and you should listen to it right away. You won’t be disappointed, unless you happen to hate lush, beautiful textures.
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The Line of Best Fit
Shards of sounds that we can retreat from only by returning to somewhere more familiar as this sonic excursion fitfully concludes.
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NZ Herald
Best you grab your headphones, plug them in, turn it up, and have your own private My Bloody Valentine concert in your head, then.
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The AU Review
It’s still a very pleasing album, but unlikely to make an indelible mark across this decade as the earthquake that was Loveless did in its time. Nor need it be: last century they created a genre. This time around they’re exploring that creation.
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Everything's Gone Green
I’m struggling to see what others see, and it feels – as with Loveless – a little bit like I’ve been excluded from someone’s special secret.
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Savage Henry Magazine
“My Bloody best band ever in the history of the universe” is more like it.
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Contact Music
Inevitably with such a diverse palette the cohesion of "Loveless" is forsaken, but "mbv" is all the better for it. It is not necessarily a stronger record than "Loveless", but it is certainly better than what "Loveless Mk II" would have been.
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The Scotsman
Only My Bloody Valentine sound like My Bloody Valentine and mbv is resounding confirmation of that at the very least.
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Heavy and Weird
MBV never reaches the heights of Loveless or Isn’t Anything, but hearing anything new from them after so long is a joy in itself.
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Beats Per Minute
In a time when indie comebacks are a dime a dozen, m b v is the proverbial unicorn.
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The Edge SUSU
The result is quite an extraordinary piece of music that builds up to the only logical conclusion the album has at this point, in that it leaves itself incredibly open ended. Go listen to this album, now.
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Collapse Board
Suffice to say that MBV still have some new tricks. I can’t fucking wait to see what they do next.
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Peter Hinson
m b v is not the landmark that Loveless was even if its arrival was greeted with a much bigger fanfare. It’s more of a resumption of My Bloody Valentine than a reinvention, and that definitely isn’t a bad thing.
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Diffuser
That's where 'm b v' succeeds: in its limitations. Shields was never going to make a better album than 'Loveless' -- you can't out-perfect perfection -- so he made a different one, a weirder one, a more human one. It's still masterfully assembled, but it sounds like it was done so in a burst of inspiration.
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Beat Magazine
When it all comes together to form a record on par with the band’s highly original and influential efforts from the '90s, you can excuse them for not being cutting edge.
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The Charlatan
MBV is a welcome addition to the band’s discography.
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Louder Than War
This is a collision of the strident beat, some truly mind melting guitar parts and a spectral vocal of sheer breathy beauty.
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Keep Albany Boring
If you are a fan of My Bloody Valentine or any of the shoegaze bands they have influenced, I highly recommend this album to you.
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Los Angeles Times
The wait is finally over for My Bloody Valentine fans, and 'm b v' is everything they've been pining for — and quite possibly more.
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little by listen
While titled simply mbv, the band’s third album is anything but simple.
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The Gryphon
As a return, mbv is captivating, original and truly remarkable.
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Divide and Conquer Music
MBV is a worthy successor to "Loveless" and well worth the wait.
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Scene Point Blank
m b v is still a welcome addition as well as return by My Bloody Valentine and with any luck a presage of things to come from this venerable four piece… that is if they do not go into complete hibernation again.
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CU Independent
It’s only human nature to feel anger at the world for disappointing you, but it’s only My Bloody Valentine that can turn that anger into pure euphoria.
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Anhedonic Headphones
In the end, it doesn’t matter if these songs were record in the 90s, or in November of 2012, or how it will be remembered 20 years from now. What matter is that this is what happens after Loveless. This is what My Bloody Valentine sound like in 2013.
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SYN Media
My Bloody Valentine definitely hasn’t lost their charm and m b v is an album you could lose yourself in.
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Wales Art Review
Like Loveless, m b v has a way of sounding almost elemental, almost like it’s always been here.
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KTSW Radio
The build up and anticipation before the release of ‘MBV’ only makes this highly anticipated album so much sweeter.
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Obscure Sound
There’s only quality music here, from a group whose resurgence is the first pleasant surprise of 2013.
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Journal Star
The album isn’t going to be another “Loveless." It's too uneven for that. But it is a welcome return for My Bloody Valentine that gets you on repeat listens.
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Popdose
mbv ends up being true wish fulfillment. It is growth without abandonment and worth the many, many years to get. It certainly made for a great “shared moment.”
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Thought Catalog
While My Bloody Valentine fails to outdo Loveless they do prove that their work wasn’t for naught. Overall the album shows that My Bloody Valentine is at least returning back to their period of inspiration.
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I Heart Noise
More proof that formula developed on “Loveless” still works 20 years down the road.
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Eric Mack Attacks
Perhaps in time m b v will be considered a masterpiece alongside Loveless, but for now, giving it a spin is more than an interesting way to spend 45 minutes of your life.
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refinery29
Here we are in 2013 with a brand-new My Bloody Valentine album sitting in our laps (or on our computers), and it sounds exactly like the sonic and spiritual follow-up we'd hoped for.
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Test Pressing
Sea sick reeling in huge arcs of noise. Marlin fighting on the line. All so wrong that it's perfect.
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Daily Bruin
The album is utterly immersing, with fragile melodies hidden everywhere behind walls of sound.
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Stereogum
Loveless’s tricks were stolen and sold decades ago, but m b v is a new world of illusions by which to be mesmerized and moved; here, again, My Bloody Valentine have made magic.
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The Austin Chronicle
Overwhelmingly subtle and crushingly consuming, m b v delivers beauty in the slightest shifts and drama in its calculatedly awkward movements.
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Manhattan Digest
So here we are, listening to this unexpected new release, and all I can think is “I don’t need Loveless anymore.”
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Vancouver Sun
M B V is not just a welcome return, it’s a stellar new beginning.
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