My Bloody Valentine Returns After 21 Years!

After over 21 years, we finally have a sequel to Loveless, an album which I have always held in high regard throughout the years. Last night when the news dropped via the band's Facebook page, I instantly went on their site and found that the servers had crashed, to no-one's surprise. If you have not stepped outside of your heavy genre, this is the band that invented that stuff before the blast beats on your Deafheaven record! Their sweeping influence cannot be denied. It's hypnotic and psychedelic, a soundtrack for those who are lost. The new album retains their signature raw, wall-of-sound fuzz, and was recorded true to their roots in analogue. According to the official site, "The vinyl is a true analogue cut, i.e. it hasn't been put through a digital process during the cutting process unlike over 90% of all vinyl available today."

Some background about the band's recent activity, from Wikipedia:

Following their departure from Creation Records after the release of their second studio album Loveless (1991), My Bloody Valentine signed with Island Records in October 1992 for a reported £250,000 contract.^[1] The band's advance went towards the construction of a home studio in Streatham, South London, which was completed in April 1993. Several technical problems with the studio sent the band into "semi-meltdown", according to vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields,^[2] who was rumoured to have been suffering from writer's block.^[3] The band recorded and released two cover songs from 1993 to 1996—a rendition of "We Have All the Time in the World" by Louis Armstrong for Peace Together^[4] and a cover of "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" by Wire for the tribute album Whore: Tribute to Wire.^[5]

Rumours had spread amongst fans of My Bloody Valentine that albums worth of material had been recorded and shelved prior to the band's break up in 1997. In 1999, it was reported that Shields had delivered 60 hours of material to Island Records,^[1] and vocalist and guitarist Bilinda Butcher confirmed that there "was probably enough songs to fill two albums."^[3] Shields later said that at least one full album of "half-finished" material was abandoned and "just [got] dumped, but it was worth dumping. It was dead. It hadn't got that spirit, that life in it."^[6]

...The band recorded additional material at Grouse Lodge in Westmeath, Ireland during January 2013

This is the new album's tentative cover

Buy it here.

Instant download is available! 

Solid track-by-track review I agree with:

http://louderthanwar.com/my-bloody-valentine-track-by-track-album-review/

Another review points out, quite accurately, that, "Whether it lives up the hoopla or not depends on one fundamental fact: whether or not you like My Bloody Valentine or not in the first place. 

If you consider them to be a slightly strange, bewildering entity — or to be blunt, a load of overrated art-rock cobblers — m b v won't dramatically alter your opinion. If Loveless is your sonic bible, dive in. It's Valentine's Day."

Also check out:

 

* My Bloody Valentine announced live dates in Korea, Japan, Australia and Taiwan.

* Kevin Shields is also featured in the Beautiful Noise music documentary

Featuring Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine, how their unique sounds inspired generations of bands. 

* MBV official YouTube

(contains each track from the new album)

*Update 2/6 - Pitchfork gives the album a 9.1!