Isn't Anything?

Certain Songs #1216: My Bloody Valentine – “Sueisfine”

May 21, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isn’t Anything
Year: 1988

The other song that brought me into Isn’t Anything was perhaps the the most conventional song on the album: the short sharp shocking buzzsaw of “Sueisfine,” which — if you didn’t pay that close attention — could almost be mistaken for something you’d actually heard before.

But of course, with drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig never quite committing to a straight out punk beat, or finishing his snare rolls where you would expect them to, Kevin Shields has plenty of room to pile on shiny guitars, noisy guitars and hazy guitars, all swathed in a boatload of distortion and feedback.

Certain Songs #1215: My Bloody Valentine – “Lose My Breath”

May 20, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isn’t Anything
Year: 1988

While it is of course a matter of holy writ that Loveless is My Bloody Valentine’s classic, and one of the most influential records of all-time, it didn’t entirely come out of nowhere. Which is one of many reasons to not sleep on its predecessor, 1988’s Isn’t Anything.

After a few singles and EPs, Kevin Shields figured out his guitar shit, and My Bloody Valentine found a sound that wasn’t like anybody else’s. And in 1988 that sound freaked me the fuck out. What even was this?