Albums to watch

ADM Chart topper

mbv

My Bloody Valentine

mbv

The influential Irish shoegaze band with one of the most anticipated comeback albums of the past two decades, released via their website and also put out by them on YouTube

ADM rating[?]

8.7

Label
Self-released
UK Release date
04/02/2013
US Release date
04/02/2013
  1. 10.0 |   State

    My Bloody Valentine are all about being in the moment. And m b v is a collection of endless moments – gauzy, heady, harmonious moments, with ambiguous song-titles that would befuddle even the most wide-eyed dream popper
    Read Review

  2. 10.0 |   The Guardian

    The songs on m b v are more melodically complex, intriguing and often pleasing than anything he has written before
    Read Review

  3. 10.0 |   Art Rocker

    It's not music to listen to, it's music to be with, forcing an emotional reaction from start to finish
    Read Review

  4. 10.0 |   Tone Deaf

    Nothing short of a masterpiece
    Read Review

  5. 10.0 |   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
    Read Review

  6. 10.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    mbv leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns
    Read Review

  7. 10.0 |   Pretty Much Amazing

    This is a new My Bloody Valentine and it is excellent
    Read Review

  8. 10.0 |   The Skinny

    The prevailing feeling is that 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
    Read Review

  9. 10.0 |   Fact

    It’s a reminder that still, after all these years, there are certain things only Shields can do with a guitar
    Read Review

  10. 9.5 |   Under The Radar

    Twenty-two years in the making or not, this is a return that captivates, excites, and is relentless in its grab for your attention. It's the perfect comeback
    Read Review

  11. 9.5 |   BBC

    It’s an album that 22 years of speculation and analysis haven’t come close to matching the reality of. It sounds amazing, and represents an astounding return
    Read Review

  12. 9.5 |   Paste Magazine

    An album that stands as confidently, beautifully and masterfully composed as its predecessor
    Read Review

  13. 9.4 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    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
    Read Review

  14. 9.1 |   Pitchfork

    If you're wired a certain way {MBV's} mixture of desire and confusion is easy to map on to the wider world. For 22 years, the only way to get there was through Loveless and its associated EPs; now there's another path, one many of us never expected to find
    Read Review

  15. 9.1 |   A.V. Club

    Regardless of whether it’s an echo of the past or a bridge to the future, MBV stands as something potentially timeless—and immediately breathtaking
    Read Review

  16. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    It triumphs not as a continuation of a musical conversation that Isn’t Anything and Loveless began, but by forging its own distinct modern dialogue
    Read Review

  17. 9.0 |   The 405

    m b v accomplishes the rare feat of being both timeless and in-the-moment
    Read Review

  18. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    This is Shields at his most free: from the slow-paced opener to something rather triumphant. God knows how these will sound live
    Read Review

  19. 9.0 |   Beats Per Minute

    A fully conceptualized 45 minutes of music that both logically progresses the triumphs of its predecessor and doesn’t feel out of place in the musical landscape of 201
    Read Review

  20. 9.0 |   Slant Magazine

    A few twists and turns shy of perfection, m b v is the innovation and sonic warmth of My Bloody Valentine rekindled and made anew
    Read Review

  21. 8.0 |   All Music

    They're not trying to re-create Loveless, nor should they, and M B V doesn't have to reinvent music (again) to be worth the wait
    Read Review

  22. 8.0 |   Q

    Sometimes the songs drag, but the brilliant moments are so brilliant, and the exciting moments to exciting that you'll forgive them. Print edition only

  23. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Although much of mbv could have been recorded a fortnight after Loveless was released, it rarely sounds retro. Print edition only

  24. 8.0 |   The Observer

    This is giddy, cell-purging stuff that thoroughly recalibrates the art of contemporary sound-making, which so often circles the same groove rut
    Read Review

  25. 8.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    The biggest problem with the album’s extremely likeable first two thirds, is that its comparable cosiness is indisputably eclipsed by the extraordinary trio of songs that close m b v
    Read Review

  26. 8.0 |   DIY

    Is it better than 'Loveless'? Probably not – and it's unfair to compare it to a predecessor that we've had two decades to live with and love. Given its gestation, it perhaps suffers from being a less cohesive body of work. It doesn't quite hang together as an album
    Read Review

  27. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Despite the skull-crushing power, MBV is music that rewards close listening, music that takes its time to give up its secrets
    Read Review

  28. 8.0 |   The Independent

    As before, it's a woozy, deceptively desultory experience
    Read Review

  29. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    If you are a fan - and let’s face it, this is not going to widen their demographic - then have some patience and wait for the postman to bring that vinyl parcel around
    Read Review

  30. 8.0 |   NME

    The whole experience is like listening to a time-lapse photograph of the inside of Kevin Shields' head
    Read Review

  31. 8.0 |   Spin

    It sounds an awful lot like prime My Bloody Valentine ... and it is just as gorgeous, just as new, just as now
    Read Review

  32. 8.0 |   Entertainment.ie

    mbv was never likely to recapture the shock and awe that Loveless delivered some twenty two years ago but in many ways it exceeds what we could reasonably expect after such a protracted absence
    Read Review

  33. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    mbv follows its predecessor without aggrandizing its past resources, and as such, delivers a wallop of sweet, sweet distortion in a way that comes naturally to them
    Read Review

  34. 8.0 |   The Arts Desk

    As beautifully opaque and seductive as Loveless, sounding like nothing other than Kevin Shields’ vision
    Read Review

  35. 7.0 |   Blurt

    Sticks appropriately close to the tricks that have made the band's past music into magic
    Read Review

  36. 6.5 |   PopMatters

    Review 1: It’s too early to tell what this record is, how important it is, how good it could really be (7/10). Review 2: Don’t come into m b v expecting another masterpiece. It’s a good album, but not a great one (6/10)
    Read Review

  37. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    Only My Bloody Valentine sound like My Bloody Valentine and mbv is resounding confirmation of that at the very least
    Read Review


blog comments powered by Disqus

Watch it

Roll over video for more options

Latest Reviews

More reviews