Customer Reviews

Isn't Anything

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It would be far too easy for me to simply slap this album with a 4 and a half star rating, state, "this isn't Loveless," and call it a day, but instead, I'm choosing to review this (outstanding) album as if the monumental, phenomenal, perhaps-best-album-ever Loveless was never created.

The humbly titled Isn't Anything is one of the most underrated and tragically ignored albums ever. I would say that it's easily among the top 25 albums of the 80s, but hardly anyone has a strong opinion on it. It has become massively influential throughout the alternative/indie world, but never duplicated.

Looking at the cover art and song titles like "Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)," you're given a clue as to how the album sounds: distant, distorted, and dreamy. The song craft is strong, the vocals are ethereal, and the guitars are deliciously, noisily lush. Listening to the sound samples on Amazon does no justice to this album, for it is far better experienced on headphones during a sweltering summer day or a bitterly frigid winter night.

In my humblest opinion, Isn't Anything is certainly essential.

I don't usually take issue with Amazon's editorial reviews, but Roni Sarig makes two big blunders. First, he calls Isn't Anything "worthy of Creation [Records]'s 'shoe-gazing' heritage." Before this album, there was no such "heritage." This album created such a buzz in the UK, Creation used its producers and sound engineers to make pop bands like Lush and Ride sound as much like this record as possible ... this was the album that set off the shoegazer movement. Despite those efforts, though, no one ever managed to create an album that sounded just like this, not even MBV's follow-up. Second, Sarig and many other reviewers seem to think Isn't Anything is merely a step towards greatness. This album does not have the insane, orchestral density of Loveless, but for that reason it's able to deliver a much wider variety of pleasures. The bass-driven stop-start of "Soft as Snow," the relentless guitar attack of "Feed Me With Your Kiss," the pairing of quavering tremelo and creepy, childlike vocals of "No More Sorry" ... each of these tracks is a perfect, unique jewel. You can hear many of the tools Kevin Shields and his band would use to construct Loveless, but in a more spare arrangement that allows you to hear each element much more clearly. Many tracks make dramatic use of silence, something MBV never did later in their career. You can also hear the band flatout rock. You can't call "Feed Me," "You Never Should" or "Sueisfine" "dream pop" ... they're pure adrenaline. This is, to be sure, a more conventional rock album than Loveless, but it still sounds like nothing else. If it came out today, we'd be falling all over ourselves to praise it.

I bought this out of a cut rack for $3.99. It sat in my CD tower for at least 5 years before I ever really listened to it.I couldn't stand the way it sounded over my stereo and I came close to trading it.I brought it to work and put my headphones on and it sounds like a completely different album.I really like the whole experience. I'm lucky I brought it up here-it was going nowhere at home but I'm playing it a couple of times a day over my headphones. I don't know anything about this band,I bought it on a whim,but I'd reccommend this album and I may follow up on this band.

"Isn't Anything" is different. Different from what? - "Loveless" of course, but it's hard to pinpoint where in why it is different. These are the exact same people playing and singing, the same label. Budgets are considerably lower, i guess; especially in the case of MBV it could mean that the record is terrible, but it is not - it is just very very different. To a "Loveless"-trained ear (and there are a lot of "Loveless"-trained ears) it will sound very atonal. But the scariest thing is that it sounds very atonal even to a Sonic Youth-trained ear! Trust me, i own almost all of the SY back catalogue (plus even weirder extras...) and i considered shelving "Isn't Anything" after the first listen. I was afraid of listening to it again for two weeks, but when i finally did - gorgeousness! - i understood that it is a work of genius and not a miserable debut of a clueless young band, as i thought at first. Granted, it may sound very un-ripe at times, but compared to Loveless what won't?

The highlights are "Lose My Breath" that starts with out-of-tune guitars and ends with quite literally breathtaking "ooh-ooh-ooh-oooooooh"'s ("Blown a Wish" comes to mind) and "Sueisfine" which sounds like something that Sonic Youth recorded for "EVOL", but deleted because Steve Shelley was drunk.

Important remark - unlike "LL" which is a very speakers-oriented record, "Isn't Anything" is much better in headphones.

I would have to say I prefer this album to "Loveless." The guitars don't fill up the speakers here as much as on that album, but there's still plenty of lush guitar noize to savour. It must be the unrestrained rocking-out which matches the dream pop that I really love - especially on the second side (beginning with "Feed Me With Your Kiss"). That side really JAMS in a gleeful kind of way - gives me a great feeling. "Sueisfine" is pretty trippy and I swear they're really saying 'Suicide' which is a twisted thing to repeat over and over. "Several Girls Galore" is kinda darker and sensual with bassier drums to match the seductive female vocals. "Nothing Much To Lose" is another highlight with absolutely spastic drums that do something different each time they cut loose. This song is one of several that takes dramatic turns, leading the listener to surprisingly different places - a bit like 2 or 3 songs in 1.

Side 1 has some real gems on it as well, but I'm not too crazy about the slower songs "Lose My Breath" and "No More Sorry." They're not great musically; they're quite a bit atonal in fact. However, I've gotten more used to them in time. "All I Need" is another slow one which might take some getting used to, but its brilliance shines through with its V.U. pulse and shimmering guitar backdrop. To be honest, Kevin Shields doesn't have the strongest vocal quality, but I dig it none-the-less. These minor drawbacks aren't nearly enough to deny this album the 5 star rating it deserves.

My Bloody Valentine are undoubtably one of the most important bands in the history of indie music and, although 'Isn't Anything' doesn't quite measure up to the immense standards of 'Loveless', it still serves as a unique sign-post to where music was (or is) going.

Basically this is a stepping stone between 'Loveless' and the early work of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Echoes of The Velvet Underground pervade, yet the sheer sonic ingenuity of Kevin Shields takes this already avant garde template to an entirely original plain. However, this is not to suggest that the songs are somehow lacking. The last four songs, particularly 'You Never Should', are a arguably the pick of the bunch- all mangled guitars and pretty, lo-fi melodies- yet there is much to enjoy elsewhere. Brutal riffing comes to the fore on the single, 'Feed me with your kiss', while the brilliantly off-kilter double-tracked vocals of 'Sueisfine' lead to the sonic equivalent of inertia- which is really rather good.

With its mixture of great tunes and twisted experimentation, it is clear why 'Isn't Anything' is held in such high esteem by many musicians. The sound of garage-rock on E and LSD instead of Speed, the really strange thing about 'Isn't Anything' is that My Bloody Valentine could go any further.

Before touching heaven with their "Loveless", MBV made this excellent record. New ideas, noisy sounds and an own style make this record to sound still original (after 11 years), sure it is not as elaborated as "Loveless" is, but which one it is!. MBV are (or were) the most audacious explorers of noise.

With 1991's "Loveless", My Bloody Valentine produced a landmark album that would redefine the boundaries for independent music. Yet if "Loveless" was the "Revolver" of the early 1990's, then "Isn't Anything" was the band's "Rubber Soul"- the moment when the band took the game to the next level of sophistication, setting themselves another notch above the competition. This album, judged by the production values of 1988, was the great leap forward. The melodies are lush and beautiful but you have to go searching for them in the opiate fuzz of the shimmering layers of guitar noise. It is well worth the effort. The interplay of melody of distortion on this record is what makes this record so rewarding. The sweetness of the best tunes finds its perfect counterpoint in the drone and fuzz of the guitars. The mix of acidity and sweetness is just right here- a feature that is oddly reminiscent of the other great alternative album from 1988, Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation". Whilst My Bloody Valentine would raise their art one step higher with "You Made Me Realise" later in the year, they were already on the heights with this release. Buy this record, one of the best of the late 1980's and retire to a hazy, fuzzy, bittersweet nirvana.

I am one of the few who believe that "Isn't Anything" is leagues better than "Loveless". This is one of my favorite albums; therefore, it's one of the few albums I've actually purchased. "Isn't Anything" isn't really one of the most uplifting albums of all time, but it is undoubtedly original and I might even add, influencial.

The lyrics are beautiful and heartfelt, the vocals are what really makes the album so dreamy. Kevin Shield's voice is like a blur, and I don't even know what a blur sounds like.

"No More Sorry" is what really made the album for me, personally, it just flows very well. This isn't really an album you'd want to just listen to the drumsticks hit the drums and the pics hit the guitar, no, you should concentrate very hard on the lyrics. Maybe, you'll even pick up the messege 'My Bloody Valentine' are trying to send across. Of course though, that's a different messege for everyone.

My Bloody Valentine have gone the way of the Beatles now, disintegrating before we ever had a chance to hear thier full potential. However, they did leave us with two remarkable albums "Loveless" and "Isn't Anything". While "Loveless", with its aural soundscapes, provided the soundtrack for flying straight into the sun and being blinded by it, "Isn't Anything" was something different. While it is a hazy, lush, and dense record, thier is also obvious pop hooks here. Now don't get me wrong, that is definetly not what makes this album better than "Loveless", rather it is the fact that MBV manage to find a comfortable middle ground between thier jangly pop melodies of the past, and thier eccentric experimentation of the future. The album kicks off with the persistent snare drum of 'Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)' with Kevin Shields singing while Belinda Butcher coos in the background. Meanwhile, in a total 180 degree flip of genteel yet haunting tracks such as 'Lose My Breath' and 'Cupid Come' are the raging noise rockers like 'Feed Me With Your Kiss' and 'Sueisfine'. Other notable tracks that contribute to the feeling of a rainy day in England are 'You Never Should', 'Nothing Much To Lose', and 'I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)'. All in all, the only thing you can say about "Isn't Anything" is that it definetly is something, and that it definetly requires your attention now.