So I've been really conflicted about the most recent My Bloody Valentine album, mbv. For those of you that don't know My Bloody Valentine I'll give you this very brief overview.
Basically My Bloody Valentine is an amazing shoegaze (coolest genre name or lamest? start the debate) band that released an album that has gradually over the years become an inclusion of every top albums of all time list. The list of bands that have listed it as an influence are endless (oddly enough I can only think of one band right now). The album was called Loveless and it took forever to make and everyone was ready to hear the follow up. Well the follow up took like 17 years to make and was constantly rumored to be coming out but then wouldn't. There were rumors about it's sound and how long it was,blah blah. It's the Chinese Democracy for it's genre.
Got it? Okay. Let's move along.
So finally the new My Bloody Valentine album comes out and everyone loves it. 10 years ago I would have bought the day it came out. I think I waited a few days but I eventually downloaded it and got excited to hear. Not balls to the wall excited but like, hey, this will be fun to listen to on my commute to work tomorrow. So yeah, I listened to it and it sounded like My Bloody Valentine and the obvious follow up to Loveless. I think I've listened to it like twice since then. That was like 8 months ago.
So why the hell didn't I like it?
Here's all I can come up with as an answer. My Bloody Valentine does not make music that I would describe as uplifting. I used to love sad songs. Depressing gut wrenching songs. Or mellow songs that just sound depressing. When you're young life is pretty easy. Odds are you're still living off your parents in some way and the only thing you're worried about is why some girl/dude isn't returning your phone calls or you have no messages on your answering machine (I don't think anyone young reads this but if so, replace phone calls with text messages and answering machine with facebook or twitter or snapchat, snapshot, whatever the hell you do now to send pictures of your johnson to each other). Life was easy so we had to latch on to something we thought was sad and blow it waaay out of proportion and then wallow in the misery of whatever we felt was the end of the world, which was most likely one of the things listed above (unanswered phone calls, texts, penis shots). I think being depressed made us feel like we were more mysterious or gave us more depth. Listening to some slow sad melody really helped make you feel even more miserable. Or maybe I was just a really needy bastard.
Then you start getting older and shit starts getting real. Like you don't need a song to make you depressed. Once you're in the real world and no longer relying on your parents teat anymore to bail your ass out there's plenty of shit to make you depressed. Like how you spent 6 years in college only to be working a job where you routinely unclog a urinal filled with piss. This glamourous job doesn't pay dick so you have to buy a giant pizza at Dominicks for $5 and live off of it for the next 4 days. Oh and that girl still hasn't responded to that picture of your dick you sent her 3 days ago (just trying to relate here).
Or there are wars. Taxes. Getting older and realizing the window of opportunity for you to become a professional wrestler has passed. Getting checked for things on a regular basis that might kill you that involve another man sticking his finger in parts of your body you don't touch yourself. I routinely spend some minute or two of my day pissed off at something at work (maybe it's something I'm working on, or a person, or maybe I'm just pissed someone didn't refill the coffee. ) So forgive me if when I listen to music I don't want to hear Kevin Shields make some fucking guitar feedback for 6 minutes. I'm in a bad mood I want to listen something I can tap my fucking foot to.
Now, I'm not saying my life sucks. Far from it in fact. I have a great life. I've got a smokin hot wife who's cool as shit. I've got a giant fluffy dog that sounds like an actual person when he burps (which is often) and a cat that literally shoved me out of the way when I went to pick up a piece of pizza I dropped. I have a roof over my head and get to eat delicious food and travel to cool places on a pretty regular basis. I've got a job that doesn't involve me cleaning up bodily fluids. I'm happy and love life. But there's a lot of everyday shit out there that tries to derail that happiness so I don't need a song to bum me out.
I don't know if this is making any sense but it's the only thing I can come up with to explain why music I loved 18 years ago doesn't have the same impact or why the hell I went to a Kid Rock concert 2 years ago.
But now I'm thinking about this. I've developed a love for slow sad country songs over the years. Why do I like those? They're even more depressing.
I've totally blown my whole theory to shit.
Son of a bitch.
