My Bloody Valentine Expand Online Catalog, Plan Wide Release of Deluxe Reissues
My Bloody Valentine have made more of their floor-shaking catalog available to stream. Now in addition to Isn’t Anything? and the storied Loveless, listeners will be able to stream the compilation EPs 1988 – 1991 and Rare Tracks — which includes the previously unavailable-to-stream fan-favorite You Made Me Realise EP — and the group’s 2013 reunion album MBV.
New physical editions of these four releases will come out on May 21st. The deluxe vinyl editions of Isn’t Anything? and Loveless have been mastered fully from analog sources, while the standard-release LP reissues come from digital sources. My Bloody Valentine previously sold the analog remaster via their website; this re-release will be the editions’ first wide release. The reissue of MBV comes from fully analog sources, and the reissue will mark the first wide release of deluxe and standard-edition releases of that record.
Guitarist Kevin Shields explained his odyssey to get a perfect analog remaster of Loveless in a 2017 Rolling Stone interview. To get the best sound, he listened to several different permutations of the album over and over again. “If you go to a French manufacturer, it’s gonna come across a lot softer sounding and warmer than if you go to a British manufacturer, where it’s gonna come across a lot more high end,” he says. “We literally have a few thousand records lying around — all experiments and failures.” He eventually decided he liked the version that came out then (and is being reissued this spring) best.
The EPs compilation contains the previously available-to-stream Tremolo and Glider EPs with the additions of You Made Me Realise and Feed Me With Your Kiss. The EP You Made Me Realise marked a turning point for the group because that’s when Shields obtained the Fender Jazzmaster that made him reevaluate his approach to music. With the new instrument, he was able to use the tremolo bar to give his rhythm playing an odd, dreamlike warble that would define the band’s later music. “It was like a new toy, really,” Shields told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I could feel it. It was something that I wasn’t thinking about. I found it fascinating playing that way. I like the way the sounds move.”
Although some of the My Bloody Valentine catalog is getting a wider release, the majority of their early independent releases, such as 1985’s This Is Your Bloody Valentine and the live record Man You Love to Hate, remain unavailable. Their 1987 LP, Ecstasy, which is not part of this reissue campaign, is streaming on some services.
