1001 Albums Summary

I haven't listened to much music in the shoegaze genre, but I've definitely heard of My Bloody Valentine before listening to this album. Going into the album, I was expecting the stereotypical shoegaze record- songs that sound the same dragging on for far longer than they should. "She Found Now" and "Only Tomorrow" are both culprits of this. I really enjoyed the guitar on "Who Sees You" and I thought that the somewhat fast paced start of the track was refreshing after the first two tracks. The track "Is This and Yes" contains no guitars, rather opting for a organ-synth throughout the track. This surprised me as it was a complete 180 from the first three guitar-heavy tracks. The vocals on "If I Am" were the highlight of the track, though the drum pattern in the background also drew me in. "New You" opens up completely different from the other tracks, I almost expected the track to be a pop song. Bilinda Butcher delivers a completely different vocal style on this track while Deb Googe's "oohs" in the background just add a nice touch. "In Another Way" had a surprising opening- which seems to be a common theme on this record. While this track seemed to be faster paced than the others, I think something about the pitch of the guitar and the vocals threw me off as this was one of my least favorite tracks on the album. "Nothing Is" and its back and forth guitar and drum combo got me moving and the choice of no vocals was appreciated- though I'd like to see what kind of vocals would even fit on an instrumental like that. "Wonder 2" sounds like an airplane flying through the sky taking you to a whole new world which was a great way to end the album. In all, I enjoyed this album. While I didn't love the typical shoegaze start, the album peaked for me in the middle and carried through all the way to the end as they went away from typical shoegaze sound. I loved the drums on this album. However, the vocals really took this album to the next level for me.