The subtle perversion of My Bloody Valentine: “Love is one of the sickest mediums to write in”
Listening to shoegaze music for the lyrics feels like going to a professional wrestling show for the acting. It may be there; it may even be good. Either way, you’ll have to look really, really hard for it, and it’ll almost certainly be embarrassing. One of the few good examples of this is the work of My Bloody Valentine. Not because they’re easier to hear, God no, but because when it comes to Kevin Shields’ mob, the lyricism is quietly brilliant.
That’s quietly brilliant with a capital ‘quietly’ by the way. The vocals of Shields and fellow guitarist Bilinda Butcher are often sighed and cooed before being buried under a torrential barrage of feedback-soaked, cacophonous guitar wizardry. As anyone who’s interviewed Shields can attest to, what they’re actually saying is hard enough to decipher even before the amps are turned on.
Afterwards, it’s like trying to identify birdsong on a rollercoaster, which is a shame because MBV are a surprisingly open band when it comes to their lyrics. The most notable thing you’ll find when cracking open their liner notes is that the band is made up almost exclusively of horny little freaks. Said with utmost respect, by the way, as a band doesn’t truly become great without at least one such character; look at Pulp.
Themes of love and sex permeate the work of My Bloody Valentine in a way that makes their otherwise slightly incongruous name make a lot more sense. It’s been this way since the very beginning as well, when Shields was merely the band’s guitarist, and they had singer David Conway up front. This was entirely intentional, as the band made a point of confirming in an interview with Sounds.
What sets the lyrics of My Bloody Valentine apart from other bands?
When the band were releasing the early single ‘Sunny Sundae Smile’, they were taken to task for the song lyrics being a little saccharine. This wasn’t an unfair allegation: “Let’s fall in love / It’s exciting / I’m gonna make your mouth / A sunny sundae smile” are lines that even the Starland Vocal Band would call a little twee. However, Shields was having none of it.
“How do you know that song isn’t about incest?” A pretty wild place to start any interview answer, but go off, Kev. “All our songs are about sex and love basically, but there are lots of dimensions to love, and I think love is one of the sickest mediums to write in. It’s a lot more perverted than hate. Hate’s quite straightforward.”
He follows up by saying, “It’s good that people think we’re just like that lyric when we know we’re not, because if they listen properly, they’ll start to think, ‘Hey, what is this song about!’” Which is absolutely fair enough. The band have always dared their audience to try putting them in a box. They started out as a goth band, became paint-stripping post-punk noisemakers, and then became one of the most blissful, intoxicating groups of their era.
The only people who are more wrong-footed by the band’s audience are their record labels, which they should have known about before they signed them. After all, the one thing you can always count on My Bloody Valentine to be is thrillingly, and sometimes quite self-destructively, themselves.
