Tune Tuesday #2 - Isn't Anything - 2026/02/17
Isn't Anything (1988)
by: my bloody valentine
Runtime: 38 mins
Spotify: Link
Tracklist:
- Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)
- Lose My Breath
- Cupid Come
- (When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream*
- No More Sorry*
- All I Need
- Feed Me with Your Kiss*
- Sueisfine*
- Several Girls Galore
- You Never Should
- Nothing Much to Lose
- I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)*
* = really good
While my bloody valentine will always be known as the band behind their 1991 genre defining album Loveless, I wanted to spend this post-valentines Tune Tuesday to talk about an album of theirs that I don't think gets much love. While nowhere near as influential, I actually find myself revisiting their debut album Isn't Anything more than Loveless. If you knew me well, you'd know that my bloody valentine is one of my favorite bands of all time. And if you knew my bloody valentine well, you'd know that take could be borderline sacrilegious. While I do think Loveless is still a great album and wholly deserving of its critical praise, I actually think that Isn't Anything ends up being a more fun album by not being caught up in the excess of sonic experiments tried in Loveless. Additionally, unlike m b v, Isn't Anything explores a solid range of sounds that makes it the better collection of singles (though certainly is less cohesive as an album). From the noise pop/post-punk catchy headbangers in songs like (When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream and Sueisfine, to the slow and sad No More Sorry, and the jangly dreamscapes of Lose My Breath and I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It), this album really captures the whole breadth of my bloody valentine's discography (beyond the dnb focused songs at the end of m b v).
This album feels like the feeling you get a few months after a breakup, where you are getting over the pain and have a newfound desire to get back out there, but still very much so hold the scars and weight from the past relationship. Alternatively, this album feels like a drug induced psychotic episode, which makes sense given the amount of hallucinogens Kevin Shields (my goat) was using when making this album. The lyrics seem to aggressively flip-flop between being extremely horny and being tragically lost in life, and tied with the (admittedly poor quality) low-fidelity recording and psychedelic sound, it has a level of schizophrenia that reminds me of albums like Kanye West's ye.
While still certainly a post punk noise album first and foremost, it's very clear that this album is where Shields starts to harness the sounds that would later go on to define the sound of shoegaze. That being said, this album is not without its faults. For one, the vocals are often muddled to the point where I will need to be googling (spotify still doesn't have lyrics for these songs). While this is fine on more clearly shoegaze albums, this makes a lot of the angsty songwriting completely lost, and the lack of dynamic structure within a song makes the lack of standout vocal melodies particularly painful. I also think that this album has terrible mixing and mastering, which hurts even more considering how noisy the album is— it's a bit tragic that this album never got a remaster after the band gained general notoriety.
It's a shame that this album will never really be popular; while it very much so is all over the place compared to more focused and polished projects like Loveless, I think Shields' take on a post punk album that is simultaneously dreamy and angsty serves a special niche that may actually be more enjoyable to those who may not immediately resonate with the shoegaze sound generally. There's some really great moments on this album (the intro to Sueisfine should've been a whole song), so I really do urge every noise rock, shoegaze, and punk fan to give this an honest shot! If you're looking for music to listen to while angrily watching an ex live their life, I think this album is for you. And if not, then good on you and you should still listen to this album regardless.
note that i forgot to add in post: bonus points for the super cool naming structure of these songs