My Bloody Valentine - Don't Ask Why

An atypical MBV tune, especially for their later years - it's almost minimalist, with unusually prominent vocals and some of their most heartfelt lyrics ever. That line, from the look in your face, I believe it's not too late, that gets me EVERY time.

I'd rank this in my top five MBV songs ever, actually.  Probably top three in fact.

Boo Radleys - Skyscraper

Boos posts are always popular round these parts so here's another one from my favourite album of theirs, Everything's Alright Forever. It's kind of just a straightforward album track, but it shows the quality of their songwriting at the time that they could come up with album tracks as solid as this one, which certainly wasn't the case for a lot of their contemporaries in shoegazeville. As with so much on this album, it's mostly about the way they get everything right in terms of arrangement, soundscaping, and letting the music take the lead where it matters instead of throwing in totally unnecessary words just for the sake of it.

From 1992.

My Bloody Valentine - Honey Power

The title kind of makes me cringe now (weren't there just way too many indie songs about honey and sugar and all that back in the day?) but apart from that, this is a great song. It's from the 1991 Tremolo EP but I think it's more in the vein of earlier MBV, which I, apparently alone in all the universe, prefer to their final couple years. Not early early MBV of course, who were shit.

The House of Love - Christine

Their second single, from 1988. The House of Love wouldn't have been identified as a shoegaze band but this is definitely an early shoegaze song. And one of their best, though personally they were never one of my favourites anyway. But I really loved this song.

Adorable - Sunshine Smile

Adorable's first and best-known single. It wasn't one of my favourites of theirs, but as b-list shoegaze hits go, I think it's aged better than a lot of its contemporaries. I still maintain they would have been taken more seriously if they hadn't combined such a twee-sounding band name with a twee-sounding title for the first song anyone ever heard of theirs.

From 1992.

Ride - Sennen

Ride at their dreamiest, and with some of their nicest guitar ever. It's from the 1991 Today Forever EP.

Felt - Stained-Glass Windows in the Sky

Lovely track from the lovely Poem of the River EP, from 1987. I'm not generally the biggest fan of Lawrence Hayward's lyrics, but I think he gets it just right in this one: less is more.

Primal Scream - Imperial

A lot of indie snobs like me will tell you Sonic Flower Groove is the only Primal Scream album worth buying. I would beg to differ - not because I think any of the others are great, but because I don't think this one has that much going for it, either. It's all very earnest and innocuous neo-psychedelic pop but I just think it tries too hard and doesn't live up, in songwriting terms, to its influences.

And if I wasn't mad about it when it came out, most of it really hasn't aged well. But I always liked this one a lot, and still do.

My Bloody Valentine - I Believe

B-side to "Feed Me With Your Kiss". I'll say that again: this was a b-side. I still can't quite wrap my head around that. You could take the best bits from the best a-sides of 95% of the records that have ever existed, and make the best a-side you could possibly make from them, and it still wouldn't be fit to wipe the dust off this song. Which was a b-side.

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit. But, seriously... can you believe this was only a b-side? I can't.

From 1988.

Ride - Like a Daydream

Opening number from their second EP, Play, from 1990. This was really where I felt Ride arrived: its self-titled predecessor a few months earlier had some strong moments, but there was nothing on it with the immediacy of this track, which I have to say pretty much knocked my socks off the moment I heard it. Actually, it still knocks my socks off.

Doesn't Mark look cute with his poofy li'l haircut, too. I bet he cringes seeing this now.

Phil Wilson - Ten Miles

Former singer of the June Brides, one of indiepop's great could-have-beens. His solo career never really took off, which I stubbornly insist on believing had something to do with his very unfashionable decision to release records under his own name rather than forming (or at least pretending to form) a new band. The "solo artist" thing just wasn't really done at the time.

This was his first post-Brides single, from 1987. Not an official video.

Felt - A Wave Crashed on Rocks

A lot of Felt fans will tell you that Forever Breathes the Lonely Word was their best album. It's certainly far more accessible than any other, sort of like Lloyd Cole with organ, maybe. Personally I still prefer their Cherry Red era but if you're going to pick up something from the Creation years, and you should, it simply has to be between this and Poem of the River.

This one's a particular favourite of mine.

Adorable - Homeboy

Only have time for a quickie today. I've already posted an Adorable track recently but because I love that album so much, here's another. Isn't this a great photo, too?

The Bodines - God Bless

The Bodines' debut single is far less well known than their C86 classic "Therese", but it's nearly as good. It was released on Creation in 1986.

Adorable - Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Coventry's Adorable made two key mistakes in their short career. No1 was calling themselves "Adorable". That might have worked on Sarah, but for a band swimming in darker, heavier waters it did pose a rather significant barrier to them being taken seriously. No2 was releasing a first single called "Sunshine Smile". See No1.

All of which contributed to the sad overlooking of their fine debut album, Against Perfection. Although often lumped in with the shoegaze scene (well, it was on Creation), it actually reminded me a bit more of bands like the Chameleons and Kitchens of Distinction - a similar sort of atmospheric sound without putting the effects on overkill.

There are a few really fantastic tracks on the album, but for me this one was their masterpiece. It's got one of my favourite couplets that anyone's ever written. And I really wish I'd had a chance to see them live; I just know I would've done a Síle Seoige when they played this (Irish readers should get the reference!).

The Pastels - Million Tears

Here's another one I really shouldn't have to say too much about. An early (1984) single from one of the best loved indiepop bands ever. Like that Three O'Clock song I posted a couple days ago, it was twee before "twee" existed. Unlike the Three O'Clock, though, the Pastels never went to shit.

Anyway... wonderful track.

Moonshake - Coward

Moonshake was primarily the brainchild of Dave Callahan from the Wolfhounds, and much of their material reflects the sort of abrasive sounds you'd expect from a band with that pedigree. In their early days, however, they were a collaborative effort between Callahan and Margaret Fiedler, who went on to form Laika. Under Fiedler's influence, the music was still quite experimental and sometimes jarringly discordant, but tempered by her soft voice and melodic ear. The collaboration came to an (apparently unhappy) end after one album and a couple EPs, though Callahan continued to use the name for a few years more.

This was from their imaginatively-titled First EP in 1991. I remember when NME (or maybe it was Melody Maker) reviewed it they said that "at soon as we put it on everyone in the office could tell it was a Creation release". Oddly, given the year that it was, they didn't mean it as a compliment.

Gorgeous track, anyway.

Biff Bang Pow! - Love's Going out of Fashion

A great single from The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel, BBP!'s second album. It's rather fast-paced and unusually, well, desperate sounding. I actually wonder if Alan McGee had to do something in the studio to get just that right note of desperation in his voice, or maybe he was just having a really stressful day. Anyway, it's a great song.

Ride - Vapour Trail

I know I posted something just a week or two ago from Ride's Nowhere album but I heard this song again yesterday and it's been stuck in my head ever since. What a lovely, wonderful, captivating little song this is, still sounding as fresh and innocent as it did twenty years ago. That's right... twenty years. Sigh.


Ride - Vapour Trail

The Jasmine Minks - Forces Network

One of those bands I always think of as a C86 band even though they weren't. This is from their self-titled full-length debut, released on Creation in 1985. It's kind of an odd little track, I think, but one I like a lot.