Mike McGonigalMy Bloody Valentine Loveless

Excelente producto

In February 2013 My Bloody Valentine released, with much fanfare, though little information, MBV, the long-awaited follow-up to Loveless. To a certain extent Loveless has always been something of an enigma: the blurry cover reflecting the sound found therein (In my opinion the album is Shields attempt to externalize some fairly abstract, personal thoughts and experiences in a way that they were recognizable both to himself and to others).Pros: I came to this book hoping to have a better understanding of the band, and I feel on that level it was successful What you get is a history of the band and album, including details on it's prolonged gestation provided by new interviews conducted by the author with 3/4 of the band (Colm was unavailable or unwilling to be interview), as well as with various engineers (though sadly nothing with Alan Moulder) and others associated with the band and album. As a history of the band, album and context, it was invaluable, providing a balance to the other main print source on My Bloody Valentine:  The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize . I do think a full My Bloody Valentine biography should be produced, but until that time this book will do.Cons: More problematic is the author's continuing insertion of himself into the text, mixing his opinion with the history. I found that this mixture sometimes got confusing, with some parsing and careful reading being required.As a book I would give it 3.5 stars, which I've rounded up to four based on the pre-existing 1 star reviews. The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize

Great item. Highly recommended.

Brilliant overview of my favorite album of all time. So despite my bias toward MBV's effort, my intent was to read this book with an eye toward disinterested formalism. And the result for me was quite pleasing. McGonigal gave several perspectives that overrided some long standing myths, and maybe gave us a couple new ones to ponder. Bottom line, he gets it. He gets the fact that this CD goes beyond the overused ethereal descriptors, and touches the listener in a deep spiritual way. It's not about lyrics, melody, production, sounds...it's about the whole. The poignant philosopher Schopenhauer stated that great art will always dissolve the subject from the object, and he always placed music on top of the hierarchy of art forms. Loveless always had that experience for me, so when I read McGonigal's book I was happy to see that he never swayed from his lofty view, yet remained grounded as well. After all, the process of making great art is never quite as lofty as the outcome. We learn of the painstaking process Shields and others went through to make something that always seemed to be on the brink of demise. McGonigal made this struggle an enjoyable read, and he has given us a perfect literary companion to one of the most perfect musical experiences.

I thought this generally was a good book - the quotes from Shields were probably the highlight of it. It was also pretty cool how the author described in first person how he felt at one of their newer concerts. The thing I didn't like was how he tried to make it a fact that MBV use to suck. I personally think as well as many others, that they were awesome. I can say that their old work is not as good as Loveless but they were so young when they started and they were also just beginning their journey on separating themselves from all other types of bands - to become one of the greatest of all time.