Isn't Anything

Before the fully liquefied roar of what came next, this is My Bloody Valentine learning to bend the guitar until it warps like a struck bell, melody and distortion fused into one gesture.

"Soft as Snow (but Warm Inside)" opens the record with a rhythm that lurches and a vocal that seems to be sung from inside a pillow, setting the terms: nothing here will sit still or arrive clean. Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher trade breathy, half-buried voices that never fight the guitar for space — on "Cupid Come" they drift under the noise rather than over it, so the words matter less than their blur. "Feed Me With Your Kiss" is the fiercest thing on offer, all thrust and detune, but even at its loudest the band keeps a strange tenderness in the mix. This is the blueprint dozens of shoegaze bands would copy without ever quite matching its violence.