Has there ever been a better song than "Fell From The Sun"?...This classic track picks up where Rain Parade's "Emergency Third Rail Power Trip" left off...David Roback's beautiful overdriven leads piercing through acoustic guitars with Kendra Smith's detached reverb-drenched vocals over it all...Roback is an unheralded production genius. I just listened to the Clay Allison version but it was also done by Opal on the Early Recordings LP (both groups led by Smith and Roback)...when Kendra sings "just like the sun" at the end of the first chorus...the way the word "sun" loops into a beautiful melody and just soars away...such are the moments for which I listen to pop music.
I first heard the song on the Pale Saints' version on their debut The Comforts Of Madness before I ever heard Opal. That's a great album too. See...bands like the Pale Saints are why shoegazer music was the real Britpop. It didn't push its Britishness on you or anything, it was just British bands making great pop music. It just happened to be fuzzy music but the songs were stronger than those by Blur or Oasis any day. I'd take "The Sight Of You" over "Live Forever" certainly. My Bloody Valentine's "Thorn" is so superior to any Britpop era song it's almost silly...It's more interesting sonically and the song just unfolds effortlessly. The band is better, the harmonies are purer, it has more energy and it's just so much more confident without the annoying swagger...If ever a band was not overrated it was MBV. If ever a band WAS it was Oasis.
MBV's known primarily for the mindwarping production of the Loveless era and that deserves recognition certainly. But listen to all the great songs! True we all know there should be so much more music from them but what they did accomplish is amazing enough. Despite their changes in sound they always kept their own identity. From The New Record By...through Loveless...Their songs are filled with original melodies...each verse has such swooping graceful melodies it seems like they must write themselves from Kevin's subconscious.... Deb's basslines could stand on their own but in their natural context they comment on the song that surrounds them. She doesn't merely follow root notes; she picks notes that mean exactly what the song is getting at at each moment...and they're locked down perfectly with Colm's unparalleled timekeeping. His fills seem like they defy time and space-how can he play so fast?-he could never be confused for any other drummer. The band truly play as one. I really don't know of another band who seems so perfectly in tune with each other. They seem to share a brain.
Also, there is no other band whose music has THAT mood...the sort of happy giddy drunk on what seems like love feeling but deep down knowing that in a few hours the sun will come up and reveal what a horrible mess it all really is but denying it to oneself as much as possible...it's a rather twisted mood and it defies all easy categorization of a "happy" song or a "sad" song...it's just a My Bloody Valentine song. Sometimes nothing else will do.
10:42:26 PM 
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