The last time I heard of Kevin Shields was when he contributed tracks to Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Skip ahead to summer of 2008 and Shields and My Bloody Valentine are back for real. First there was the announcement of a reunion tour. Now Pitchfork is reporting that Loveless and Isn’t Anything are being released in remastered versions in June.
Having bought both albums years ago I now have to ask myself do I really need the remastered versions as well. Especially since Wired’s Listening Post speculates there might actually be three different versions of Loveless in the works:
One possibility, as amazing as it might seem, is that Sony/BMG will re-release three versions of each album: the original mix, a new Shields mix and a new Sony mix. Movie studios do this all the time (director’s cut, unrated version) but the approach tends not to be used much with music.
I’m not too big on buying the same movies over and over again and the same goes for music. On the other hand, Loveless is a modern classic and deserves to be remastered. Just do it properly and don’t just make it louder (”These go to 11“) and I might actually succumb.
Also, while we’re on the subject of rereleases, I’m still waiting for the mono version of Sgt. Pepper.