More about: My Bloody Valentine

It’s enough to melt your effect pedals and blow up the valves on your amps but it seems that shoegaze godheads My Bloody Valentine are set to return next year with not only all analogue versions of their albums Loveless and Isn’t Anything but also a brand new album.

Yes, you read that right. A brand new album from My Bloody Valentine and only a mere five years since the release of their last LP, m b v. Prior to that, their last release had been 1991’s feted and rightly celebrated second album, Loveless.

So what do we know of the mooted fourth album? The claim has been made in a biography of band frontman Kevin Shields written for his forthcoming appearance at Sigur Ros' Norður og Niður Festival.

The bio on the festival's website concludes with the assertion that Shields is "currently finishing an all analog vinyl version of Loveless and Isn't Anything and is also working on material for a new My Bloody Valentine album to be released in 2018."

If indeed true, you can expect things to go into total meltdown next year. The release of m b v – a full 22 years after Loveless – sent the internet into a total tailspin as fans downloaded the album, bought the vinyl and engaged in lengthy online discussions on its merits in relation to its predecessors.

My Bloody Valentine were formed in 1983 by Kevin Shields and drummer Colm O’Ciosoig and they later recruited guitarist Bilinda Butcher and bassist Debbie Googe. Blending volume with noise, melody, alternate tunings and meticulous attention to detail in the studio, My Bloody Valentine are widely credited for spearheading what was to be known as shoegaze.

Signed to Creation Records, they released a number of pioneering EPs including ‘You Made Me Realise’, ‘Glider’ and ‘Tremelo’. During their extended hiatus, Shields worked with Primal Scream among others and in 2004 he was nominated for a Bafta award for the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation.

More about: My Bloody Valentine