Again. We last got unduly stoked for new material from MBV at the end of 2007, when the band was preparing for their 2008 reunion tour and dropping hints of a Loveless follow-up that was about “3/4 finished” but would be out “before year’s end.” Leaving aside the laughable notion that weirdo perfectionist shoegaze godfather Kevin Shields would polish off the last 25% of his album in less than a month, IT HURT A LOT THAT HE DIDN’T.

Then, this past November, we heard a similar promise from the NME (shudder): the album would “be released on frontman Kevin Shields’s website before the end of the year … followed by a further EP of brand new material.” It’s a Christmas miracle! Except we’ve heard nothing else over the ensuing weeks, the year is nearly over, and Shields doesn’t even have a website. Guess we’re giving up again.

Boy, I tell you: I am really looking forward to the next time I briefly hold out hope for a new My Bloody Valentine album. It’s like they know exactly how to space out my disappointments so that I never learn the lesson. In the end, even if this has been a two-decade hoax and Shields never recorded a single note, I appreciate that he’s been throwing me this bone now and then, just to get me through another five years. 

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