| You Made Me Realise | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| EP by | ||||
| Released | 8 August 1988 | |||
| Recorded | January 1988 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 17:06 | |||
| Label | Creation | |||
| Producer | My Bloody Valentine | |||
| My Bloody Valentine chronology | ||||
| ||||
You Made Me Realise is the third EP by alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 8 August 1988 through Creation Records. It was their first record for Creation.
The EP marked a change in direction for the band, where they adopted a noisier sound. Peter Kember, then of Spacemen 3, recalled seeing the band play "You Made Me Realise" at a live performance at the Roadmender in Northampton in 1988, after My Bloody Valentine had supported the Pixies on the latter's first European tour: "They’d transformed. I don’t know quite what had happened, but sometimes bands hit a certain quantum shift. The noise was overwhelming". In a 2013 interview, Kevin Shields acknowledged the influence of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis on his guitar playing at the time, but also highlighted a change in how he used reverse reverb. He had used this effect on the band's previous releases "Strawberry Wine" and Ecstasy , but "to no great consequence, because I was using it the way it was meant to be used. Then in '88, I discovered that it was extremely sensitive to velocity and how high you hit the string. You could make huge waves of sound by hitting it softer or harder". He also credited starting to smoke cannabis, which he had done for six months by the time of recording the EP, as an influence. [1]
Both the single and EP versions were released on 8 August 1988. The single version was limited to 1,000 copies. According to Miki Berenyi from Lush, the girl featured in the album cover is Melanie, who was likely a friend of these bands at the time. [2] [3] The Mercury Records version of the EP was released in November 1988 and added the tracks from its successor EP, Feed Me with Your Kiss .
The promotional video was directed by ex-Jesus and Mary Chain bassist Douglas Hart.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
The You Made Me Realise EP has been very well-received critically.
Spin magazine called the record "astonishing". [5] AllMusic wrote that the EP "made critics stand up and take notice of the brilliant things My Bloody Valentine were up to; it developed some of the stunning guitar sounds that would become the band's trademark, and features tracks which are just as innovative." [4]
In 2005, Stylus Magazine ranked the title song's bassline at number 24 in their list of the "Top 50 Basslines of All Time". [6]
During live performances the band repeats a single chord from the song for as long as they felt bearable, the song descending into cacophony, [7] usually lasting around 15 minutes, although there are reports of shows where it went on for well over half an hour. [7] [8] [9] For the 2008–09 reunion shows, "You Made Me Realise" brought each show to an ear-splitting conclusion, reaching up to 130 dB. [9] [10] [11]
From the 2014 documentary Beautiful Noise , Billy Corgan, on the long noise section played live, said:
It's one of those things where, it was full volume
and for the first three minutes it's like "oh okay this is kind of cool".
Then you're like "This is really too much. I wish they'd fucking stop".
And then at about 7 minutes it actually became kind of funny.
And about 10 minutes in you start actually getting into it.
and Colm Ó Cíosóig interpreted audience reaction as:
We hate you. But we have to keep on watching you. Because we can't believe what you're doing, that you're bringing this torture upon us!
All tracks are written by Kevin Shields, except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Made Me Realise" | 3:46 |
| 2. | "Slow" | 3:11 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Made Me Realise" | 3:46 |
| 2. | "Slow" | 3:11 |
| 3. | "Thorn" | 3:36 |
| 4. | "Cigarette in Your Bed" | 3:29 |
| 5. | "Drive It All Over Me" (Shields/Bilinda Butcher/Colm Ó Cíosóig) | 3:04 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Made Me Realise" | 3:45 |
| 2. | "Slow" | 3:11 |
| 3. | "Cigarette in Your Bed" | 3:29 |
| 4. | "Feed Me with Your Kiss" | 3:56 |
| 5. | "Emptiness Inside" | 2:50 |
| 6. | "I Need No Trust" | 3:32 |
All personnel credits adapted from the EP's liner notes. [12]
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Indie Chart [13] | 2 |
| Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Q | United Kingdom | 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks [14] | 35 |
| 2007 | NME | 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever [15] | 50 |
My Bloody Valentine are an Irish-English rock band formed in Dublin in 1983 and consisting since 1987 of founding members Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig, with Bilinda Butcher and Debbie Googe (bass). Often cited as a pioneering act in the shoegaze genre, their sound is characterized by dissonant guitar textures, androgynous vocals, and unorthodox production techniques.
Shoegaze is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts.
Loveless is the second studio album by the Irish-English rock band My Bloody Valentine. It was released on 4 November 1991 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and in the United States by Sire Records. The album was recorded between February 1989 and September 1991, with vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields leading sessions and experimenting with guitar vibrato, nonstandard tunings, digital samplers, and meticulous production methods. The band recorded at nineteen different studios and hired several engineers during the album's prolonged recording, with its final production cost rumoured to have reached £250,000.
Kevin Patrick Shields is an American-born Irish musician, singer-songwriter, composer, and producer, best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the band My Bloody Valentine. They became influential on the evolution of alternative rock with their two studio albums Isn't Anything (1988) and Loveless (1991), pioneering a subgenre known as shoegaze. Shields's texturised guitar sound and his experimentation with his guitars' tremolo systems resulted in the creation of the "glide guitar" technique, which became a recognisable aspect of My Bloody Valentine's sound, along with his meticulous production techniques.
Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazing, another noise-based genre that developed in the 1980s, drew from noise pop.
Isn't Anything is the debut studio album by Irish-English rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 21 November 1988 by Creation Records. Its innovative guitar and production techniques consolidated the experimentation of the band's preceding EPs and would make the album a pioneering work of the subgenre known as shoegazing. Upon its release, the album received rave critical reviews and reached #1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart.
Tremolo E.P. is an extended play by Irish-English alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released in February 1991 by Creation Records. The EP was a critical success and topped the UK Indie Chart. It featured the single "To Here Knows When", which subsequently appeared on the band's second album Loveless.
This Is Your Bloody Valentine is the debut mini album by the Irish-English alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released in January 1985 on Tycoon Records. Recorded in West Berlin, Germany, it features the band's early gothic rock and post-punk sound, which contrasts the shoegazing sound with which My Bloody Valentine are associated.
The New Record by My Bloody Valentine is the second EP by the Irish-English alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released in September 1986 on Kaleidoscope Sound. Recorded at Alaska Studios in London, the EP's sound is influenced by C86, a brand of indie pop, and diverges from the band's earlier post-punk sound.
"Feed Me with Your Kiss" is a song by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, and was released as a single and also the lead track to the EP of the same name through Creation Records. It is the seventh track and lead single from the band's debut studio album Isn't Anything. It was released on 31 October 1988.
Ecstasy is the second mini album by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 23 November 1987 on Lazy Records. Released in a limited edition of 3,000 copies, it was the band's final release for Lazy Records and second to feature vocalist and guitarist Bilinda Butcher, who was recruited in April 1987 following the departure of original My Bloody Valentine vocalist David Conway. Ecstasy followed the noise pop and twee pop standards of My Bloody Valentine's earlier releases for the label, drawing influence from various artists including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Love and The Byrds, and the album distanced the band further from their earlier post-punk and gothic rock sound.
Colm Ó Cíosóig is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, of which he was a founding member.
Bilinda Jayne Butcher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, best known as a vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine.
"Only Shallow" is a song by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. It is the opening track and second single from the band's second studio album, Loveless (1991), released on Creation Records. Written by Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher, "Only Shallow" features Shields' distinctive guitar sound—a technique known as "glide guitar"—characterized by heavy use of a tremolo bar while strumming.
EP's 1988–1991 is a compilation album by Irish-English shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine, released on 4 May 2012 via Sony. It features four of the band's extended plays for Creation Records—You Made Me Realise (1988), Feed Me with Your Kiss (1988), Glider (1990) and Tremolo (1991)—and seven additional rare and unreleased songs.
Man You Love to Hate – Live is a live album by the Irish-English alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. It was released in 1985 on Schuldige Scheitel Productions. The album was recorded on 9 March 1985 at Sputnik-Kino in West Berlin, Germany, as part of the Amigo Records Die Kwahl music festival, and later mixed at Sulo-Studios. The record date is incorrectly credited as "9.2.85" on the cover. The album features the band's original line-up, material from their debut mini album This Is Your Bloody Valentine (1985) and four unreleased songs never known to have been recorded in-studio.
"Instrumental" is a song by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. It was released as a limited edition free single with the first 5,000 LP copies of the band's debut studio album Isn't Anything, released on 21 November 1988 on Creation Records.
"Sugar" is a song by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. It was released as a non-album split single with Pacific, whose song "December, with the Day" is featured as the single's b-side. "Sugar"/"December, with the Day" was released in February 1989 on Creation Records and issued free with issue 67 of the British music magazine The Catalogue.
Glide guitar is a technique for playing guitar in which the player holds down the vibrato bar, and releases it again while strumming, resulting in a wavering pitch. It was developed with and is usually associated with a Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar-style vibrato system. It was developed by Irish musician Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine on the band's releases You Made Me Realise (1988) and Isn't Anything (1988). Shields often combined this technique with a reverse reverb effect from a Yamaha SPX90 unit or Alesis Midiverb II, and would also tune two neighboring strings of his guitar to nearly the same pitch.
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