my bloody valentine Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside) (1988)
Before Loveless, before the my bloody valentine myth hardened into legend and Kevin Shields drifted off into perfectionist purgatory, there was Isn’t Anything, a debut that cracked open a portal. Widely considered the first pure shoegaze album, it set the bar for bands like Slowdive.
The LP opens with “Soft as Snow (but Warm Inside)”, a beautiful track that still sounds unhinged and oddly futuristic, like a premonition of what was to come as the band’s glide-guitar alchemy expanded and matured in the years that followed. The drums are boxy, the guitars abrasive and metallic, almost industrial. At the center of it all is Shields’ tender, youthful voice, present yet veiled, crooning through the static.
You can trace their known influences here: Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, The Byrds. You can hear early hints of the reverse-reverb and blown-out pedalboard poetry that would define Loveless. There’s a dancefloor logic buried in it too, not in the BPM, but in the repetition, the sensuality, the trance of it all.
The song doesn’t aim to soothe but tries to get under your skin. It’s a reminder that early MBV wasn’t just about blissed-out immersion: it was about tension, friction and invention. It’s not as widely adored as “soon” or “when you sleep”, but for diehards, it’s essential. A flash of raw, writhing energy—warm on the inside, and spiked with possibility.
“Soft As Snow” is proto-everything: shoegaze, avant-pop, dream techno. Music before the hacks knew what to call it.
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