On November 21st, 1988, My Bloody Valentine finally released their debut full-length album Isn’t Anything. The record followed several changes in sound from their start with the 1985 mini-album This Is Your Bloody Valentine, before the band fully developed their trademark avant-garde style that gave birth to the genre later known as shoegaze.
Following the release of The New Record by My Bloody Valentine in 1986, original vocalist Dave Conway departed the group and was replaced by Bilinda Butcher, who made her debut on the 3 track Strawberry Wine single, which also featured the songs “Never Say Goodbye”, and “Can I Touch You”.
Butcher’s joining the band on vocals and guitar finalized the core lineup of founding members Kevin Shields (vocals, guitar) Colm Ó Cíosóig (drums), and Debbie Googe (bass).
The next release from this lineup was and the Ecstasy mini-album, which led to MBV signing to Creation Records in July of 1988. The first release on the label was the single/EP “You Made Me Realise”, which would later that year be featured on the band’s full-length debut Isn’t Anything.
“Kevin gave me ‘You Made Me Realise’, which was supposed to be a track on their first EP for us,” recalled Creation head Alan McGee. “I went, That’s the single! He was shocked, cos they’d only done the track as a joke. Then they did stuff for their album, and I said, Go for more of the weirder stuff. So they went back and did stuff like ‘Soft as Snow’. Those are the only suggestions I’ve ever given them.”
Most of Isn’t Anything was recorded during the sleepless hours of a two-week recording session in a studio in Wales. Bilinda Butcher, in recalling the delirium of the experience, said that: “Often, when we do the vocals, it’s 7:30 in the morning: I’ve usually fallen asleep and have to be woken up to sing. Maybe that’s why it’s languorous. I’m usually trying to remember what I’ve been dreaming about when I’m singing.”
