release date: Feb. 1989
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: My Bloody Valentine
label: Lazy Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "Strawberry Wine" - 4. "She Loves You No Less" - 6. "I Don't Need You" - 7. "(You're) Safe In Your Sleep (From This Girl)" - 10. "(Please) Lose Yourself In Me"
Compilation album by My Bloody Valentine released by the band's former label Lazy at a time when they were on contract with Creation who had most recently released the band's full-length debut Isn't Anything (Nov. 1988). Furthermore, the album here was released without the band's consent and then it's made up of a the three-track single Strawberry Wine (Nov. 1987) - the first three tracks - and the vinyl-only Mini-album Ecstacy (Nov. 1987) - the final seven tracks. This way, all songs here precede the You Made Me Realise ep and follows after the ep The New Record by My Bloody Valentine (Sep. 1986), and that makes perfectly sense when listening to these 10 songs in a more tempting noise pop, jangle pop, and surf rock-inspired style, which preceded the stronger shoegaze / dreampop mass up. All songs are made with the same (new) line-up with Kevin Shields, Bilinda Butcher, Debbie Googe, and Colm Ó Cíosóig, and it showcases the band's move from 1960s surf rock and psychedelic rock towards a stronger noise pop foundation via jangle pop-influence - say with inspiration from The Smiths and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Not among the band's best releases but definitely worth a listen or as a testimony to the band's early stage.
