Sunday 11 November 2012

Five Star Songs: Kevin Shields- City Girl


Last week it was reported, in an NME interview, that Kevin Shields will finally release the long awaited follow up to the classic My Bloody Valentine classic album Loveless. You should take his word cautiously, as Shields has been promising a new MBV LP for almost 20 years now, and we are still waiting. He has a great excuse for not putting out the new record; he has stated in earlier interviews that he cannot bear to put out anything inferior to Loveless. That is a tall order because it it one of the greatest records of the last thirty years.

Even though we are still waiting for the next MBV album, Shields has been busy contributing to other musical endeavours, with great success. Not only has he worked with or produced some great bands including Placebo, Yo La Tengo and Dinosaur Jr., he became a full time member of Primal Scream and worked on the albums XTRMNTR and Evil Heat.

One of the other cool things Shields did in the last few years was to contribute four songs to Lost In Translation movie soundtrack. When the soundtrack came out in 2003, it was Shields first original work he had done in ten years. The then reclusive Shields was coaxed to contribute to the LP by Brian Reitzell , the drummer for Air, who was the Music Supervisor for the soundtrack.

The Lost in Translation LP is one of the best soundtracks from the last twenty years. Not only does it have Shields work, but it also includes songs from  Phoenix, Air, and the song Just Like Honey from the Jesus & Mary Chain which is featured just after the wonderful climatic scene where Scarlett Johansson whispers in Bill Murray's ear.

Of the four songs Shields contributed to the album, three were instrumentals and only one, City Girl, featured Shields vocals.  City Girl is a pretty dream pop song that makes you wonder why Shields has not put out any other new material in the last ten years. The track features simple garage guitar work and is reminiscent of the pre-Loveless MBV era.

Buy the soundtrack to Lost in Translation on iTunes, Amazon or check your local record store.

Watch the video for the track and see Scarlett Johansson do a bit of sight seeing in Japan.







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