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.
