Ecstasy is the second mini album by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 23 November 1987 on Lazy Records. Released in a limited edition of 3,000 copies, it was the band's final release for Lazy Records and second to feature vocalist and guitarist Bilinda Butcher, who was recruited in April 1987 following the departure of original My Bloody Valentine vocalist David Conway. Ecstasy followed the noise pop and twee pop standards set by My Bloody Valentine's earlier releases for the label, drawing influence from various artists including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Love and The Byrds, and the album distanced the band further from their earlier post-punk and gothic rock sound.
The album experienced several technical and financial problems during its recording sessions, including errors in the mastering process, and the band were dissatisfied with its outcome; although upon its release, Ecstasy received moderate critical acclaim and peaked at number 12 on the UK Independent Albums Chart. The album was later combined with My Bloody Valentine's preceding single, "Strawberry Wine", and reissued on the compilation album Ecstasy and Wine (1989), which was released on Lazy Records without the band's consent.
Background
Following minor success on the underground scene after the release of The New Record by My Bloody Valentine (1986) and 1987's "Sunny Sundae Smile", original My Bloody Valentine vocalist David Conway left the band due to a gastric illness, disillusionment with music and his ambitions to become a writer. The remaining members—guitarist Kevin Shields, drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig and bassist Debbie Googe—considered splitting up and forming a new band under a different name. However, the band placed advertisements for a vocalist in the local music press in London, which Shields referred to later as "pointless, … disastrous and excrutiating " due to the advertisements attracting a number of Morrissey inspired vocalists who he referred to as "fruitballs". Through mutual friends the band recruited two vocalists, Joe Byfield and Bilinda Butcher. After performing one show in April 1987 with both on vocals, My Bloody Valentine considered Byfield "unsuitable" for the band and he was subsequently fired. Butcher, whose prior musical experience had been playing classical guitar as a child, and singing and playing tambourine "with some girlfriends for fun", was chosen as My Bloody Valentine's new vocalist and began rehearsing with the band in the middle of 1987.
thumb|Ecstasy was the band's second release to feature vocalist and guitarist [[Bilinda Butcher (pictured in 1989), who was recruited in April 1987.]]
Lazy Records, on which the band released "Sunny Sundae Smile", requested a full-length album from My Bloody Valentine during summer 1987. The band refused the label's request, claiming their newly formed line-up "had only been together a couple of months and hadn't really had time to get settled". A number of songs were recorded that did not feature on the final release, as the band considered them "awful". However, the sessions were "the first time [the band had] actually played around properly in the studio", which resulted in "extreme" and "quite nasty" guitar sounds, Regarding the lyrical content of the album in contrast to the music, Shields said that "the songs may sound sweet, but the subject matter isn't necessarily very nice. A lot of it is relationship-based, but it's always vague, and never just boy-meets-girl. It could easily be boy-meets-boy, or girl-meets-girl. Then there's hate, and whimsical thoughts you get from nowhere". Ó Cíosóig remarked that "it's more weird perversions of feeling you get in a relationship" and referred to the lyrics as being marked by "extremes, because we're entertained by extreme things".
My Bloody Valentine experimented with a noise pop sound on the album, a venture which was influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, and incorporated elements of twee pop similar to "Strawberry Wine". Shields used a twelve-string electric guitar during the Ecstasys recording sessions and was influenced by The Byrds during the writing process, which resulted in the guitar tones being "too jingly jangly". My Bloody Valentine later incorporated elements of American indie rock music and Shields customised his guitars' tremolo systems, resulting in the band pioneering an alternative rock subgenre known as shoegazing. The term "shoegazing", which was considered derogatory, was coined by Sounds journalists in the early 1990s to describe certain bands' "motionless performing style, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor".
Release and reception
Ecstasy was released on 23 November 1987 on Lazy Records. It received a limited edition release of 3,000 LP copies distributed by Rough Trade Records and went out of print within three months of its release. In a separate review of Ecstasy and Wine, AllMusic writer Bradley Torreano described Ecstasy as the point where the band "started moving toward Cocteau Twins territory, using guitarist Bilinda Butcher's airy voice to define their image" and when "Shields and Butcher [were] exploring the guitar landscapes that would later become their trademark".
On Ecstasys supporting tour My Bloody Valentine conceived the idea of an interlude of white noise during live performances which was later attributed to their song "You Made Me Realise" and often exceeded 130 decibels. The band toured small student venues and, according to Kevin Shields, at "one particular place, there were these guy playing pool in the background, shouting amongst themselves and being quite loud and not paying attention". Before performing "Clair", Shields said to the band "let's just do it until those guys stop" and performed a two-chord riff in the song that lasted for an approximate 30 minutes.
Track listing
Personnel
All personnel credits adapted from Ecstasys liner notes.