Noise
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the noise music genre. Combine with tags for subgenres, e.g. “noise+pop.”
-
Mercury Rev – “Yerself Is Steam” (1991)
Yerself Is Steam is a big pool of stereotypical early ’90s alternative rock noise to get lost in. If you’re a fan of the aesthetic as I am, it’ll make you feel just at home. This is best viewed as a collage though; focus on anything specific and you may realize there isn’t much in the way… (read more)
-
My Bloody Valentine – “m b v” (2013)
I just want to be the first to call m b v the “indie Chinese Democracy” before Pitchfork says it 10 times in their review. I don’t actually view this as another Chinese Democracy at all, I just wanted to be the first to say it. After all, I was one of the first people… (read more)
-
Astrobrite – “Crush”
Crush by Astrobite is by-the-numbers shoegaze. It’s too same-y and mediocre to be worth your time. Good luck telling the tracks here apart. Sure you’ve got your fuzzy, noisy crunchers and ethereal, cyclical, slow songs, but those are your only two modes. Also, the vocalist thinks he’s Kevin Shields—but no one is! I don’t know… (read more)
-
Boris – “Attention Please”
Minimal shoegaze Attention Please is as far away as you can get from shoegaze while still being shoegaze. It’s actually a pretty unique-sounding album for the genre and I never gave it enough credit for that before. I have to say though: Wata may be a good guitarist, but she is a terrible vocalist, and I’m not… (read more)
-
My Bloody Valentine – “Loveless” (1991)
2/5/2026: Man, I should probably have something written for my favorite album of all time. But hopefully you can empathize with having to write about something you connect to on such a deeply emotional level. Sure, I could go through Loveless track-by-track and describe why I think every composition choice works using adjectives yanked out… (read more)
-
Lilys – “A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns” (1994)
Excellent ’90s alternative rock that retains a fair amount of the noise from the first album, which was heavily inspired by the early ’90s shoegazing scene. On the A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns EP, Lilys breaks away from that a little with a more aggressive sound that still sounds very melodic. Lilys went from… (read more)
-
My Bloody Valentine – “Lost Tracks and Rare Cuts” (2010)
Lost Tracks and Rare Cuts is an unauthorized collection of My Bloody Valentine (MBV) rarities. Among these are “Sugar,” one of the B-sides to the Only Shallow single and a longer version of the track “Glider” from the Glider EP. “Cowboy Song,” “Good for You,” “Just Like Us” (more commonly known as “Kevin Song”) and… (read more)
-
The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Honey’s Dead” (1992)
Honey’s Dead sounds disturbingly like Screamadelica. “Sundown” makes that much really obvious. Disturbing because Bobby Gillespie left The Jesus and Mary Chain after Psychocandy to form Primal Scream, of course. The Jesus and Mary Chain are a hard band to critique. They are not a complex group; just generally skilled pop songwriters with a great sense… (read more)
-
The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Psychocandy”
Often cited as the origin of the noise pop genre, "Psychocandy" by The Jesus and Mary Chain is as archetypal now as it was then. And just as much of a classic. (read more)
-
My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow” (1992)
Only Shallow is My Bloody Valentine‘s (MBV) sole single release from Loveless, unless you count earlier versions of some album tracks on predating EPs. Slightly baffling when considering the incredibly consistent, high quality of every song on Loveless. Perhaps it’s a magnanimous move, as no one should be discouraged from purchasing the entire album. Truly… (read more)