McGee: 'Church is the new Kevin Shields'

Alan McGee has said that Charlotte Church is the new Kevin Shields.

The former Creation Records boss, who worked with My Bloody Valentine guitarist Shields in the late 1980s, told The Guardian that playing Church's Tissues and Issues LP made him understand Shields's Picasso-like genius.

McGee said: "I now rate Church's talent on the same level as Shields's. Both are prodigious, Church with her voice and Shields with his guitar.

"It was Charlotte Church's video for 'Crazy Chick' that made me really get Kevin's reluctance to record his follow-up. While the lyrics speak of 'broken relationships', the video provides a deeper meaning as Church tries to handle the dichotomy of normalcy and fame.

"Fame is an abomination to Shields. His reclusive nature in My Bloody Valentine makes sense when you listen to 'Crazy Chick'. Shields wants to live in a world of music, not music celebrity."

He added: "Church, like Kevin, is an instinctive artist. It's art for art's sake. And the Dylan-like words of 'Crazy Chick' (from Tissues and Issues) made me understand the intensity and passion of Kevin's vision.

"If Church is able to record pop music, then maybe, just maybe, Shields will be ready to finish the follow-up to Loveless (or even just the remasters). If not, we've always got Charlotte Church, the new Kevin Shields, with her fearless experiments in pop."

McGee recently claimed that Susan Boyle's work evokes that of David Lynch, and also suggested that will.i.am is the new Sly Stone.