| My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991) |
I’ll try to be brief with this CAT since it’s an album that has a pretty ridiculously prestigious reputation anyway, and because I’m pretty tired from flying back to SF and moving in and all that nonsense. In most indie circles, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless is basically treated like it’s the greatest thing in the history of mankind. I’ve always thought it’s been a little bit overhyped, but really any way you look at it, it’s a pretty grand achievement.
A few CAT’s ago I talked about The Jesus and Mary Chain, who basically planted the seed for the movement known as shoegazing, and Loveless is more or less the pinnacle of the movement. After establishing a sound drenched in heavy droning guitars, dream-like vocals, and wistful melodies on 1988’s Isn’t Anything, My Bloody Valentine delved into an even deeper, immersive sound with Loveless. It’s really pretty amazing how unique of a sound was created with this album, as the whole thing is just basically one giant wave of music that spills over you, without really any one particular instrument ever popping out at you. Even the vocals seem to be used in a way more similar to an instrument than as a way of singing lyrics.
There’s one funny thing that this album always reminds me of. I remember a long time ago, Nancy told me that he had come up with the most revolutionary musical idea ever, to create an album completely recorded underwater. Well I just kind of laughed at him at the time, but this album actually sounds basically what I would imagine an album that was recorded under water would sound like. Maybe it wasn’t as dumb of an idea as I thought it was.
Favorite Tracks: “Only Shallow”, “Blown A Wish”, “Soon”