my bloody valentine: loveless

[niall]

like many journokritischer types, i am guilty of listening to musicks by way of musical shorthand over the years in a misguided, if well-intentioned, ambition to define aesthetics both generalised and personal. when you're listening intently for broad strokes, it's easy to forget the forest for the trees, and that's just what i've done with my bloody valentine for the last twelve years.

it's really easy, thus tempting, to equate shields & co. with a few signature techniques. those breathy, detached vocals and the characteristic slew of shields' tremolo usage over an overdriven, open-string chord can be heard in lush, or whipping boy's first album, or, yes, m83's _dead cities..._ lp, and suddenly every band's got a shoegazing heritage - even sonic youth and the jesus and mary chain! listening critically and without an agenda to _loveless_ for the first time in, o, four or five years last night, it was clear that i've sold the band and myself short for a long time. there's nothing i've heard that sounds like this record.

in philosophical circles, one hears talk of hedgehogs, who know One Big Thing, and foxes, who know Many Little Things. i've tried all my life to bed down with the latter, but have clearly been asleep in the other den for too long.

no more agendas! no more historicity to the detriment of timeless sound! only listening! and then talking about listening! only one criterion: does it make my scotch taste better?

{yes, it did}

[I'm Painting Again]

the MBV songs under all the sound are pretty great..I like isnt anything because its more straight forward..you can hear the songs more clearly..and they are great..

[earl parameter]

"there's nothing i've heard that sounds like this record."

[starscream]

I was turned to this record when I was 15yrs old, I'll be 27 in a couple of months, and everytime I listen to this record I hear a sound, rhythm, melody, noise; something, that I never noticed before. It is truly a classic in it's own right. Just my .02

Nick

[evan]

What's amazing is that they were able to accomplish their sound live equally well. If you can find any of their live bootlegs that float around in the Inter-ether, it's something to behold.

[lanterns]

you CAN devote an entire website to this album. it's been done.
it's beautiful.
When I first bought it, it was set on repeat in excess of 18 hours.
loveless indeed.