Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

album cover

Noise, Redefined

Those who spend their days applying hairsplitting genre distinctions to rock bands had a devil of a time with My Bloody Valentine. The Irish-British band, whose Loveless is regularly voted one of the ten most important rock records of the 1990s, was initially described as noise-rock, for the layers of menacing feedback purveyed by guitarist Kevin Shields. Then, the four-piece became the leading avatar of a sound described as "shoegazing" rock, because the musicians had a tendency to look at the floor. Later, with this album, some critics called My Bloody Valentine, which drew its name from a Canadian horror film, "bliss pop."

If those tags seem a bit arbitrary, that's because this music, which is defined by guitar-orchestra lushness and abrasive grandeur, is nearly impossible to pin down. Shields told interviewers he was influenced by the Velvet Underground, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and the Beach Boys—yet no matter how you triangulate these sources, they don't necessarily lead to the sweeping sounds of Loveless. By this, his band's second full-length effort, Shields had developed a daunting arsenal of sound. Its thick towers of guitar distortion move in waves like heat radiating from the pavement; odd slurpy pitch-bends that suggest tape-recorder malfunction; vocals that hide behind extravagant chordal yowls. Each of the eleven songs attains a dense orchestral roar; on those that have vocals, either by Shields or rhythm guitarist Bilinda Butcher, the refrains come across serene, kissed with celestial sweetness.

When he made this, Shields—who's something of a perfectionist, and hasn't released much music since—was thinking less like a rock guitarist than an irreverent sound mangler, in the tradition of Anthony Braxton, or Public Enemy. In his fantastical and sometimes off-putting creations, murk enhances the mystery, and beauty comes wrapped in the guitar equivalent of barbed wire.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1991, Sire
Key Tracks: "Only Shallow," "When You Sleep," "Soon"
Catalog Choice: Isn't Anything
Next Stop: Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy
After That: Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation
Book Page: 537

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#1 from Peter Knutson, Shenzhen, China - 10/12/2008 6:48

I just recently saw My Bloody Valentine perform in New York, and was stunned a little bit when confronted again with the reality that these are real people performing this music.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen them, but it’s been a long, long time, and since then Loveless has developed the unassailable sheen that oft heard “masterpiece” albums, like Pet Sounds, or Kind of Blue, or Beatles records from Revolver forward, get polished with. 

Albums like those, and like Loveless seem so ingrained in consciousness, so assumed to be masterpieces, that I hardly experience them as music anymore (or more specifically as a set of performances).  It was a little revelatory to hear them performed again, and to remember that they are perform-able.

Even better (perversely enough) the songs from Loveless were nowhere near as good in the live setting then material from their older records was.  During the show, the earlier songs were transcendent to me.  Live, the Loveless tunes felt far too mechanical to be inspiring.

Surprisingly, hearing those less convincing performance has made it possible for me to listen to Loveless record fresh again…the polished finish was rubbed away just enough for me to hear again the music that transfixed me 15+ years ago. 

I’d listened to that record so many times I could still appreciate it, but not really enjoy it anymore; it no longer seemed real.  The album had become monolithic and I guess I could no longer really hear it.  In the last couple of listens since the show, though, I can really hear it again, at least for the time being, and I love it again.

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

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