Now that the media hoopla surrounding the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind has finally subsided, we can focus on the real masterpiece of the 1990s: My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.
On November 4, 1991, Irish shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine released their second album, Loveless. Now, 20 years later, the album stands not only as one of the seminal albums of the ’90s, but perhaps also as one of the most important releases in music history.
Upon its release, Loveless and MBV themselves were very much overshadowed by grunge, in particular by Nirvana. After all, Nirvana’s 1991 release features perhaps the most iconic rock song ever recorded, equally iconic cover art, and of course, the added legacy of Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Nevermind had broad appeal, hitting hard, relentlessly and straightforwardly, the way arguably all guitar-based albums should.
Loveless, by contrast, is full of rich musical layering, swirling guitars, and nearly unintelligible lyrics; so distorted are the vocals. While Nevermind was a groundbreaking album, Loveless presented a groundbreaking sound and, inevitably, spawned legions of imitators.
Its legacy is supplemented by the history behind it: after nearly two years in the studio, My Bloody Valentine had racked up recording charges upwards of approximately $200,000, nearly breaking up the band altogether. In retrospect, its release was something of a miracle.
Kevin Shields, the mastermind behind the band, was wary of critical backlash upon the album’s release. Instead, Loveless was on the receiving end of near unanimous praise from critics and peers alike. The legendary British music magazine NME awarded the album 8 out of 10 stars, calling MBV the “blueprint” for shoegaze bands everywhere; Rolling Stone gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, as did Melody Maker.
Praise has also come from musical peers, including the legends Brian Eno – “it set a new standard for pop” – Robert Smith of The Cure – “Loveless is certainly one of my all-time three favourite records” – and Trey Anastasio of Phish – “Loveless was the best album recorded in the ’90s.”
Loveless transcends what an album is meant to be – it’s an idea more than anything. Shields and his bandmates crafted a sound never before heard, and as yet inimitable. More than anything, Loveless is a beautiful album, one which features songs that simultaneously deserve a speaker’s full volume and can also function brilliantly as ambient background music. Featuring one of the best streaks of songs in history, with the album’s middle featuring the classics “I Only Said” and “Come In Alone”, Loveless, while easily listenable as full album, also features stellar individual songs, none greater than the album’s opener “Only Shallow.”
My Bloody Valentine – I Only Said
My Bloody Valentine – Only Shallow
Given that “Only Shallow” opens the album, its first second deceives the listener, tricking them into thinking that MBV are just like any rock band. But by the time the song hits the three-second mark, when drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig completes his brief drum roll of an introduction, the song reveals its true colors. The guitar that enters in after Cíosóig’s intro isn’t what one would readily call a riff, for it is hard to imagine such a noise being produced from a hand simply strumming across a guitar’s strings. Rather, it is as if the guitar is being attacked, hacked at; the sound is disorienting and striking, and truly unlike any guitar noise ever recorded. The song’s lyrics, sung by the delightful Belinda Butcher, are nearly completely obscured, but the melody that carries them deservedly takes center-stage. In just short of four-and-a-half minutes, “Only Shallow” welcomes the listener to Kevin Shield’s bizarre, Loveless world, filled with distortion, some of the best guitar riffs ever laid down, and many of the greatest songs of the ’90s.
So groundbreaking was Loveless that MBV have been unable to record a follow-up record. Every few years, music media jumps onto rumors that Shields is busy writing new material, but none of those rumors come to fruition. Yet it would be hard to find any fan upset over this, for even if MBV never enter a studio again, we will always have the eternal masterpiece that is Loveless.
Attempting to be as objective as possible, I would say that naming Loveless the masterpiece of the 90’s is a hefty statement. I would agree that Loveless is quite an important release in music history. Yet you state that Loveless is groundbreaking sound as compared to Nevermind which is a groundbreaking album. I would argue that Nevermind is actually more of a groundbreaking sound because of Kurt’s style of singing and the minimalist guitars present in the music. Even if you want to go by the standard of groundbreaking sound though and dont agree with me on Nevermind, I would further say that bands like the Pixies and Sonic Youth, and even most of the underground alternative movement of the 1980’s pioneered the type of sound that you speak of way before Loveless. To say that Loveless can go ahead of albums like Nevermind, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, OK Computer, is difficult for me to accept. You may not be saying that, I understand. I just feel, in my personal opinion, that Loveless is slightly overrated.
Well to a point, there would’ve been no Mellon Collie or Siamese Dream without this album. And I think to say that the Pixies and Sonic Youth pioneered the type of sound MBV work with is kinda off-base, the latter bands were in no way shoegaze and really pioneered what Nirvana worked with, not MBV.