Review #73: Loveless, My Bloody Valentine
#73: Loveless, My Bloody Valentine
I find this album SO compelling and beautiful, and I just don’t understand why. When my first betta fish died, I colored in my horror coloring book and played this album on repeat. RIP Murphy. No betta has lived up to you yet.
Despite my deep emotional tie to this album, I didn’t know anything about My Bloody Valentine. My research turned up some fascinating tidbits. First of all, the RS blurb pointed out that this album cost as much as $500,000 and “nearly bankrupted” their U.K. label Creation Records.
HAHAHA. What?! It sounds like they’re playing out of amps that are being dragged through the mud! I’ve been learning about EQ recently for my other job, and I know that muffling a track is an art and all, but you cannot tell me that it takes $500K for their guitars to sound like this.
I also learned that this band apparently helped to create a musical style called “shoegaze.” God, the realization that an album that I *love* is shoegaze music. Shoegaze?!?! Are they making fun of me?
But anyway, the RS blurb calls this album “vague, shimmering, [and] gorgeous.” Can’t put it much better than that.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Only Shallow” — I love the sliding guitars all over this. I’ve always assumed that this was a female vocalist, but the second time I listened to Loveless to take notes for my review, I was suddenly unsure. Is that a dude? Is that a lady? I had no idea.
“Loomer” — I think this one sounds the most like a Sonic Youth song.
“Touched” — Ahhh this one scares me, what the hell is that noise, ahhh!
“When You Sleep” — After listening to this song, I began to deduce that this band, in fact, had both a male and female singer. After some research, I learned that these singers were named Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher. What a concept!
“I Only Said” — The opening of this is incredible.
“Come In Alone” — Who the hell writes these?
“Sometimes” — I’m not sure that it was even possible to have a favorite song on this album since they kind of all sound exactly the same. But if I did have a favorite, it would be this one.
“Soon” — This one almost resembles music! I’ve listened to this album probably 20 times, and if I heard any of these songs in a grocery store, I probably wouldn’t be able to name it.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“To Here Knows When” — Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. For like five minutes. It’s great to vibe to but terrible to listen to.
“Blown A Wish” — This is an Enya song.
IS RS FULL OF IT?
No. This is the weirdest hit album ever, and if that’s not a reason to adore it, go gaze at somebody else’s shoes.
