My Bloody Valentine understood one simple thing – music sounds different when you’re stoned, and, in those moments, noise can ring like the most harmonious sound in existence. Lead by the perfectionism of Kevin Shields, the band finally seemed to achieve most of their goals with the album “Loveless,” one of the most famous indie-rock albums of the 90s.
When “Loveless” was finally released, after years spent painstakingly assembling it in the studio, the music press was quick to proclaim it a masterpiece. Is this still true, or is it just the famous hyperbole for which the British music press is known? I am revisiting and reviewing “Loveless” today in order to try to get an answer.
The My Bloody Valentine Sound and Shoegaze Scene
The original punk rockers were anything if not animated. Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious had been, after all, chosen to be in bands mainly for the menacing figure that they cut on stage. Even the more experimental group that followed them, like Joy Division or Bauhaus, had their own dances, stage moves, and wardrobe to rely on.
Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig started what would become My Bloody Valentine in the shadow of punk rock. They started out by playing Sex Pistols and Ramones covers. Soon, however, the band added layers of noise and complex orchestration that had more in common with prog-rock than punk.
They didn’t move much on stage, if at all, and the music press, always eager to pick on someone, called them “shoegaze.”
MBV and the Shoegaze Scene
And even though their sound was coming together to reveal something hypnotic, but hardly commercial, Shields and his musical companions were ambitious. The band relocated to London and thought about moving to New York. They worked diligently on their music, a striking contrast from the amateurism of most punk-rock bands. And even from their chaotic debut EP, “This is Your Bloody Valentine,” listeners could tell that the group was inching toward something special.
Suddenly, My Bloody Valentine was part, if not heading, an exciting music scene. It was strictly underground for now, but it wouldn’t stay like this forever. It was built from the musicians’ love of cool, classic records. And it was built from the scenesters’ love of light drugs.
But, most importantly these musicians were trying to orchestrate noise itself. My Bloody Valentine, along with groups like Jesus & Mary Chain or Dinosaur Jr., were trying to make guitar amp feedback sound like an orchestra backing Burt Bacharach.
Being viewed as the cool band around town helped MBV. The ever-excited Alan McGee, who had formed Creation Records in Scotland, offered the group to release their music and bankroll their studio experiments.
Searching for a follow to the record “Isn’t Anything,” Shields and the rest of the band retreated into the studio. It took nearly three years, by which time the sessions had almost bankrupted Creation, but “Loveless” arrived in 1991 and sounded not quite like anything in the shoegaze sphere or outside of it.
“Loveless” Review
Early shoegaze bands (I’ll use the term for convenience if nothing else) were, essentially, a primitive version of mash-ups. The Jesus & Mary Chain, for example, loved the beautiful melodies of bands like The Beach Boys or The Byrds. But they also liked over-the-top, noisy rock like The Stooges at their most confrontational.
Still, as Kevin Shields learned, working with pure pop and pure noise was a process of slowly sculpting both to perfection. This is why “Loveless” took so long and why, even now, it doesn’t quite sound like anything else.
Album opener, “only shallow” is hypnotic, hooky, beautifully noisy. Bilinda Butcher vocals are tender, and contrast with Shields’ guitar tone that sounds like heavy objects being launched into a ravine. The guitarist had not only discovered his own tone, but also a unique technique, a tremelo-playing style which he called “glide guitar.”
mbv’s Distinctive Sound
The album may sound distinctive, but rarely is it uninviting. “loomer” turns every production cliche on its head, but still, at its core, feels like the soundtrack to a bizarre tea party. “to here knows when” purposely hides some of its best elements under a blanket of noise, but it is still driven by a sound resembling electronic dance music.
The most famous piece on the album, “when you sleep” grabs onto gorgeously innocent-sounding melodies and give them the My Bloody Valentine treatment. The mix of purity and depravity, as well as the effortlessness of the writing brings to mind The Velvet Underground, a comparison with which MBV would need to learn to live.
If anything, “Loveless” manages to capture a feeling that is otherwise hard to describe. It is the sound of being blissed out in a club in the middle of the night while receiving every noise as some reward from the gods. It’s the high before the inevitable comedown.
As a strict pop record, “Loveless” would make no sense. The vocals are buried in the mix; the guitars aren’t playing riffs or solos. But the music as a whole is dense enough that you can almost touch it. No wonder that words like “lush” would often be used to describe the album or that it would spark so many imitators.
Legacy of “Loveless”
“Loveless” received nearly universal praise upon its release. The music press greeted it as the start of a new kind of British underground. Many music fans became obsessed by the band.
The influence of “Loveless” was both immediate and long-lasting. Noise pop groups, now semi-officially dubbed “shoegaze,” began sprouting everywhere. Some of the best were Lush, Slowdive, Swerverdriver, or Ride. And, in 2024, the shoegaze sound would have a revival moment spurred on by TikTok videos using this music.
My Bloody Valentine’s sound and, more importantly, their attitude to sound was a great influence also on the other important indie-rock bands of the early 1990s. From The Happy Mondays to Primal Scream, everyone proclaimed their admiration for MBV.
Numerous publications have included “Loveless” on their lists of finest bands ever produced. Celebrity musicians like Billy Corgan or Brian Eno have sung its praises, and took some ideas for themselves.
And while everything seemed to announce My Bloody Valentine as the next indie band to top the mainstream charts, that never quite happened. Shields’ perfectionism meant that the band only released one other studio album, 2013’s “mbv.”
That hardly mattered, though. “Loveless” took everything to make and was a complete reflection of Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine’s musical ambitions.
