loveless

By the time these shoe gazers finally unleashed the perfect pop noise of this landmark tour de force, they had gone through nineteen studios, teams of engineers, and a quarter of a million pounds over two years, nearly bankrupting their label. My Bloody Valentine had recorded their first album 'Isn't Anything' in two weeks. Creation Records had thought the new album could be recorded "in five days", says Kevin Shields, "but when it became clear that wasn't going to happen, they freaked."

After working with Alan Moulder for the 'Glider' EP, they insisted on working with him; telling all other engineers, "We're so on top of this you don't even have to come to work." Shields says "these engineers, with the exception of Alan Moulder and later Anjali Dutt, were all just the people who came with the studio...everything we wanted to do was wrong, according to them." Kevin Shields directed the proceedings and played most of the instruments. Moulder remembers that "Kevin had a clear view of what he wanted, but he never explained it." Drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig was unable to play normally and samples and drum loops were used on most of the record. In some cases, a dozen different takes of Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher's vocals were piled on top of each other. Butcher jokes how her dreamy singing style came about: "Often when we do vocals, it's 7:30 in the morning; I've usually just fallen asleep and have to be woken up to sing." Every process was extended, from composition to recording to mixing to mastering, driving costs higher and higher. Shields and Butcher even became affected with tinnitus, forcing more delays. One studio, Britannia Row, refused to return the band's equipment until the bill was paid. As if the Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain gave birth to another kind of Sonic Youth; the lush layers of vocals, feedback, pitch-blending, reverb, and distortion create emotive and translucent washes of synths, samples, guitars, and groans that my wife compares to a lawnmower. So...not for everyone. 'Loveless' peaked at only number twenty-four on the British charts, but it was a hugely influential on the dreampop movement that would follow.









https://www.mybloodyvalentine.org/

'Only Shallow'

'When You Sleep'

'I Only Said'

'What You Want'

'Soon'

'Blown A Wish'

Midnight wish

Blow me a kiss

I'll blow one to you

Make like this

Try to pretend it's true

'Loveless'  full album:




All songs written and composed by Kevin Shields, unless otherwise noted. 

1. "Only Shallow"   Bilinda Butcher, Shields 4:17
2. "Loomer"   Butcher, Shields 2:38
3. "Touched"   Colm Ó Cíosóig 0:56
4. "To Here Knows When"   Butcher, Shields 5:31
5. "When You Sleep"   4:11
6. "I Only Said"   5:34
7. "Come In Alone"   3:58
8. "Sometimes"   5:19
9. "Blown a Wish"   Butcher, Shields 3:36
10. "What You Want"   5:33
11. "Soon"   6:58