Loveless

Experimental art rock that was way ahead of its time for 1991. Can clearly hear the influences on other rock acts of the 90s and all types of acts today. Abrasive and dissonant at times and those vocals are so soft, but very musically interesting and kept my attention the entire time. Would rate 4.5/5 if possible. Favourite Tracks: Only Shallow, Loomer, Come In Alone, Soon

A classic album, and one that requires more than one listen to fully appreciate. Like all shoe gaze it's a bit hard to discern one song from another but the overall vibe is fuzzy, heavy, gloomy. Would be great live. Misses out on a 5 due to a lack of variation through the album, but still a classic. 4.5/5

Fitting to get this one right after it's been officially added to streaming services! If you showed me just the first track and told me "this is what shoegaze is", I'd be totally hooked. Unfortunately, I feel the album falls off a bit and loses a good bit of it's edge that got me hooked. While the flood of reverb is nice to listen to, the way it's used doesn't impress me nearly as much throughout the rest of the album. Despite all this, the album still comes across as a stellar and unique listening experience, so hats off to mbv for killing it with this album.

7/10. Have seen it on many 'top albums of all time' lists but I don't really get the hype. There's some good songs on here (Only Shallow is great) but its not as good as everyone makes it out to be. Still an enjoyable album!

Its okay but sounds a bit mushy. Not really my thing but I would put it on in the background whilst I reminisce about the past or something. I like the cover.

Beautifully produced, a great guitar noise. I do find it drags a bit, though, without the hook of an actual song structure.

Talentless, more like. Eh, when it's good its real good. But it's mostly droning nonsense.

Already know this record. I might have to go with a weak 3. This album would have had more potential if it had some more emotion. Despite its cult status, this is generic 1990s alt rock, at times it is just noise. Some moments of emotions. Not the masterpiece it is made to be at all

A fascinating listen. While I don't imagine coming back to much here, the style and early pioneering of shoegaze on this album really was so interesting that I couldn't in good conscience score it below a 3. It's like some weird modern art piece that oddly captivates you - while you won't hang it in your house to look at it every day, it's very interesting to observe while you're at the museum.

A tough one. There's a lot I've liked about this - the essential furry sound of droning early 90s mega-distorted guitars; so much you can't even identify strings being played - acoustic chords strumming atop - more a sense of feel overall than the songs going in a hard and fast direction. A dreamscape of music. But it's often too much. I love a low vocal mix but this is so low as to become barely noticed. And that variable-speed effect on most of the songs ....? It's terribly disorienting. You're left with this feeling akin to an aural seasickness which i'm sure was the intent and might be cool/different/interesting for one verse of one song but over and over makes it disconcerting. Many of the positives I like from this record were for me done better by the best of Smashing Pumpkins at the same time on Gish, with a better mix and better dynamics (any dynamics, really). Hard to rate - I've heard it now and again and maybe need to really lose myself in it more to appreciate it fully; next time I'm feeling super-emo I'll try to fight through the tears and remember to put this on. Because I go back and forth i'll cut it down the middle - it's really interesting at times but doesn't give me chills either. Worth a listen for everyone tho since I can't really compare it to many other bands. 6/10 3 stars

Ugh. I was hoping this would be better/more entertaining than their debut album, but no luck there. And much like "Isn't Anything", I had no luck at all understanding *anything* they're singing; I guess they decided they liked their ethereal-Cocteau-Twins-meets-Dinosaur-Jr sound so much that they just kept on keeping on, except this time spending enormous amounts of someone else's money doing it. It's almost as if they were trying to make you wonder if your ears are plugged up or too full of wax or something, or maybe that your headphones or speakers are failing, but presumably their fans like this. And ironic to read that at some point during the agonizing years that they took to record the album (and in the process effectively bankrupted the label), Bilinda Butcher and Kevin Shields ended up with tinnitus, which Shields apparently refused to believe might have been caused by the extreme volume of their live shows. In fact, Shields sounds like a total ass and nearly impossible to deal with; no surprise that they went through 19 studios and many many engineers during the recording process. I found this album surprisingly hard to sit through, and I'm hard-pressed to say that any of the tracks really sounded all that different from each other, or from their debut album ("Soon" is the only track that seems somewhat song-oriented, but even that's stretching things a bit). I shudder to imagine how painful "m b v" will be, although maybe the fact that their third album was more than two decades later might redeem it some. I doubt that amount of time mellowed somebody like Kevin Shields, though, so I'm not holding my breath.

I don’t say this often, but what awful music! No more than one star for this album...

1991 Recorded at nineteen different studios.

I prefer listening to music.

This is the musical equivalent of The Emperor's New Clothes. You have people who claim it's a work of art and a masterpiece...seriously? This is the exact sound a warped vinyl album makes, it's really not that innovative.

I’m sorry. I hate this band too much. Anything that could be good about the music is buried under layers of noise.

A single! Not even an EP?! I didn’t even finish listening and will not rate.

If I was told that the band didn't communicate at all while making this album I would be surprised.

I adore this album

Moon safari was a very appropriate title.

Remember listening to this for the first time, it was an absolutely transcendental experience.

Need to listen...again. But I think this is going to be 5 stars after a quick listen.

Easiest 5 I’ve ever had to give. I’ve been waiting for Loveless to show up ever since I started this project, just to give it a five. Took 662 albums to get there!

4.5/5

Who knew distortion could be so soothing! Finally, full-fledged shoegaze album. Although, the soothing quality could just as easily be attributed to the soft, lullaby-like vocals and the Major scale-centric harmony. (Honestly, you could put a breathy, lo-fi female vocalist over almost anything and make it sound good; I felt the same way about Saint Etienne. I often envy how effortless female vocalists make pitch-accurate singing seem. The male vocalist on this album is quite soothing as well, though.) This album was way better than I remembered. Pretty much every song had something interesting to offer on top of the already quite appealing vibe. It's so solid throughout, I might have to give it a 5

Wondering if this might be another one where you guys might ask why I didn't play it (more) for you. This is one that the critics LOVED (& still do, I guess). It's sort of a landmark/legendary album, and famous, too, for the lead guy, Kevin Shields, struggling to create a follow-up (in the end, it took over 20 years). Listening to it now is interesting; one of my first thoughts was: does this feel dated? (Sort of thinking that, in a way, maybe it does.) It's clearly a great album, and while I initially debated whether it would be a 4 or a 5, I think it has to be a 5, but I do also have a sense that maybe it is just a *little* dated, or that, possibly, I don't love it quite as much as some others do. But then again, it is pretty amazing. And -- perhaps in particular because of all the work that went into it, apparently? -- it's one-of-a-kind, even though it did exert a good amount of influence, and inspire future acts: imitated, but never equaled, or recreated. Not my highest 5, but a 5, for me.

For now, this is the greatest shoegaze album of all time to me. Was on constant repeat during my first year of college

I first listened to My Bloody Valentine because of this project. I was given the album called "m b v" - and despite high expectations I really did not like that one. I ended up liking zero songs on that album. It just felt like boring nothingness. But, ever the optimist, I hoping this one grabs me more. Thoughts after listening 3 times... Uh oh - Spotify only has 2 songs available - the other 9 are greyed out. It's also not available on Tidal. I just found it on YouTube so I guess I'll listen there. First song "Only Shallow" actually has a Smashing Pumpkins kind of feel. Ok - this one was great. I listened to all of the songs on YouTube and kept thinking "this is a cool song" on each one. It definitely has a cool vibe and overall mood that I really like. I wish they put this on streaming platforms. Maybe I can rip the MP3s from somewhere?? So, I went from a zero songs liked for "m b v" to all songs liked for "loveless"! So this band is definitely going to show up on my Controversial list on this website - haha. Liked songs on YouTube: 11/11 Rating: 5/5

An all-time classic, super-influential record. It can feel overwhelming on first listen but once you tune in it’s really beautiful.

Touched utterly pointless, otherwise a beauty

Un 5 sur 5 pour une révolution absolue car dans l'histoire du Rock, il y a eu un avant et il y a eu un après Loveless. Ce disque est un monstre, un monstre sauvage, indomptable, qui refuse toujours de se laisser apprivoiser. 35 ans après sa sortie en 1991, il n'a pas pris une seule foutue ride, pas l'ombre d'un cheveu blanc. Il sonne toujours comme le futur, un futur apocalyptique, noyé dans un brouillard de distorsion et de larsen, mais un futur magnifique. C'est le chef-d'œuvre quasi mythique de l'indie rock, l'album qui a redéfini ce qu'on pouvait faire avec une guitare, un ampli et beaucoup trop d'obsessions. On a souvent collé l'étiquette "shoe-gazing" sur le dos de My Bloody Valentine. Vous savez, cette mode éphémère du début des années 90 en Grande-Bretagne avec ces groupes qui passaient leurs concerts à fixer leurs pédales d'effets en boudant. Mais de toute cette petite scène éphémère, My Bloody Valentine est l'un des très rares groupes dont on se souvienne aujourd'hui avec une véritable dévotion. Pourquoi ? Parce qu'ils n'ont pas juste suivi la vague, ils ont créé un putain de tsunami. Et ce tsunami porte un nom : Loveless. La légende autour de la création de Loveless est presque aussi fascinante que la musique elle-même. C'est l'histoire d'une obsession maladive, d'un perfectionnisme qui frise la démence clinique et il aura fallu trois ans au groupe pour accoucher de cet album. Trois années de bidouillages, de doutes, de prises effacées et de crises de nerfs. Le coût rapporté de l'enregistrement s'élèverait à la somme faramineuse de 250 000 livres sterling. Une putain de fortune pour un label indépendant de l'époque. Shields, avec son sens de l'ironie habituel, a bien essayé de minimiser la casse plus tard en affirmant que l'album n'avait coûté "que" 140 000 livres, osant même déclarer que la production était moins sophistiquée que celle d'un disque des White Stripes. Laissez-moi rire, ce mec se fout de notre gueule. Pour arriver à ce mur de son indescriptible, ils ont essoré pas moins de dix-huit ingénieurs du son. Dix-huit ! Et certains ont probablement fini par entendre des larsens dans leur sommeil. Et les conséquences de ce jusqu'au-boutisme ont été cataclysmiques. Le label Creation Records s'est retrouvé au bord de la faillite financière à cause de cet album. Le patron du label Alan McGee, en a littéralement fait une dépression nerveuse, broyé par l'expérience. Le plus ironique dans cette tragédie grecque de l'industrie musicale, c'est qu'une fois ce chef-d'œuvre absolu terminé, My Bloody Valentine s'est retrouvé à la rue, sans aucun label. Le groupe était vidé, exsangue. Kevin Shields a d'ailleurs résumé la situation avec une lucidité glaçante : "Nous avons commencé du mauvais pied et nous n'avons jamais repris le bon". Mais honnêtement, quand on voit le résultat, on se dit que ça valait bien un ou deux ulcères et quelques carrières brisées. Musicalement, cet album est une cathédrale sonore, un mille-feuille de guitares passées à l'envers, de trémolos abusifs et d'effets superposés jusqu'à la nausée. Une fusion invraisemblable entre une violence sonore inouïe et une douceur pop presque cotonneuse. Les guitares de Shields rugissent, glissent, se distordent grâce à une utilisation abusive et géniale du vibrato, créant une texture liquide, presque visqueuse. Et par-dessus ce maelström industriel, les voix androgynes et fantomatiques flottent comme des spectres. On ne comprend pas la moitié des paroles, et on s'en tape royalement. C'est la mélodie viscérale qui compte. C'est une musique qui invite à l'abandon total. Même la section rythmique, assurée en partie par le coproducteur Colm O'Ciosoig, réussit le tour de force d'ancrer ces délires stratosphériques dans un groove sourd et hypnotique. C'est un disque qui exige qu'on l'écoute fort, très fort, jusqu'à ce que les murs tremblent et que les tympans saignent un peu. Il n'y a pas de compromis avec Loveless. C'est un bloc, une entité indivisible d'une durée de 48 minutes et 35 secondes. C'est la bande-son d'un amour dysfonctionnel, bruyant et magnifique, un amour sans mots clairs, juste des sensations pures. On s'y perd avec un plaisir masochiste, on y revient encore et encore en essayant de percer son mystère, mais on n'y arrive jamais vraiment. Le mystère reste entier, et c'est très bien comme ça. C'est pour ça qu'il mérite ce 5 sur 5. Parce qu'il a tué la concurrence, parce qu'il a poussé son propre label à la ruine pour la beauté du geste, parce qu'il a rendu fou Alan McGee, parce qu'il a épuisé 18 ingénieurs du son, parce qu'il a clôturé l'ère du shoe-gazing en l'élevant à un niveau inatteignable. Loveless c'est une anomalie, un miracle, une révolution, un monstre sacré. Un album à écouter non pas avant de mourir mais pour se sentir vivant.

An homage to overdrive. A love letter to distortion sealed with a kiss. A master class in noise. Velvety textures. Haunting melodies. A singular musical experience. Let the warmth of the songs encompass you. Fall into the well of sound.

WOOOOOOOOOO

This album should be experienced loud as hell. Like almost too loud.

Classic shoegaze.

Listened again to be sure I'd be giving this a 5, and as I suspected, it's a 5. The song "Sometimes" alone is enough, but this is an album I've been coming back to for a really long time.

I love it when the generator serves up albums that were important to me in my youth. This still sounds great when you immerse yourself into all its layers

hazy, lush, beautiful, noisy, fuzz, psychedelic, kaleidoscopic, tripping balls, incredible.

A portal into a parallel universe of inside-out music.

Quintessential Shoegaze. Beautiful, ethereal...a full body sensory experience. I can only listen to shoegaze in small doses but this is the best of the best.

Unique and timeless. One of the best albums of all time. Over the years, My Bloody Valentine has inspired countless (shoegaze) bands, but none of them sound quite like Loveless.

Superb album. Listened to on vinyl. You can really get lost in the layers.

One of my top 10 albums.

By treating texture as equal to melody, My Bloody Valentine created a sonic playbook that remains a primary reference point for alternative, indie, and even metal artists today.

5/5 but not on streaming need another listen

The best shoegaze album. I remember the first time listening to sometimes in the movie Lost in Translation when I was 15 y.o. And then in my teenage years this band had a pretty big influence on me ( especially during some depression phases, lol ). Also, one of my prof at the uni wore a T-Shirt with the cover of this album - I appreciated his nice taste:)

creo que el shoegaze fue tratado muy mal en su epoca, escuchando a my bloody valentine me doy cuenta de dos cosas primero es que este album suena moderno no a envejecido ni un poco y la segunda es que la influencia de este disco es increíblemente grande de la ola shoegaze al hyperpop incluso el britpop llego a experimentar con la distorsión que nos trajo el cuarteto irlandés

Yesterday for my nephews 7th birthday my family had a party at a park playing corn hole, frisbee, and cooking out. Right before we left I found a 4 leaf clover. My brother asked if I wanted to go to the casino. I said why not? I’ve never been before. I immediately started winning money off the towering LED slot displays. I won 3 machines in a row! I had until midnight until the clovers luck ran out (an arbitrary rule I made up before going). Just keep pressing that button. Well, I ended up losing a couple hundred in winnings and left with a $6 dollar profit. When I went home to rest I laid down in bed to rest. When I close my eyes to sleep, I see slot logos seared into the back of my eyelids. Keep on pressing that button. When I woke up I had an immediate longing for anything nature. That’s when this album was recommended to me through this challenge. I flip it on and quickly realized this music represented my current state perfectly. Longing. Yearning. It made it so easy to fall into the immersive soundscapes created in this distorted, synthy, shoegaze masterpiece. Sometimes an album just finds you at the right time. 10/10

THE shoegaze album. Love it and its influence. 4.7/5

Flawless. Supreme.

A good album that created a genre where other people wanted to emulate their sound. You can hear their influence throughout music. You would think that an album that took 3 years and 29 studios would be a mess and it kind of sounds like a mess. But if you listen you realize that there is beauty there. Another interesting thing is looping. And use of samplers. You can hear it. Shields seemed interested in how hip hop and electronic music was created. That influence affected the outcome of Loveless. Yes it almost bankrupted a record label. It’s also a masterpiece. It also broke up the band. Such an interesting album.

I think I listened to the whole album on YouTube - not totally sure. But I loved it.

What cool sounds. I was not expecting this awesome thick post rock type thing. It's quite an intense experience, especially at the early 90s lp length. When I'm ready for that kind of heavy atmospheric experience, this will be an awesome relisten

Can I give this 10 stars? One of my favorite records of all time. I saw them on this tour with Dinosaur Jr. and I couldn’t hear for days. Loudest show I’ve ever seen

Honestly how the fuck do they make guitar sound like that. The blueprint for shoegaze music yet no one has really come close.

Oh My God Holy Shit How.

Close to perfection

This is my favorite album of all time. So much emotion and the wall of sound that faces you when you play these songs is so beautiful.

This is an absolute classic, and it’s absolutely tragic it’s not on streaming anymore. This really is the pinnacle of shoegaze, it’s what most 90s bands after were trying to sound like. It’s rare to see influence on this scale, and to see so much consensus on it being the best. Crazy stuff, praying for a US tour soon. Favorites: Only Shallow, When You Sleep, Sometimes

Always a good, darkly dreamy listen (perfect vibe for those days I'm stuck staring at an excel spreadsheet at work and would rather be anywhere else).

a classic - not on streaming anymore apparently but relistened on youtube

4.5/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/my-bloody-valentine/loveless/ Obvious shoegaze classic, inspiration for a ton of bands, and contains some of the genre’s best songs. Also, however, sometimes a little bit boring (as most shoegaze albums can get).

I found a copy of this in the $3 bin at Used Kids one day. The CD had some scratches on it and the insert was water damaged and not really salvageable. Did it play in my CD player? Yes? Okay. That's all I cared about. Just a kickass album. Probably 3 to 4 stars. But I love it too much. 5 stars.

How is there such a huge difference in quality between their two albums... like the last one sounded like possessed vampires and this one sounds like every single good teenage memory rolled into one?? I didn't think I'd get the hype but I do now

At times, there were sounds so bad I wanted to quit listening (around minutes 7-9 on the full album). But overall, the sounds were mostly good. Lowkey felt like a battle of the bands between good and bad sounds at times, which is cool. Also it reminds me of the public library.

A solid 5 for me today, this record completely pulls me into its world and I love it

*stops, began gazing at shoes for a whole munite* holy shit i was deciding to listen to this on its 35th anniversary near the end of the year. or on a night flight when i feel dizzy. why does it have to come under broad daylight. but still i listened with good headphones at an ungodly loud volume. and wtf this is too awesome. instant 5/5.

Perfect from start to finish

This is such a perfect album. Took me a few listens, but has become one of my favourite albums of all time. Holy peak alert Just such a vibe. Listening to this album with good speakers or headphones is probably as close to heaven as we can get. Ear porn fr

Before: This is a 5. In fact most songs on the album are a 5. I have 10 of 11 tracks in my best of 1991 list which only has 84 total. so MBV comprises 12% of the list in terms of titles. In mind, this album is the definition of shoegaze. During: I've heard this so many times there's really no point in listening to it again. I absolutely would but it's not available on Spotify for a few months now and I really don't feel like trying to piece it together from YouTube clips. I do have it on vinyl down in the basement, buried in the back of a closet. OK, so I did find the full album on YouTube Music, so here goes... After : 5, no doubt. This for sure is one of my top 100 albums of all time. Maybe even top 20.

Groundbreaking shoegaze record, which means literally everything in the indie scene to come after it has been touched by it in someway. "Only Shallow" and "When You Sleep" are obvious highlights but the whole thing is just a really good album to put on and sit with.

It's nearly impossible for me to write about this record without sounding like a fanatic. There is simply no other album quite like this one, a perfect marriage of volume and delicateness, of melody and distortion, of beauty and, well honestly it's just fucking beautiful. I'm sure Bob can name 10 others just like it, but for me, in shoegaze, and frankly in 90s alternative, MBV stands head and shoulders above the pack. And this is their undisputed masterpiece

I remember My Bloody Valentine from my Youth, but not ever listening to them, and as someone who has gotten into shoegaze over the past 5+ years, I’m glad this list gave me the chance to listen to this album that was very important to the genre. This was a banger!

another longstanding fave of mine. (yes this review is all in lower case) the grand daddy king of album covers that look like the album sounds it's a cliche but it really can't be overstated how important it is to listen to this a bit louder than you'd probably like to as there's so much buried in the mix "only shallow" is an immediately great track from the first 4 drum hits, but the rest of the album takes a bit more time to sink its teeth in. for me "when you sleep" and "sometimes" were the next obvious "catchy" tracks. then i sort of realised one day that "to here knows when" is like being carried away on an ethereal wave "soon" starts almost like a stereotypical 90s british alt rock track that someone like stone roses might have made (suspiciously similar to fool's gold), until they switch on the hoover about 45 seconds in

Made me so excited about what a guitar and music could do.

Been listening to this album for over 20 years now. It's great and it introduced me to a lot of new sounds at the time. Really appreciate this one. 4.5/5

A pinnacle of shoegaze and essential album in alt-rock history. Shields is up there with the best of them in terms of innovative use of guitar. He can make a guitar sound so un-guitarlike, creating woozy textures and beautiful melodies of unfamiliar sounds. I don’t even care what the lyrics are (and don’t know despite years of listening) - the music does it all for me on this one.

of course

90s indie rock. Shoegaze with floaty, hard guitars. Dreamy grunge rock. Experimental and chaotic after first track.

Oh yeah

Hm, this album isn't on Spotify. I'll check some out on YouTube. I really like this album! I thought My Bloody Valentine was like screamo. This is really good. I like the early 90s vibe. Can't quite put my finger on who it reminds me of. 5 stars!

This and Can's Tago Mago are the best two albums on this list.

I really enjoyed this.

Sick

I was told, "It sounds like the cover looks" and it's true. The first thing you notice are the washes and waved of noise that seem to cover everything. But underneath those clouds of sound is a solid sense of melody supported by some great harmony choices. The vocals are set way back in the mix but since the lyrics seem unimportant anyway, seemingly being there to add to the texture, this doesn't matter. Comparison with Sonic Youth or Jesus and Mary Chain or even White Light/White Heat era Velvet Underground seems appropriate, but this is something lusher and richer. Call it shoegaze if you want, but what wonderful shoes.

Unique - enjoyable sound

banger

Exceptional

SHOEGAZE!!! So in love with the album. Heard it’s an inspiration to later shoegaze artists and rightfully so it was amazing.

Début d'année costaud.

Quelle drôle de bébitte! J'avoue avoir abandonné la première fois hier en l'écoutant, puis fidèle à moi-même ce matin à 5h30 j'ai décidé de lire sur le lore de l'album. Et après, fidèle à moi-même encore une fois, je me suis dit que je pouvais pas laisser passer ça sans encore essayer d'aimer. 10 ans avant yankee hotel foxtrot, ça me fait penser aux genres d'expérimentations studio et guitaristiques sur cet autre album. Et bien sûr les wikipedia évoquent pet sounds et dark side of the moon, ce qui est pas du tout à côté de la track non plus. Il y a des lignes mélodiques une fois de temps en temps quand même ce qui aide, la première toune est assez catchy.

Mets le son à 11! Faut se noyer dans le son pour avoir tout l’effet

Amazing album, shame it’s so hard to listen to right now. I certainly don’t begrudge any musicians for taking their work off streaming in this day and age, but this is SO good and SO important I do wish there was an easier way to access it for everyone. I even went to a record store yesterday to see if I could find it on vinyl!!! It’s worth having in physical form.

It’s something special when a band can be this locked in. This was a real pleasure to listen to, and I can see why it was such a big deal when MBV made new music for the first time in a million years.

Beautiful and other worldly. there’s not much else to say, every one should listen to this album

Not what I was expecting. This steadily grew on me on first listen and I have returned to it a couple of times since then to explore in greater depth. A nice discovery.

Ett soniskt mästerverk! Plattan som höll på att ruinera Creation records, om det inte vore för samtida Screamdelicas oväntade kommersiella succé hade bolaget gått under med det här albumet. Men med facit i hand var det värt varenda pund och studiotimme. Ingenting har nånsin låtit såhär varken förr eller senare, fullständigt unikt. Det låter som framtiden på en annan planet. Det är oväsen men samtidigt oerhört vackert och känsligt och aldrig nånsin hårt. Mängder av band har försökt efterlikna det här men egentligen aldrig varit i närheten. Det är popmusik som konst, som idé. Kevin Shields behärskar och utnyttjar varenda möjlighet och omöjlighet i studion till perfektion. "En melodi kan beröra dig känslomässigt, en ljudfrekvens kan skaka om dig rent fysiskt... På Loveless experimenterar My Bloody Valentine mer framgångsrikt med extrema ljudfrekvenser än vad någon annan modern vit artist har gjort"[Pop #10] Sången som ett ordlöst instrument, Cocteau Twins försökte nåt liknande men MBV drar det längre, skillnaden mellan vad som är gitarrer och sång är obefintlig. Lager av loopade gitarrer blir som att vrida på en kran av ljud som är så kompakt att det blir till närmast ett brus där melodin finns inbakad. Det spelar egentligen ingen roll vilka låtarna det är men måste jag välja nån så väljer jag den söndertrasade "Sometimes" som är nåt av det vackraste jag hört vad det kommer till gitarrmusik. Loveless är ett oumbärligt mästerligt konstverk, en helt ny idé av hur popmusik kan låta. Gradvall kallade det ambient punk

its difficult to tell what exactly this album was a gateway To in my personal music journey...im not even sure it was the most experimental record i had yet heard, if i hadnt gotten into trout mask replica yet i was merely months away, as i devoured this whole new world of the Online Music Nerd Canon with as much mental flexibility as i could squeeze out of my teenage self. but nevertheless, if the most important album of my life is revolver, loveless doesn't trail that far behind. and it feels like a nice little duality...revolver set my tempo for a love of eclectic projects where the connective tissue is felt mostly subconsciously because the material is so disparate on a surface level, but loveless is just one giant slab of Exactly What It Is. very few records i had heard to that point took the raw pleasures of Timbre and the more articulate pleasures of Composition to such burning extremes...in fact, i think the personal revelation might well have been that timbre can BE composition, all on its own, pre-emptively opening me up to everything from early animal collective to merzbow. i havent heard this in years, and tbh it will prob be a while before i listen again cuz i already got every second of the thing memorized, but its good for any occasion and fills me with a sense of thankfulness and admiration towards the limitless boundaries of art still.

The sound of this album gives me a euphoric tingle down my spine and taps into a nostalgic feeling in me I can’t explain.

This album is perfect.

Stunning landscape of music.

Strrrrrraight to the top. God damn this album is so fucking perfect. I hadn’t heard it in years and it hit so much for me as an older person. Texturally it is stunning and the songs are so good. The melodies are super subtle but so effective.

I honestly blew them off but I kind of love this album. Listened to it twice in one day. Might be a new favorite.

I'm going to keep my personal thoughts about this album offline. But it's good.

Very cool album that has grown on me over the years. Always thought the drums sound terrible though haha

Jeeze that was good. First 5 I've given to an album that I knew absolutely nothing about.

имба. оч вайбово, сохранил...

LMAO.

I absolutely love this album. It is beautiful, heavy, noisy, melodic, the vocals, the guitars, the songs, the whole album is amazing start to finish. To me, this is a "perfect" album - for what it was trying to accomplish and what it did for music as a medium, influencing whole genres, and all those that connect with it.

Not too bad!

Lovely

Otherworldly, hazy and ethereal (but so catchy) sound that only My Bloody Valentine can do. So unique, a game changer.

Still totally fresh, a massive aural trip, love it

I saw this was supposed to be the progenitor of shoe gaze and I was dreading having to slog through another 45 minutes of boring, someone-please-kill-me-so-I-feel-something "music". Boy was I wrong. This is probably a solid 4 based solely on my enjoyment of it. However, it's getting a bump to a 5 cause of the inventiveness and uniqueness of it. The layers, the effects, I had no idea one could make a guitar sound so all over the place. This was incredible. The overdrive, reverb, delay, it all works together so, so well. I was never bored once listening to this. Really wish this was on Apple Music, but corporate greed what can you do. Anyways, why doesn't modern shoegaze sound like this? Also they're Irish so bonus cool points there.

Sounds exactly like the cover, the quintessential shoegaze album

Innovating noise and effects in rock music, MBV knows how to walk the delicate line of experimenting while keeping the music enjoyable, a masterpiece for sure

Super Dope

Shoegaze at its best. Loved this.

A genre defining classic!

had to track this down at a thrift store since it wasnt on spotify and boy am i glad i did. reminded me why i love "art"

Noisy

Totally essential. Like nothing else, you disappear when you listen to this record

This is one of those albums that I'm shocked is not more 'controversial' than it is because shoegaze can be quite a turn off for some people. I love it, I love shoegaze almost as much as I love Trip Hop. The sort of ethereal sounds and slow moving nature of it all. It was a lovely accompaniment to the book I am reading and I would not have it any other way.

Lol, quality album for the very first generated by this website. Bought CD on release. My vinyl is the MBV Records 2018 pressing. I know there’s a lot of debate about best versions etc. All I know is mine sounds great and the packaging is gorgeous. I don’t know how the rating happens but the score for this will be high. My opinion on this has improved over the years. My expectations were sky high on release and it took a long time to accept that they had delivered on their promise in spades. Maybe I was lamenting the loss of their earlier ability to harness and successfully exploit their more unhinged tendencies (think Thorn, Feed Me With Your Kiss, Drive It All Over Me) What took a while was for me to step out of context and hear it as the huge step forward it was. Once I got there I heard it as the masterpiece of specialisation it was. The scope in terms of variety is reduced from before but the dividends in melody and a feeling of “inhabiting sound” is more than an acceptable payoff.

Right up there with souvlaki and heaven or las vegas as one of those essential shoegaze albums, but probably my favorite of the three. Sucks that it hasn't been on streaming services for months

Genuinely fantastic album, enjoyed it much more than their debut

Nothing is made in a vacuum, but there sound is so instantly identifiable and seems to have been developed so completely by their second album. This is definitely a record where I’m not even marking the passage of tracks, it just exists as one work for me.

Immersive. There really is no point trying to single out songs. This record is an experience. I remember this album coming out and sliding the CD (unfortunately there was no U.S vinyl until 2003!) and going WTF? An entire album of relentless distortion all played by one guy without a pedal. No discernible vocals with the drums and base buried in the mix. Unintelligible lyrics making Michael Stipe seem clear and distinct. This was a huge leap from Isn’t Anything. Where that LP was experimental and had what was becoming “shoegaze” elements, Shields had obliterated the rough edges on Loveless making the other instruments and the vocals merely a texture blended into the wall of sound. At high levels this is disorienting and the sound bathes you as you are penetrated by the wall of sound. There was nothing like this in existence although it does have recognizable touchstones to those early industrial/noise rock pioneers with Sonic Youth being the clearest influence but also Wire/Public Image Limited, Faust and Can. Genius really. Not everyone is going to get this record. For me, I think having enjoyed Isn’t Anything and in particular the tracks Cupid Come and “You’re Still A Dream” and already being a Sonic Youth fan, the leap was easy. My advice is start with Isn’t Anything and then make the leap into the sun. Loveless still holds up as one of the best records ever made.

An all time favorite and as easy a 5 as there will be on this list. The textures and production are still unmatched. It’s an album that you don’t really hear, but feel. Birthed a whole new world of sounds that no one’s been able to replicate. In my top 20 all time and my top 10 for the 90s.

Peak shoegaze.

I just love "Loveless" so much. It's one of my top 100 albums. Half of "Loveless" is simply flawless. It's safe to say that this album is significantly better than the previous one I reviewed. Two fantastic albums in one week, lucky me. 5 stars for "Loveless".

This album doesn't even feel real. The guitar effects are just massive and so cool. The song underneath the noise is good too

banger

This gets better over time. “sometimes” ♥️

Bloody Brilliant

Like hearing Mellon Collie for the first time. Need at least three more playbacks to pick up my feelings...

Beautiful

Jedna od najvažnijih ploća zadnjih četrdeset godina. Potpuno je promijenila pojam toga što je gitara

epic

Masterpiece!

Shoe gaze at its apex. A timeless classic that has no match.

One of my favorite albums of all time. Had the pleasure of watching MBV play it live a while back. Transcendent.

Really like this alternative grunge shit. The light vocals really compliment the energy without taking the focus off the experience of hearing just the instrumentals which are fire.

only shallow - неймовірна пісня Дуже круті програші між куплетами як в soon, i only said та when you sleep Загалом дуже багато класних пісень, а не просто накручений саунд.

A hypnotic swirl of squealing loops, sugar-kissed melodies, indecipherable lyrics, layered feedback and crushing, delirious riffs, nothing sounded like Loveless before or since. Also, an outlier among albums that resulted from exorbitant studio outlays and mixing board wizardry. Along with Isn’t Anything, this album played a leading role in my tinnitus, which developed during my years running with an iPod and those damned earbuds.

So sure, it sounds a little tinny on computer speakers but I saw this band play Loveless live WHILE ON FUCKING MUSHROOMS and let me tell you, man, this music exists in fifteen goddamn dimensions. Did I mention that my boss calling me through the entire show over some work shit I had messed up and they wanted fixed that night? Fucking love airplane mode, I was soaring and MBV was right there with me.

Very surprised by this album. The distortion and fuzz effects come through in a very palatable way that does a great job of invoking a strong melancholy feel throughout. There being some even almost mainstream songs also helps balance out the more free form ones, and there's a lot to enjoy regardless of one's predisposition towards shoegaze. A high quality listen

Considered the best shoegaze album, and for good reason. I always underestimate this one. The atmosphere it creates is so powerful. Probably one of the best examples of how to use drone. I really debated going with a 4 for this album, but honestly I come back to this record at least once a year, and love it each time, so its gonna get a 5. Honestly though, kinda wish I could rate it 9/10.

Iconic and trailblazing. MBV paved the way for some of my favorite bands. Shoegaze royalty. Although I wish the production was a little more consistent, still an amazing album.

I was excited for this one. m b v was generated for me a few weeks ago. It peeked my interest but felt lacking overall. This 1991 album is supposed to be there best and I whole heartedly agree. Art is always subjective and I can't always predict what will trigger a strong response in me. In general, I tend to love art that is either bloated and sloppy or pristine in its minimalism. This album manages to be both at once. The ostinantos and waves guitar sound become a wash of color where melody and harmony paint in monochrome across it. It's the subtly the does it for me. I'm not sure how often I'll come back to this but certainly enjoyed it.

When Brian Eno calls one of your songs the sound of the future, then you know it's good. What more can be said of Loveless? It's the most important album of shoegaze and has influenced hundreds, maybe thousands, of bands. It's still fresh even after 30 years. One of the best albums ever.

Pretty wild, but this is one of my five star pics. Didn’t expect to love the album so much, if you “low points“, but I very thoroughly enjoyed the vibe of it. I feel like it’s easy because you just listen to the music All the way through and appreciate it, than the albums done. Not a lot of music to do that.

- so good ..... -

YES

Ethereal Powerbomb

Love it

An album I loved at the time, enjoyed giving it a few spins this week. Play loud

COOL

Makes me feel insane every time I listen to it. What more can a guy ask for

9/10

I will never tire of this album and some days it’s not even my favourite MBV. Sonically mesmerising

if you are going to listen to one shoegaze album this would be it. sonicly very dense at times with seemingly everything mixed to the middle, this gives a claustrophobic almost intoxicated feel. The vocals sometimes are just another noise in this hubbub. at times I would describe this as cocteau twins clashing with the jesus and mary chain. personal note: strange how I enjoy this but am not of fan of sonic youth or pixies etc. - must be the vocals. And yes, lowercase as a tribute.

Oh hell yeah. Was “only” gonna give this a 4.5 but it's seriously an all time record. You’re not supposed to understand what they’re saying, it’s shoegaze bro just enjoy the vibes.

Beautiful

#7 Loveless ~ My Bloody Valentine Kevin Shields has often been described as an auteur by critics, in a similar veins as Phil Spector was before. And in this 'Twin Peaks' of an album, Shields felt so determined to make his guitar sound like nothing before and break every rule of rock, that he gave his entire band hearing damage and bankrupted his record label. All in the name of art, he would say, and he will continue to pleasantly commit to this art until he's completely deaf. (or until everyone in the world is deaf, as notoriously seen in MBV concerts where he subjugates his audiences with 120dB noise for 15 minutes until they become zombies) Indeed, Loveless is intended to be a brain-melter. Shields overlays layer upon layer of distorted guitars of different levels of deafening to basically produce a haze of ambient noise that hovers around the harmony. From there, he builds the sound of a melody or a light-toned riff within the thick fog, and occasionally the voice of himself or rhythm guitarist, Belinda Butcher comes in like a lighthouse in the darkness, or out-of-the-blue like a searing explosion. The contrast between different songs is jarring for effect ('to here knows when' into 'when you sleep') and it all plays into MBV's goal to numb your mind through trance-like songs of noise. Essentially, the music is an aural depiction of a high. No song seems to end cleanly, to mark to end of one song and the start of another, but rather they either blend or kickstart one after another, in the sense of how one builds the story of a lucid dream. Nothing seems to make sense, but it just happens to work in an absolutely pleasant manner. And this high is sustained by the aforementioned mixture of loops and layers of distorted guitars, cooing low-pitched voices (a bit like echoes, in where you don't remember what people say in dreams), and a pounding rhythm section to prevent you from lingering to long in one place. In the mid 1800s, the composer Franz Liszt produced a set of piano works which he dubbed 'Transcendental Studies,' where in an opium-induced frenzy, he wrote a highly dense set of compositions that assailed the audience with the grand scale of the piano to the point that women were recorded to have fallen into hysteria upon listening. This album is more or less the same thing for guitar-rock. Like Liszt and Phil Spector, MBV redefined with Loveless what sounds an instrument, or a band can achieve, and the serious power that overwhelming sound can have on people. You may shudder in horror to the immense distortion, or grimace at the uncomfortably pitched voices, but this is a what-the-fuck album that is a euphoric experience like no other (seriously, what the hell were only shallow, when you sleep, i only said and sometimes). I will say though, like sunbathing, Franz Liszt and heroin, one shouldn't keep this album in constant rotation. Else the ringing hangover in your ears and mind will mess you up. Verdict: Brainwashing, The Album

This is an album that took a few listens before I really began to appreciate it, but now it’s one of my favorites. What I enjoy most is how noisy and unpolished it gets, with those fuzzy and hazy guitars. These types of sounds were probably very unusual for the time when this came out, and I love how the calm ethereal vocals sit on top of a wall of noise and chaos.

O álbum que me introduziu ao shoegaze e me permitiu conhecer uma série de músicas que amo. Pessoas que o descrevem como "barulho" não possuem a menor sensibilidade em se conectar com as ondas sonoras que abençoam o seu ouvido e te abraçam num fluxo de consciência. Quando você percebe, já está totalmente mergulhado nas distorções. "sometimes" é magnificente. A força dessa música é avassaladora. Traz-me às lágrimas quase toda vez que eu a ouço.

what yall know about the loveless agony

Fantastic formative shoegaze! Great album that is weird in just the right ways. I have so many fond memories tied to this album, I remember when my best friend Ben introduced me to it and the many stoned nights we have spent listening to it together. 5 stars all day for me!

Another one of those bands I knew by name and had some assumptions about, but never actually listened to. Based on the name, I always assumed they're an emo band. Far from it though, I bloody loved it. Very accessible, but finest shoegaze nonetheless.

Genre defining. The answer for where to get started with shoegaze.

sleepless in herrsching am ammersee!

Simply a masterpiece

_review rendered inaudible by wall of guitars_

Ooooooh I fucking loved this. Feel like I would have been all over this in high school. Felt like a melancholy soundbath. Amazing and influential.

No, Loveless is not better than Pet Sounds but it's a great, perfect album just like Pet Sounds is but don't go in thinking this can top the greatest album to ever come out of North America-it can't. Death to Pitchfork. Loveless is a dreamy sounding album influenced by Neil Young, Phil Spector and all the noises & distortions of unrequited love. It's one of the very best albums on the 1001 list easily blowing away a good 90% of said list. Listen to Loveless when you can give it 100% of your attention. Stop checking your idiot phone. Close your eyes. No double tasking while hearing this one. Bathe in its enigmatic beauty. Seriously, no doom scrolling while listening to Loveless.

one of the best. I was so excited to see this as my album. Of course I’ve listened to this many times. I am always in awe of this album. How can you make music like this? It’s perfect.

A true masterpiece. A gem like no other

i listened to this like last week so i’m not gonna bother but i love the album regardless. the fuzz penetrates the brain and fills it with beautiful fuzzy mildly abrasive guitar noise. i do like the vocals as well. all in all legendary amazing album it also pioneered shoegaze which is one of my favorite genres so i love that ofc

A shoegaze classic with which I am well familiar. Let the soft, fuzzy guitars wash over you.

Only Shallow To Here Knows When When You Sleep I Only Said Sometimes Soon

Love this album, my favourite of theirs. Could use some more in the low and mid ranges to give a fuller sound.

I just love this album. My journey with it has been so interesting because I didn't understand it at first, but after spending a lot of time listening to other music I came back around and really appreciated it. For me this is one of those milestone albums that doesn't really invite comparison.

Loveless is the second studio album My Bloody Valentine. It is regarded not only the band's best work, but also one of the best albums of all time. The band used heavy distortion and studio effects on their guitars and vocals, and the music they produced is full and overwhelming, while somehow being serene and uplifting. This collection of songs is fascinating and engaging - and clearly influential. My Bloody Valentine created a sound that help define alt rock and pop of the 90s and the aughts.

Loveless was the future of rock, but somehow the high standards of it weren't followed by its peers. From the momment you hit play and the four snare drum hits of Only Shallow starts you know you are in good hands. Sometimes is the most ballad-y cut of the album that it gives a breather, the album would suffer from not having a track like that one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jjXxKadVdQ

Bro its loveless

10/10 I’m back in high school on the bus on a cold foggy morning when this album crushed my puny stupid brain me like vacuums

Landmark 90's album. This is really good at scratching an itch that only Shoegaze manages to do. It doesn't have the most hooks or the best songs and songwriting, but the wall of noise coming from this album is just really pleasant to listen to. Only Shallow is easily one of the best songs from the 90's.

Dark but beautiful. Best listened to on good headphones with the volume up.

The album name is loveless but it is absolutely loveable

Everything about it is great, no notes. Soon is one of my favorite album closers of all time. I had no idea Shields had so much influence on all the other instruments as well. Album cover matches the music perfectly. Not sure what else I'd want out of an album. 13th perfect rating, 651 albums in Rating: 5.0

Wall to wall sound, with shimmering melodies just beneath the surface. One of the best albums of the last 40 years.

Simply put, it's just one of the best damn albums of the 90's, if not all time. 5.5 if that were available.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5. When we got “m b v”, I said that I thought I “got” shoegaze now, & that if “Loveless” was this absolutely seminal 90s record and the pinnacle of this style that people claim it to be, I thought it could be really good. I’m glad to say the critics were all correct, for the most part; I’m still not insanely high on this album, but I’m pretty damn pleased by it. Out of the 11 tracks here, only 2 or 3 felt like they couldn’t put me in a zen state, but that’s a pretty good mark to hit on. As with “m b v”, this is a variety of shoegaze blended with more ethereal instrumentation & production to feel like the in-between phase of a lucid dream. Ironically, getting Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks just 11 days ago really helped me with figuring out how to approach listening to this album, but while Van Morrison supplements his stream of consciousness approach with some ear-pleasing instrumentals, this is supplemented by soundscapes that would make a pilgrim think you’ve captured the sounds of Hell itself. In this case, that’s a positive. Listening to this has made me realize that this is sort of a “Cocteau Twins does grunge” album – a lot of the tracks here do have a generalized structure, with a verse / chorus / bridge, but it’s all buried pretty heavily by a lot of reverb, quietly mixed vocals, & harsh guitar / synth work, with enough of each instrument poking out to acknowledge them, but not truly understand them. So, where exactly does this album succeed to the point of a bumped 5? It’s not THAT tonally different from “m b v”, and compositionally, a lot of the tricks are generally the same. Well, it’s mainly in the fact that each track feels like it flows into the other in a much more cohesive way; while there’s only a handful of true transitions on the album, the way this is structured feels like it’s moving from scene to scene in some type of movie, with each track feeling different from the next, yet just tonally similar enough to work. Past that, “m b v” really suffers from a number of tracks having a “first minute is the whole song” syndrome, and while the same is occasionally true here, it’s covered up more nicely, and far less persistent. There are loops, yes, but they pulled me into the zen state long before I had a chance to care about those loops. Honestly, it’s just a more enjoyable soundscape overall – “m b v” feels like it’s obligated to use noise based on the expectations & success of this album, but this album feels like it’s trying to innovate noise itself. It’s still not the most pleasing, and I’d definitely take, like, a Brian Eno ambience over a Shoegaze ambience a lot of the time… but this stands up pretty well. Hell, for 1991, I’d argue this is way ahead of the curve in terms of effectively “taming” harsh noise as an instrument. In a different sense, for something that came out only 9 years after Thriller, it defies all of the conventions of the 80s in a really cool way. Is my opinion of this album a little skewed because we got “m b v” first? Perhaps, but I think going backwards like this is a positive. Seeing the band at a “lesser” point before getting their more critically acclaimed stuff is a natural curve, and I do think I would’ve bounced off of this way way more if we didn’t get “m b v” first. I really did like it; it might just be the pinnacle of what shoegaze is. At the very least, it’s set a new high bar for what the genre should sound like to my ears, even if that is simplified down to just “Cocteau Twins doing grunge”. It’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5, and at the very very worst, it’s a 3.

The perfect shoegaze record. Every guitarist should listen to it and take some notes. It does not get better.

9/10. Absolute nectar, inject that shit into my veins. Hazy soundscapes, with semi dissonant chords it's like deftones with a pop twist. Seriously good.

All time top 10 record. Still never heard anything like it before or since

As the holy keywords say, 'Unique fuzzy Kevin vibe'. Although conversely 'guitar boring noisy guitars'. I can't think of any other type of music where someone has knocked out something like this, said "that's it, we've completed Shoegaze, everyone f**k off now". The rating is shockingly (perhaps not surprisingly) low, this is the best album of 1991 - and that is really saying something. If you're not completely blown away when 'To Here Knows When' kicks in, maybe it's not for you.

A true classic. 5/5

One of the best showcase albums. I’m tired

Like taking a warm bath of white noise.

Has to be a 5. Quite unlike anything else. Heavy yet comforting.

It's three in the morning and I have a lot of anxiety right now and this is definitely making it worse. But it's okay because it's the sound of how I feel. Especially "Touched". It's such a deeply unsettling track. But it's a perfect album.

I dont know It’s been a long time since I first heard this one and it still is an amazing journey to listen front to back. I own it on vinyl and I think everyone should listen to this with the volume up High so you can hear all the layers. I tried listening on a lower volume and it just doesn’t hit the same. I love it for what it is so much. Easy 5. Sometimes is my favorite track right now.

One of my favorites, absolute magic. 95/100

A masterpiece. I was delighted to see this on my list for the day. Just a beautiful, layered, and rich wall of sound.

Lo he escuchado muchas veces y cada vez le encuentro más cosas. Confieso que las primeras veces que lo oí, me costaba mucho trabajo entrarle o entender su propuesta. Ahorita sigo sin entenderle y aún así me parece un perro discazo. Excelente servicio 5 estrellas.

оооо хел е

Nice

The definitive shoegaze album - such a unique sound

Shoegaze by Robert Fripp. Exceptional.

Чистої води психоделік, який доволі м'яко забирає тебе подалі від реальності. Ефімерний голос в піснях ще більше занурює тебе в якийсь інший світ. Відчуття ніби душа відділилась від тіла. Просто прекрасно.

ach da isch sie ja: my bloody valentine ih ihrem retro loveless-chleid <3 ich han hüt leider nöd vill ziit zum schriebe aber churz gseid: DAS shoegaze pionier-album, en wunderschöni reis woni regelmässig mache und jedes mal uf en anderi art und wiis liebe! 5 roti bluetkörperli gspüri da intensiv dur mini vene flüsse

Where to even start with this one? A genuine masterpiece of an album that influenced a whole new genre of music. Every single person who has ever bought a guitar pedal owes this album some gratitude. It’s hard to talk about specific tracks on this album (except for the memed to death ‘when you sleep’) rather than see it all as one big piece of prickly fuzzy bliss. One of the greatest to ever do it; I can’t imagine how much this would have kicked my ass if I heard it back in 1991. I once met Kevin Shields while he was wandering around a car park with J Mascis and that was pretty much the coolest day of my life.

Hard to be unbiased here, since I've listened to it so many times before. But this is an album I listen to at least twice a year, so it must be a 5.

Beautiful noise.

Nice!

10/10

A perfect album

This record's entrancing capacity remains a mystery: one returns to it with some regularity and is astonished to find its power and beauty undiminished every time. The whole thing works brilliantly, more than the sum of its parts, and buoyed by an intricate and beautiful construction where the transitions enhance the impact of every song. One thinks of giant Richter canvasses, of course. The fast, hard, serious opening – a handful drum beats and one’s in deep – signaling the intense, immersive, often dizzying ride to come. The barbed dissonance and many jagged edges are somehow all wrapped in an abiding sweetness. One used to think of it as something like a giant and highly satisfying monolith, but now, upon closer listening, one sees how intricate and thoughtful are the shadings and segues (again, think Richter). First three cuts set the stage wonderfully, then “Touched” shifts the mode of engagement, bleeding into the glitteringly woozy “To Here Knows When,” with its quiet, meditative urgency and dreamlike imperative so hushed and diaphanous and so slightly varied as to seem capable of meaning almost anything at all. And then things really take off with the driving “When You Sleep” (which sounds closest to a proper rock/pop song) and “I Only Said” (with its swirling, dizzying, siren-like orgiastic effect hinting at pure unadulterated joy or abandonment). And heed the note-perfect transition between these two songs – ten seconds that both prepare the listener and leave him vulnerable for another subtly profound shift. All variations of the transitions – the hard cuts, fadeouts and more extended transitions – work well to maintain a consistent vibe going while allowing for most intriguing and subtle modulations. The grinding contemplativeness of “Sometimes” yields to the ebullience of “Blown a Wish.” And listen how the driving and triumphant straightforwardness of “What You Want” warbles and wafts into the wholly satisfying dizziness – even giddiness – of “Soon.” Fewer records end better or more effectively in terms of resolving the initial tensions (which pointed toward darker themes) into something like pure lightness and buoyancy, however distorted.

This is #day168 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… listening to Loveless feels like drowning in layers of fuzzy noise. Or, like having your ears stroked against sonic flames. Kaleidoscopic chaos, if you will. But it’s not just random noise; this chaos is crafted with such control and precision that it radiates a surreal kind of harmony. The album is unlike anything you’ll hear in shoegaze. Tracks like "Only Shallow", "When You Sleep", "I Only Said", and "Sometimes" are pure dream/noise-pop bliss. It's a classic record through and through, and it's a 5 out of 5, no doubt. That said, I do wonder why My Bloody Valentine gets 3 (three!) spots on the list, especially with mbv from 2013, while other key albums in the genre, like Slowdive’s Souvlaki, are nowhere to be found. There's no Slowdive at all. That's not right. Anyway, looking forward to #day169.

THE vibe

Perfect.

Super eerie reminds me of deftones

Loveless - це не просто альбом, який породив #shoegaze. Для мене це, в першу чергу, «особистий гіпнотичний сеанс» Але, що найголовніше - від цього альбому отримуєш справжній «естетичний кайф». Адже він являє собою, абсолютно унікальний, досвід спостереження. Коли музика відчувається немов невловимі «різнобарвні хвилі», що утворюють собою, неймовірної краси малюнки. Ти не можеш навіть чітко пояснити собі «що це». Але чи потрібно щось, взагалі, пояснювати, коли цей «потік звуку» просто підхоплює і повільно несе тебе у «країну кольорових мрій»? А, ледь чутний, схований під багатьма іншими шарами, «сновидінковий» вокал - «підкладає під голову мʼяку подушку» та тільки поглиблює відчуття цього чарівного трансу. Не намагайтесь якось особливо «зрозуміти» цей альбом, вам варто просто «плисти разом з ним». Абсолютний шедевр

All time classic, on repeat daily❤️M B V forever

shoegaze… save me.. shoegaze save me

No fooling, this is one of the great of the 1990s of not all time. Love it to bits and not just because I'm a proud card carrying Gen x.

Masterpiece. One of the greatest albums ever made

Volvemos a esta banda que escuché hace un tiempo, en la línea de mis búsquedas por éste subgénero musical. Su comienzo y prácticamente todo el álbum tienen una densidad sonora, como una pared de ruido que lleva a un estado meditativo que se amplifica con las voces etéreas. ¿Podemos entender al shoegaze como un indie más darkie? Gran álbum. Hasta mañana.

This is an album that I've really been looking forward to reviewing. This is the only My Bloody Valentine album that I've listened to before starting this project (at least I'm pretty sure I listened to this before starting this). I listen to this album fairly regularly, and I absolutely love it. For the longest time, I thought My Bloody Valentine was an emo band (I think I had them confused with Bullet For My Valentine), and I think Spotify just started playing one of the songs from this album after I finished listening to some other album, and I was instantly hooked on this. I've already reviewed m b v, which I thought was fine, but I know that I love this album. Let's get into it! I love listening to this album. Loveless is perfect from start to finish, and contains a wide array of the most insanely distorted and fuzzed out guitar sounds you've ever heard. My Bloody Valentine exists on their own plane of sound, complete with its own loudness and softness, its own melodic and chaotic. It should be impossible for a band to construct an album as varied and melodic as this with, when most of their sound is crafted around guitar distortion, but somehow, they managed to do it. Every song on this album is an absolute journey, and it's completely mesmerizing to me that the last song on the album, "Soon," is easily in contention for one of the best songs on the album (thinking about it, this might have been the first MBV song I heard). Every time I listen to this album, the opening drum notes of "Only Shallow" grab hold of me and never let me go. I just love how this album is stuffed to the brim with sound, but it never feels bloated; it just carves its own path the whole way. I don't know that I can pick a favorite song on this album, but "Only Shallow," "To Here Knows When," "When You Sleep," "I Only Said," "What You Want," and "Soon" are all incredible. I understand that this album isn't for everyone, but I love it so much, and it's one of my favorite albums to listen to regularly.

Favourite tracks: only shallow; when you sleep; I only said; come in alone; soon; sometimes

It is a great listen but sometimes I wish they'd put out a live album so you can hear what Colm and especially Debbie are doing. When I saw them when they toured mbv it was a revelation on the Loveless tracks.

The perfect amount of drone and emotion. Like 1,5 years ago when I first discovered this album, I spammed the everliving shit out of it. Still love it. It surprises me with how much I love it given that it took >10 tries to just get past the first few songs on their "Isn't Anything" album

A stunning sonic odyssey. The guitar tones on this album are unreal. It was only upon reading further that I learned about the glide technique that's Kevin Shields's trademark, where he holds the whammy bar while strumming. Chords start out of tune before falling into place. It's one of the things that gives this album a dark underbelly. This and the distorted guitars don't contrast, but mix with the subdued, dreamy vocals, trance-like beats, ethereal synths. To me, this album is sleep - the warm comfort, the tossing and turning, the recurring dreams, the still peace, the cold sweats, the primordial, subconscious things that are nearly impossible to know.

Whenever I'm in between 4 and 5 stars, I always regret giving 4

Alright, My Bloody Valentine round 2. It's been nearly a year since I listened to their third album, m b v, and gave it a 3. Since then, my perspective on music has shifted quite a bit, and I'm much more open to slower, more shoegaze-like music. I mean, I gave Sigur Rós a 5. That alone should be enough evidence. On top of that, I'm feeling exceptionally good today seeing as it is, in fact, my birthday. So, maybe I'm more open to positively reviewing an album like this, right? Right indeed. I get it now. I see the appeal of My Bloody Valentine. Loveless is a fantastic album. This is how you make a noisy album. Music with a sound like this was practically unheard of until this album released. The sound is excellent. The album cover perfectly encapsulates this. It's noisy and a bit unclear, but there are still clear musical sensibilities that create this hazy, atmospheric feel that I really like. There's also some decent energy at times. It's not exactly a happy energy, but it's much more musically active than what I remember from m b v. The writing is hard to hear, but looking at the lyrics gave me good results. There's a very consistent theme in this album that I feel is explored quite well. Of course, the sound is the stronger focus, so it doesn't matter as much. Still, it's nice knowing that the writing is good. There's some great songs on here. I love "When You Sleep." If you had to show someone a single song from this album to make them "get it," play this one. "Sometimes" is a great example of a less energetic song from the album. It's definitely more drony than a song like "When You Sleep," but that allows you to really appreciate the atmospheric aspects of the album. In conclusion, Loveless really is as good as I was told it would be. It's not my favorite album, but the cultural impact and quality of this album are enough for me to justify giving this album a 5/5. I guess I have to revisit m b v now.

masterpiece

yknow, for all the words you could spill about "Loveless", all the anecdotes, all the hypotheticals, all the lovesick poetry written around its faerie forests of noise and pink washed sex-syrup-opium-vomit-oil wheel projector feel, i truly don't believe there has been a better description of the record than "it sounds like a mermaid falling into a black hole". like, yeah. that's pretty much dead on. no notes, Mr. John Doran. your mileage may vary. then again, if you're listening to mbv regularly, you probably don't have a car. or a driver's license. so i guess it might really vary.

Sobre My Bloody Valentine y Loveless ya está todo dicho: su influencia posterior en una miríada de bandas y géneros (Shoegazing, Post-Rock, Noise, Electrónica...), su extremista afán de perfección, el desfile de ingenieros y productores, la mano de Alan Moulder, el hermetismo de Kevin, la ruina del sello Creation, la perfección en combinar guitarras-efectos- samplers- ruido y melodía, el silencio durante 20 años... Este es un disco esencial (como bien podrían serlo el anterior Isn´t anything o el posterior m b v, o cualquiera de esa magistral tirada de Eps...) Desde la apertura gloriosa de Only shallow, con esas voces celestiales de Bilinda Butcher, que se prolonga en Loomer y Touched... llega el toque de atención con To here knows, una autentica golosina en el centro entre Cocteau Twins-JAMC-Sonic Youth. Se abre el cielo con When you sleep y con I only said ya no sabes dónde estás. Come in alones sirve de puente hacia esa gema que es Sometimes, una canción que se hace imposible de olvidar. Te lleva a donde quieras ir Blown a wish es otro tema imposible de clasificar y What you want sirve de senda hacia el cierre con la eterna Soon que hace que den ganas de darle al play una y otra vez. Otros discos de 1991, uno de los mejores años de la música, algunos excepcionales, fueron: Pixies- Trompe le monde, Massive Attack- Blue lines, Spiderland- Slint, Nirvana- Nevermind, Pearl Jam- Ten, Primal Scream- Screamadelica, U2- Achtung baby, REM- Out of time, Red Hot Chily Peppers- Blood sugar baby..., Metallica- Metallica, Teenage Fanclub- Bandwagonesque, Dinosaur Jr.- Green Mind, Soundgarden- Badmotorfinger, Mathew Sweet- Girlfriend, Sepultura- Arise, PM Dawn- Of the heart, of the soul..., A Tribe Called Quest- The low end theory, Talk Talk- The laughing stock, Mercury Rev- Yerself is steam, Lenny Kravitz- Mama said, Uncle Tupelo- Still feel gone, Chapterhouse- Whirlpool, The Farm-Spartacus, De La Soul- De la soul is dead, Ice T- OG, The Wedding Present- Seamonsters, 3rd bass- Derelicts of Dialect, Electronic- Electronic, Slowdive- Just for a day, Saint Etienne- Foxbase Alpha, Van Morrison-Hymns to the Silence, Neil Young and Crazy Horse- Weld, Superchunk- No pocky for kitty, Blur-Leisure, Orbital- Orbital, The Magnetic Fields-Distant Plastic Trees, Babes in toyland- To mother, Jesus Jones- Doubt, Spacemen 3-Recurring, The Filed Mice- For Keeps, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine- 30 Something... También: Prince- Diamonds and pearls, Crowded House- Woodface, Guns and Roses- Use your illusion, Michael Jackson- Dangerous, Queen- Innuendo, Roxette- Joyride, The Silencers-Dance to the Holy Man, Spin Doctors- Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Enya- Sepherd Moons...

This album is like a dream you never want to wake up from. It feels like bathing your ears in melted euphoria. The sounds mbv managed to extract from guitars are beyond comprehension. only shallow as an opening track is a powerful statement of intent. when you sleep is in a three or four way tie for my favourite song of all time. sometimes can bring me to tears without even really being able to make out the lyrics. to here knows when feels like flying. Producing this album was a notorious labour of love, but it’s one of those cases where I’m thankful they toiled for their art - they did something special. Even the album cover is perfectly apt, iconic. Mbv didn’t invent shoegaze on this album, but they undoubtedly defined and perfected it. Nothing slowdivey comes anywhere close, come at me bro. Fave tracks: only shallow, loomer, touched, to here knows when, when you sleep, i only said, come in alone, sometimes, blown a wish, what you want, soon 5.1/5

texture

"Regular concert goers judged that the best sound balance was usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles away from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves played their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stayed in orbit around the planet - or more frequently around a completely different planet. Many worlds have now banned their act altogether, sometimes for artistic reasons, but most commonly because the band's public address system contravenes local strategic arms limitations treaties." Douglas Adams The Restaurant at the End of the Universe 1980

I get each album for the day off of a website. One that I’ve recently learned is much bigger than I originally thought. And it’s interesting seeing the differences in how the average person on this site scores some of these huge albums. And how the scores are often much lower. I’m surrounded by music so much that to hear say anything less than positive about this album is strange to me. I’m really showing how much of a nerd I am here, but I think a 4.25/5 and number 9 overall on RYM, plus an 89/100 on AOTY says a lot about this record’s reputation. On the other website though? 3.16/5. That is a massive difference. But it makes sense in context. This sounds foreign and weird to people. Especially those who maybe have never heard anything like it before. From the thunderous opening four snare hits on Only Shallow, Loveless transports the listener to a world that really didn’t exist in this capacity before the 11th of November, 1991. The fact this came out so early in the decade probably has a lot to do with where it stands now. This bright pink fuzzy monolith of noise changed everything we know about indie rock and the perception of effects on a guitar. I see the phrase “reinvention of the guitar” thrown around. And I can’t even pretend it’s much of a stretch. 19 different recording studios, nearly three years of work, and 250,000 glorious British pound sterlings, and this is what they have to show for it. A success if you ask me. Kevin Shields is hilariously even more of a perfectionist maniac than Billy Corgan. But the meticulous, tireless and prolonged efforts of this band to really create something memorable thankfully paid off. They would break up just 6 years later, and waited over a decade and a half to attempt a follow-up because they simply couldn’t do it. This band’s release from their label after this record came out is also attributed to the label going bankrupt, if that says anything about how this impacted the industry. It’s so lauded for a reason. What was done here really elevated the idea of playing a guitar to another caliber of instrumentation. It’s an onion with an endless amount of layers. A very pretty onion, mind you. It took me months to realize there was humming on the opening track. It’s placed so neatly into the mix you almost can’t make it out, but it forever changed my view of the song. And that humming is found all over the place. This is the musical equivalent of a bunch of cars being crushed into a cube at a junkyard, and then being covered in makeup. It’s a mess. But one where the naivety and playfulness is clouded by the sheer and utter power and magnitude of the band. What this album has done for indie music is both irreplaceable and magnificent to see, but also damning. Because everyone has wanted to make the next loveless for 30 years, and no one has come close. That, plus the genuine genre-bending, boundary pushing experimentation, I think, justifies how I’m scoring this. Rating: 10/10!

FUCK YEAH SHOEGAZE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO This is my #2 project in the genre, behind Ixtab by My Dead Girlfriend. That EP is probably perfect, and this album is close too. Suffocating soundscapes trap you in a kaleidoscopic headspace from the first seconds of Only Shallow, and through When You Sleep, Come In Alone, and my personal favorite I Only Said, the record guides you through a prismatic lazy river. Soon is the only way to let you off the ride, and it demands you come back for more. Fantastic album, hugely important, and I'm not looking forward to having to hear Souvlaki.

Madonna raga a me lo shoegaze piace troppo, la chitarra distorta, la voce incomprensibile, mi fanno sentire in un sogno o in un altro pianeta, è tutto così surreale, ipnotico, stupendo. Album iconico, finalmente ho avuto una scusa per ascoltarlo tutto e: che meraviglia. Finalmente un album che mi ha emozionato dopo così tanti meh. Il genere può sembrare musica di sottofondo ma quando ci azzecca per me è sempre un’esperienza mistica

This is an album that took a few listens before I really began to appreciate it, but now it’s one of my favorites. What I enjoy most is how noisy and unpolished it gets, with those fuzzy and hazy guitars. These types of sounds were probably very unusual for the time when this came out, and I love how the calm ethereal vocals sit on top of a wall of noise and chaos.

Incredibly heavy, yet ethereal. At times, it felt like I was drifting slowly through the multiverse, with any emerging questions being pounded down by the sheer heaviness of confusion. A nightmare that's terrifying yet strangely comforting. It's hard to describe. The guitar is easily the peak, sound-wise, of the music. The riffs are thick, distorted, and unforgiving – yet still pretty darn catchy. Take, for example, the alien-teque riff in "when you sleep" (or the similar-sounding one in the following track, "i only said"). Or the throbbing two-chord progression in "only shallow" Whoever's contributing the guitar playing, and indeed that of the entire rhythm section, really knows their stuff. The bass playing should also be complimented; I'd be interested to hear this music with the bass cranked up to the max. It could create something transcendental. I'm a fan of the drum mixing too, which is unusually without distortion relative to the other instruments. Something needed to maintain a grip on reality, and the percussion is a solid choice for that role. But if this is genuinely the peak of the shoegaze genre (as it seems to be touted), I do worry a little bit, because it was great – but not life-changing. Music with lyrics that are too distorted to make out is a strange idea that hadn't been tried before the 90s precisely because it's hard to connect with. Maybe that's the point, though. Maybe I'm missing some brutally deep commentary on the nature of man. Edit: I take it back. I relistened to Loveless on full volume with better headphones. I have discovered life's meaning. 5/5 Key tracks: only shallow, when you sleep, come in alone, sometimes, soon

Madonna raga a me lo shoegaze piace troppo, la chitarra distorta, la voce incomprensibile, mi fanno sentire in un sogno o in un altro pianeta, è tutto così surreale, ipnotico, stupendo. Album iconico, finalmente ho avuto una scusa per ascoltarlo tutto e: che meraviglia. Finalmente un album che mi ha emozionato dopo così tanti meh. Il genere può sembrare musica di sottofondo ma quando ci azzecca per me è sempre un’esperienza mistica

THE shoegaze album. Masterpiece.

The album as religious experience. Perfection. 10 🌟

Grondleggers van de Shoegaze. Het geluid dat zij uit gitaren hebben weten te krijgen is ongeevenaard. Het heeft dan ook heel wat jaartjes gekost om dit in elkaar te timmeren. MBV is flink noisy, waardoor ik er altijd iets meer moeite mee had dan de meer dromerige collega's. Maar door Loveless in 1x te luisteren kom je daar heerlijk in te zitten. Versterkers hard, stemmen onverstaanbaar, lekker naar de schoenen kijken en rammen maar. Wat een geluid, heerlijk afgedwaald. 8,5/10 Highlights only shallow when you sleep soon

After listening to this more, this one got bumped up to 5, and was my first edit.

Damn! Seems very polarizing - lots of 1 star and 5 star reviews. The 5 star reviews are correct, obviously.

Like a messy relationship that's impossible to walk away from. An abrasive and distorted edge, yet melodic and ethereal. A melancholic atmosphere, yet saccharine all the same. A deep, profound sense of longing lingers. Then you realise; this is a dream, and through the haziness of the dream you lie in temporary permanence, not wanting it to end. "When I look at you... oh, I don't know what's real"

One thing I decided to do for this project was stop listening to albums I knew would be on the list that would be in my normal rotation. The theory is that the album would eventually be "released" when its turn came around. Just over 400 albums in and my favourite album of all-time finally came up. I'm actually crying as I type this, my nose is running, and my legs are shaking so much I couldn't stand up without falling over. Tears of joy are running down my face after over a year of being parted from this musical masterpiece. When this album first came out, there were some people who returned their copies, as they couldn't believe that they had been recorded correctly. The unique sound made these people believe their copy had somehow been distorted, maybe left in the sun too long, or an accident during pressing. Surely the strange, almost rhythmic changes in tempo and tone were unintended? Over thirty years later, and the sound isn't as ground-breaking as it was in the very early 1990s, but it's still a jarring experience in some ways. The production is as important as any band member here. It sometimes makes me think of a blindfolded tightrope walker navigating a thin rope above a deep precipice. There's times where you think they're going to tumble down and fall, but they somehow manage to keep going. It's not an album you can easily sing along to. I mean, you could sing along, but seeing as nobody really knows the words, it's kind of up to you to come up with them. Anyway, trying to classify this album is difficult, mainly due to how unique it is. Kevin Shields spent long enough producing this album, and has never managed to quite hit the same form, either before or after. There's obvious Velvet Underground influences, and the artists who were influenced by this are too many to list. If I were forced to pick out what I love most about loveless it would be the guitar sound, or maybe the ethereal vocals, or the song structures, or I don't know - maybe just the whole thing? A perfect five star album.

Shoegaze masterpiece.

No hooks, no choruses, just lots of fuzz and waves of sonic bliss. Virtually no one ever mentions "Classic Shoegaze" without including MBV's "Loveless." A true "must listen." It might not be your cup of tea, but you will be a better human for having given it a taste.

I'm gonna be a little picky and say that the tracklisting for the A side feels weird to me. but otherwise yeah peak.

This tickles my brain in a way I can’t describe. It’s the auditory equivalent of those spinning sand bowls where one hand disturbs and the other hand smooths the sand.

A heavyweight MUTHA of an album. I adore the mess. I crave the noise. MBV still sound like they are kicking against the pricks, 30 years on.

FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD. is this where shoegaze came from

Possibly my favourite Shoegaze album. I can totally understand why people might not be able to get into it, but once you crack the surface you can see the absolute beauty lying under earth. Lyrics don't matter, the vocals are just yet another ethereal sound to add to the dreamscape that is the music. One of the best albums to work to. 4.5*

This review is dedicated to all of my ex boyfriends!

Sad fuzzy bliss

One of my all time favorite albums. Great soundscapes created by drone guitar chord repetition. It is the defining album for the shoegaze genre. It is intense and disorientating.

I love this album I love shoegaze and dreampop and this album has become one of my favorites this year. I watch a youtuber who talks alot about zoomer gaze and how early 2000s and late 90s music is influencing Gen Z and I feel like I have been indoctrinated to a new genre of music. There is a statistic that I heard and it is that your music taste from when you were 18 dictates the music you will listen to for the rest of your life. When I was 18 I was listening to Daft Punk and imagine dragons and khalid and I have moved pasted most of them. I could not imagine listening to this type of music 7 years ago. I am just so shocked at this. Regardless my favorite song is sometimes and it reminds me alot of europe cause I heard this album alot. Anyways bye :)

Some of these songs I knew, but others were new. "Sometimes" really blew me away, first time to hear it. I mean, this is a super inspirational record. Some of the production choices baffle me, but in the end, its peerless. Awesome album.

So 90s! Little grungy, surfer Indy rock. Cool!

Probably a 9/10 for me. It's the perfect execution of the genre. Just rock music distilled down to a vibe. In a way, I might not know what any of the songs are about. But I know what they feel like.

Shoegaze, noise pop. I mean I could gush about this album forever but I'll post a quote from my good friend moo: "This is one of those rare albums that is a truly singular piece of music, it is an enigma, spawned a zillion imitators and not one of them captured the magic of it." Loveless is beautiful and it's one of those albums I'm very happy to be alive to listen to. Duh, I'll relisten. 5/5

Let this play on a whim about half a year ago, and while I very much liked it at the time, I could tell I wasn't totally prepared for it. It's not really an album you just put on casually, but something you really have to focus on, and when I knew I had some blind spots within the album, I left my true feelings for whenever it would appear randomly again, and here we are. My thoughts are still relatively similar, with a strange amount of focus being necessary to gather the tranquil melodies from the noises overlaying the entirety of the album, and if you let it slip into the background, you're bound to miss some great moments. This time I was prepared, however, and made sure to give a listen to every guitar strum, every dreamy, synth-y riff, and Hell, I even think I caught a lyric or two! All of this leads the listener to finally get launched into the same galaxy as the band, to be on their wavelength, and to see the beauty in the messy. Sure, it scratches the parts of my brain that makes me happy, but it also is oddly is crystal clear once you start accepting your fate and embrace the bliss pouring out of every chord. It may not sound it at times due to the noise, but this is a very joyful album, melancholic at its most downer moments, and when you ease into that same joy, you come out just willing to hover alongside the songs, and that focus you tried so hard to retain melts away, and you just ooze into each and every track. While not every song is equal here, all of them strive for the same powerful wave of emotion to be swept over the listener, and it pulls that off in strides. You may not know where you are, what you're doing, or what's being said, but you know that you're loved, and in somewhere safe, despite its scary exterior, this can only be described as cosy, as if a direct opposition of the coldness of the 80s, and it nails that too. Its the perfect album for what it sets out to do, and while it may not be the average day listening sort of album, this album will be there for you when you need it, and I find it, that being Loveless, extremely lovely.

Shoegaze may be one of my sweetheart niche subgenres, but this is a perfect album. You can feel the heart-in-sleeve emotions coming out of the sonic landscapes this album provides. "Sometimes" and "When You Sleep" are one of the greatest songs in recorded music history, period.

Man, this album blew me away back when I was a senior in college. And I still love it, though maybe less so. If i'm being objective this might be a 4 star album. The production is a little wanting, I think—though it really shines if you have a good set of headphones. I can see why people don't connect with it these days, but this album was a massive influence on me: that combination of loud, distorted guitars and dreamy voices and wavy tremolo work, just seemed like the future of rock. And for that it gets the full 5 stars. So glad I got to see them live in 93 even though my hearing didn't recover for 3 days.

Shoegaze is just about the lowest rated genre on the 1001 and albums like this are probably part of that - for a casual listener this is just a wall of noise. I'm not a casual listener though, and this is my bag baby. Kevin Shields is doing things here on the guitar that no-one had done before. It's a captivating sound with the reverse reverb especially when played (as they did) at colon curdling volume.

An album doesn't get much better than this. Perfection through and through.

Masterpiece

Yep. I get it now. I knew this was shoegaze and was expecting a very mellow tone throughout. Was happily surprised within the first second! The opener was like Sonic Youth meets Psychedelic Furs with Bjork on vocals. That blend of gritty, unkempt, feedback-riddled instrumentation and soft, mumbled vocals was just as captivating throughout the rest of the album. God, I love this website.

This was an oversight for me. Kicking myself for not listening to it sooner. Dream pop with heavy distorted guitars is basically precision engineered to hit all my buttons

Always thought it was a bit emperor's new clothes-y, but after a few listens yesterday appreciated the credit it receives

Who would have thought that a jazzmaster could make that much noise? Seriously though it sounded like nothing else I'd ever heard at the time, I'll always have a soft spot for it.

The production on this album was really cool, and I'm gonna give it an extra point for the jazzmaster on the cover

One of the most important indie albums ever

A truly spectacular introduction to an entire new world of sound. If you're like me, this album will certainly reward you upon repeat listens. I first discovered this back in the glory days of high school, and it wasn't for me. Then I heard it again years later, then years later, and each time it became more and more magical. This is an inspirational masterpiece that has driven so many ideas for my own music, and I have to thank it for that.

I don’t think we can be friends if this album doesn’t make you levitate.

my blood phobia used to be so bad i couldnt listen to this band without gagging but im built different now cant speak to the artistic merit bc im doing a very preliminary listen + i get ravenous about shoegaze during winter so im biased but. ohhhhjhhhh its gonna be in rotation from now on for sure

I avoided listening to My Bloody Valentine for many years so I'm pleased to discover that this album is really really good. Love the last track.

An album that shaped the genre of shoegaze

A landmark shoegaze album. Marked by turmoil, overspending and a seemingly endless number of different recordings studios to get the sound right. But man, 'loveless' does sound otherworldly.

Classic shoegaze record, one of the best.

- Own this on vinyl - Easily the best shoegaze album I've ever heard - Great start to finish - Feel like I've given out too many 5* recently but this has to be a 5 - Fav songs: When You Sleep, Sometimes, Only Shallow

Classic init

I wish all vacuum cleaners sounded this sexy

I think this is one of the greatest albums of the last 30 years. It grows and grows and even though it’s been a favourite of mine since by 20s, it still sounds new. I still dont really get how they can sound so big and so intricate at the same time. They mix shoegaze / dream pop with their ‘wall of sound’ style and it just works. Everything from the guitars to their vocals just fits together perfectly. My only criticism is that they play this so loud live that it really does knack you. A small price to pay!

Ooooooh man. This is such a big deal. This album opened a new world. I fell in love with it, and a whole new genre about 20 years ago, mostly due to the soundtrack to Lost In Translation. It really did open me into areas of music I wasn’t familiar with. 5/5

It’s a very good album! They have a cool style.

One of my alltime favorites

Bedste hjernemassage

This is THE shoegaze album. It's noisy, dreamy, overwhelming and beautiful.

I can accidently let this album run through twice without even realizing it, it's just a such a consistent vibe the whole way through. Beautiful sounds, melancholy vocals, this is a near 10/10 for sure. And it took me like 20 tries to even get through it for the first time a year ago! Now I adore it 4.5 stars