Performer Notes
- My Bloody Valentine: Kevin Shields (vocals, guitar, samples); Bilinda Butcher (vocals, guitar); Debbie Googe (bass); Colm O'Ciosoig (drums, samples).
- Engineers include: Alan Moulder, Kevin Shields, Colm O'Ciosoig.
- Personnel: Kevin Shields (vocals, guitar, sampler); Bilinda Butcher (vocals, guitar); Colm O'Ciosoig (drums, sampler).
- Audio Mixers: Colm O'Ciosoig; Kevin Shields .
- Photographer: Angus Cameron.
- To simply call this album the apotheosis of the shoegazing scene--that brief epoch of U.K. indie-rock in which bands turned away from melodic clarity and instead chased after the incendiary rapture of sheer guitar-driven noise--would be an understatement. LOVELESS is the sound of what might've happened if Brian Eno had produced DAYDREAM NATION. Or perhaps it's the thundering ambience of SISTER recorded backwards. Whatever the case, rarely has such a pristine, hypnotic record had such an ungodly amount of sonic tonnage. Opening with four quick beats from some kind of skeletal kick-drum and then proceeding through eleven gleaming movements of titanic distortion and severe melancholy, MBV's great wall of guitar architecture on this recording stands as a monument to the brilliance of its inventors. Released at roughly the same time that Nirvana birthed NEVERMIND, LOVELESS could not have been more different and yet as utterly relevant in shaping future soundscapes. A heavy, heavy record.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.50) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
Rolling Stone (3/5/92, p.68) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...guitarists Bilinda Butcher and Kevin Shields gently breathe pretty tunes into the thick, sweet waves of droning distortion....In My Bloody Valentine's magical kingdom, cacophany is the mind-altering path to beauty..."
Spin (p.110) - "This dreamy tsunami of sound blew minds, from Kurt Cobain to Radiohead to Isis."
Spin (9/99, p.126) - Ranked #16 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
Entertainment Weekly (2/21/92, p.55) - "...simply the most astounding-sounding album produced last year..." - Rating: A
Q (10/01, p.49) - Ranked #39 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"
Q (12/99, p.70) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
Q (1/92, p.71) - 4 Stars - Very Good - "...the last word in noise-pop....amounts to a virtual reinvention of the guitar....The rock-is-dead argument could very well stop here..."
Alternative Press (7/95, p.79) - Ranked #14 in AP's list of the `Top 99 Of '85-'95' - "...overcame their influences and fulfilled their promise....a record at once so exhausting yet exhilarating, so beautiful yet ugly, so soothing and swirling yet chaotic and dissonant....It will alter your perception of everything music can be..."
Alternative Press (5/01, pp.90-1) - "...One of rock's greatest, most innovative and most celebrated albums..."
Melody Maker (12/91) - Ranked #7 in Melody Maker's list of the `Top 30 Albums Of 1991.'
Q (Magazine) (p.148) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "All the hard lines of rock'n'roll -- the riff, the lyric, the beat -- have been collapsed into something freer....LOVELESS was -- and remains -- inimitable."
Q (Magazine) (p.119) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "On LOVELESS, a sublime sense of disorientation comes as standard, not least on 'What You Want' and 'When You Sleep,' where pile-driving guitars surge..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.118) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he result is a kind of sonic rapture, infinitely deep and wide and spiritually charged....There are great pop songs in here, too..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.50) - Ranked #18 in Mojo's "The 50 Most Out There Albums Of All Time" - "LOVELESS twisted the sonic clutter rattling within Kevin Shields' imagination into an epic reality."
New York Times (Publisher) (1/1/92) - "...While most current rock prizes crisply articulated digital sounds and rhymes, My Bloody Valentine offers pure defiance: songs in which thickly layered guitars and nearly indecipherable voices add up to a tuneful murk, elusive but memorable..."
Uncut (magazine) (p.91) - "The album] holds its own as one of the great rock albums, period....Its extensive 'glide guitar' and curious lack of low end add up to a soundworld no-one could ever hope to replicate."
