by My Bloody Valentine
Released November 4, 1991 via Creation Records / Sire Records
Reviewed November 3, 2021
Top tracks (based on community voting)
When You Sleep (68%), Only Shallow (57%), Sometimes (41%)
Loveless is an oxymoron. Every moment of haziness, or buzzing dissonance, comes with a clear emotional response. Sometimes, the lyrics are hard to make out, and the instrumentation is incredibly enigmatic; how my bloody valentine assembled such a sound still leaves a trace of awe. But, for everything dizzyingly beautiful about Loveless, the pain behind it is incredibly clear. Song after song, the boundaries of what was thought to be possible are further pushed. Raucous guitars wail in the distance, battling against an emotional delicacy provided by the songwriting. As a result, Loveless is nothing short of brilliant. Nothing ever sounded like this before its release, and nothing will ever sound quite like this ever again. – Ben (Synth) (10/10)
Not even ten seconds into Loveless, it is immediately clear how important it is. The wailing fuzzy distortion atop shuddering guitars on “Only Soon” is a siren too late to signal an earthquake. The dew of the grass flies into the air, and at the peak of its journey, reflects light at the perfect angle. This produces a glistening effect pleasant to the eye, or in Valentine’s case, the ear. Beauty in destruction. Loveless innovated the early beginnings of post-neo-psychedelia, heavily implementing effects pedals, feedback, and flanging to fuse the brutality of noise with ethereal drawn-out melodies. It became shoegaze, Loveless at its centre; with guitars gliding like breaking ocean waves, swallowed-up vocals like a child finding peace in the riptide, and static that’s burnt into the mix. Since sticky, droning riffs and sublime atmospheres (“Blown a Wish”) are what get you so lost in My Bloody Valentine’s elegance, you might forget its technicalities. An essential listen. – Cam (10/10)
My Bloody Valentine's shoegaze standard, Loveless, turns 30, with very few albums able to live up to its adulation to this day. We find a way to wrap and trap things within praise. The high regard something is held in usually surpasses the material on its receiving end. This album is one of those rare occasions where the acclaim can't possibly overtake the work. Loveless may take some time to come around to, but it eventually scratches an itch that no other piece of recorded material could even attempt to. It sounds like nothing, and nothing sounds like it. Sonically infinite, Loveless is horizon-like on the ears. It's hard to define what exactly is occurring. Layered beyond belief, and beyond comprehension, there’s no beginning and no end to its shapes and sound; there just is. – Peter (10/10)
Ben (Synth): 10/10 | Cam: 10/10 | Hadley: 10/10 | Jared: 10/10 | Peter: 10/10
DeVán: 9.5/10 | Dominick: 9.5/10 | Pax: 9/10 | Pablo: 8.7/10
