Loveless (1991) My Bloody Valentine

Written by Meenakshi Nirmalan

I often mark out periods of my life based on what albums I had on repeat at a given point. Loveless was amongst the albums that provided me with the soundtrack to my sixth form experience, despite this being 30 years after the album’s initial release. I remember frequently listening to Loveless in the fields at my school and every time I listen to this album, it evokes memories from that time. Loveless is a shoegaze staple, easily the quintessential album that defines the genre. I first became acquainted with shoegaze when I was 16, around the time I first gave Loveless a listen. One of my friends at the time recommended this album to me and it remains one of my favourites, to this day. I first listened to this album in the winter of 2020 and would often take long walks during the cold evenings with Loveless on repeat. 

Shoegaze is a genre that emerged in the late 80s and early 90s. The term was coined because the associated bands would often be gazing at their shoes during concerts, given the genre’s heavy use of pedals. My Bloody Valentine are a band that formed in Dublin and its founding members were Kevin Shields, Colm Ó Cíosóig, Bilinda Butcher and Debbie Googe. The band’s sound is ethereal, hazy and reverie-like yet their music simultaneously exudes power. The album cover is a beautiful pink, an elusive image of a guitar, distorted. Loveless’ album cover is very reflective of its sound.

Loveless is absolutely great. You’re hit by a thick wall, a majestic brick of sound; it’s hard not to listen to this album at full volume. Loveless is impenetrable, its sound obscure and hazy. You can only even begin to decipher it by letting it wash over you. Submit to the experience and let the album’s sound envelope you. In a way, it’s hard to discuss individual tracks from Loveless. The songs sound better when you listen to them in relation to one another because a lot of the tracks have overlap in their sounds and textures. But this does not make Loveless dull. Quite the opposite. All the songs bleed into one another, creating a vortex of sound: soft, yet abruptly harsh. The tracks function well with one another, creating a satisfying build up and release of tension.

Repetition is a real strength to this album. Riffs are looped and layered, distorted and reverberated. It’s a collage of noise, of sound, so densely textured, it takes on physical force; a collage which simultaneously soothes, energises and recharges, putting you in a trance-like state. People often say that Loveless sounds like the revving of an engine, the vroom of a hoover and I see it- the sound ebbs and flows, is reflected and refracted as you work your way through. The production technique and quality of this album is fascinating. If you were to strip Loveless down to its bare bones, the music is relatively straight-forward yet the end result sounds so complex and other-worldly, because of the way all the different components come together. 

The vocals are not the main focus of the album; they simply serve to add another layer, an extra coat, contributing to the soundscape but never dominating it. The lyrics are simple, which works well, given that the layering of the electric guitar is the driving force of the album. For example, my favourite verse from When You Sleep goes: “When I look at you / Oh, I don’t know what’s real / … / Then you take me down / When you walk away”. It’s straight-to-the-point yet still manages to evoke emotion. Moreover, the way When You Sleep flows into I Only Said, followed by Come In Alone is fantastic and I think the album’s centrepieces are some of the strongest tracks. The intro, Only Shallow is also a brilliant track. The sound is bright and energetic yet has a soothing quality to it. 

The only criticism I have about Loveless is that I don’t really like the transition from Blown a Wish to What You Want. I feel conflicted about What You Want as a song altogether. I can’t tell whether I like it or not. Texturally, there is more going on at the start of the song, which is sustained for almost a good four-and-a-half minutes. And after this, the remainder of the track becomes slower, softer. The drums stop, the layers are stripped back to only around 2 or 3 different melodic/harmonic parts. The distortion and reverb is minimised. It’s ambitious but not one of my favourites. Moreover, I was initially sceptical about Soon as an album outro, however, it has come to grow on me. After re-listening to it, I now appreciate the drone-like synths, the energetic break-beat style drums in the intro and the overall density of the sound. These features of the music expand, evolve and eventually fade to silence. 

Overall, the tracks on Loveless show great range, a great sense of progression and the album is one of the most innovative pieces of work I have encountered. I actually don’t often listen to this album in its entirety. To me, Loveless is not ‘easy listening’, it’s the sort of album that grips me by full force, all-consuming. Although My Bloody Valentine aren’t gigging, I’ve often wondered about what it would be like to see Loveless performed live and have no doubt that it would be a profound sensory experience.