My Bloody Valentine
Loveless

THE REVIEW

90s. Micro explosion/implosion of SHOEGAZE. Metaphysical vision of music.

1. If you think an album must be immediate, concise, and catchy...
2. If you don't love experimental and enigmatic music...
3. If you want a powerful album without too many unnecessary frills...

...then don't judge this rare unique jewel of the world. You might alienate yourself from a crowd of people who esteem and adore it like a god (including myself).

It was the distant (almost 16 years ago) 1991, when Mother Music gave birth from her legs in green Ireland to a new child: LOVELESS. Attending the birth were My bloody Valentine, a group of 2 girls and 2 boys who at that time had patented a new musical formula: SHOEGAZE.

Unlike other bands, My bloody Valentine were never hailed like gods, even though they brought to light one of the most beautiful and innovative albums of all time. Erasing the musical background of their territory (folk-rock), the group conceived a new way of making music, merging guitar effects of Wall-of-sound with sweet and gentle voices that imperceptibly float in the amniotic fluid of the songs.

Named by critics "Shoegaze" for their constant habit of staring at the "shoes" (in reality, they were looking at the guitar effects pedals, which being numerous, required due attention in switches throughout the songs) the MBV left their companions Ride, Spacemen 3, Slowdive (closer to Dream Pop than pure Shoegaze), meticulously recording (though it might not seem so at first listen) their best album and also their farewell to the scene: Loveless.

The songs on the album unsettle the listener with their shy, calm anti-conformism and almost leave them in a state of ecstasy with that obsessive, repetitive, sparse and atonal sound, yet deep and mystical, insinuating images and figures emerged from the unconscious into the mind of the attentive listener. In a way, MBV's songs can be considered "Surrealist" because just like the great painters of the era (Mirò, Dali, Ernst) managed to fresco on their canvases, with figures emerged from their "automatic writing," MBV managed to imprint transposed and metaphysical images on a musical album.

There are no better or worse songs on this album. All work together to imprint a precise feeling in our minds without a logical thread but with a single purpose: to abstract the listener from the context they are in.

If you manage to find this album, now only orderable abroad (I waited months and months of research to find a copy), frame it, listen to it endlessly, and promote its listening. Not everyone has had the chance to listen to music so refined and brutal at the same time.

"Tip toe down, to the lonliest places"

Curiosity:
The lyrics of their songs are incomprehensible and enigmatic. On the band's official website, they are even transcribed, but many remain incomplete as no one has yet managed to decode and interpret what is being sung in their songs.
The song "Sometimes" was included in the soundtrack of "Lost In Translation" alongside other songs composed by Kevin Shields, singer, and guitarist of MBV, and along with songs from other great bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, Roxy Music, Phoenix, etc.