1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
This might be the most highly regarded, legendary album of all time that gets no mainstream attention. I'd never heard of it before I really got into music on the internet, unless the plot device named after it in Crisis Core/background easter egg in Final Fantasy VII counts. Yet when I discovered it on online sites, it was lauded on a Dark Side of the Moon level. On rateyourmusic, it is the #11 most highly rated album ever, and everything near it (depending on your opinion of near) is popular in the mainstream in some form. It's an anomaly. How does an album get such astronomical praise from critics and music fans yet basically never be spoken of in mainstream? Well it's apparent basically as soon as you put it on. Only Shallow kicks off the album with a cliche stereotypical 4 hits of the snare drum before you're assaulted by two guitars, one playing a simple heavy riff and the other wailing like a chop saw tearing through metal. And after a few repetitions of that, the guitars immediately turn pleasant sounding and Bilinda Butcher softly sings underneath the blanket of soothing, dreamy guitar noise. Rinse and repeat a few times, exit with a short beautiful guitar drone, and the song is over. And it's something amazing.
So really, the album sounds exactly like the cover. Pink is definitely the colour this album brings to mind in sound, it has hazy qualities, and it's incredibly guitar driven. All this is achieved due to painstaking, meticulous work by Kevin Shields. He spent way longer than was expected on the album and its production bankrupted the record label. All because he wanted to make it completely perfect. At least, that is what legend says. And it is damn close to perfect. It marries crushing noise and beautiful dreamlike qualities more naturally than anything else. It's the epitome of the shoegaze genre. If you removed all the noise and loud guitars you'd probably have a regular pop album. But the guitars turn it into something else entirely. They bring it from being passable pop to being an unmatchable sonic experience. I'll now go track by track because I need to describe my love for the songs some way and they all have something different to love.
I already described Only Shallow, so I won't do that again. The next track is Loomer, which begins immediately with a monotonous beating of the drum and a repetitively strummed chords. Together they chug along like a train under Bilinda's absolutely beautiful vocal melody. And whenever she's done singing, what I think is some sort of synth plays an amazing melody. I know most people don't really regard this song as high as others on the album but man, I love that melody a really weird amount. Something about it makes me so happy when I hear it. The next song is Touch and it's the only song that isn't amazing. And that's because it's just a short transition track. It sounds like Chewbacca and is pretty weird but it's kinda neat at the same time. The next song is probably the least accessible of all, and it's called To Here Knows When. This is the general sound of the album on maximum overdrive. Take away the guitars, and it's just a good pop song. But the guitars in this song are NOISY. Like, they roar like a vacuum cleaner and don't stop throughout the song. Underneath the giant wall of noise is an oddly trippy synth melody and a repetitive head-bobby drum beat. As usual, Bilinda is gently singing a great melody, and it's really relaxing in this one. If any song will scare you away at first it's To Here Knows When, but it's one of the strongest tracks.
When You Sleep is a real crowd-pleaser. It's got a super cool synth melody, and it's sung by Kevin this time. For once in the album you can almost sort of understand what's being sung, and it's a really catchy song. Probably the most accessible song on the album. It still has all the Loveless hallmarks, but it's not used to quite the same degree. Still, it's one of the best on the album. I Only Said is another one driven by the synth melody. This one feels like drifting through the air. The vocals feel even hazier than usual, but not due to the guitars, it's just a quality on the vocals. The guitars are still noisy as ever though. Come In Alone almost sounds kind of sad. It starts with an almost dreary guitar/synth melody, with the bass being far more prominent than elsewhere on the album. Bringing out the bass for that one section was actually a great decision because it gives a real kick to that section. When the vocal melodies come along the bass is less felt again, but it works as a contrast. The vocal melody is just as dreary as the preceding one. The vocals also do this really cool thing where it starts off as just Bilinda singing, but she seems to gradually fade out while Kevin gradually fades in, and at the end of the melody he's mainly singing. This song just sounds sad, but it's absolutely stunning. Just a fabulous song. The next song, Sometimes, is a real standout, both in its amazing quality and the fact it sounds nothing like the rest of the album. It still has a weird electric drone throughout, but it's actually an acoustic ballad! And you can understand the vocals better than anywhere else, which are again sung by Kevin aside from some wordless "ooos" by Bilinda at points. Like the previous song, it's a bit less bright in mood, but this one resonates with me emotionally a lot more. However, in overall quality they're close.
The next song is Blown a Wish. This song has a wonderful little naivety to it that makes it fun. The non-vocal parts (which aren't very non-vocal because Bilinda does wordless vocables again) are very airy, for lack of a better word. There's something different about this song from the rest of the album that I can't put my finger on. Really fun tune though. Kevin is back on lead vocals in the next song, What You Want. The guitars on this one are a lot more conventional than elsewhere, but still aren't conventional in the slightest. They have more of a noisy punk feel to them this time. It ends with a long synth drone that is really captivating. And the drone leads right into the closer, Soon. Oh my god Soon. Holy shit Soon. This is a contender for my favourite song ever. As the drone fades out, simultaneously fades in an incredibly electronic drum beat. The drum beat quickly becomes less electronic-y after a few bars when all the instruments come in. The guitars strum along an incredibly happy chord progression, and after a couple bars, the synth and bass (sounding present yet again) come in and play matchingly super happy melodies. With the really bouncy drum beat, this entire section is actually incredibly dancy. Like seriously I cannot not dance a little when this plays. And after a while, the guitars go from present to surprisingly harsh and noisy. To Here Knows When sounded like a vacuum cleaner if it was "dreamier", this part just sounds like a plain old vacuum cleaner.
And on this one, Bilinda and Kevin are singing in harmony. And it's just plain amazing. Words cannot describe how in love I am with everything about this one. Like Only Shallow, it rinses and repeats and this time ends with the main chord progression being played quieter and over the electronic-y drums. It's something you have to hear.
So if you look at my song descriptions, you may realize something. These songs are very repetitive. But it's repetitiveness done right. They're almost not listened to like ordinary songs, but absorbed as a sort of experience. It's equal parts breathtakingly gorgeous and jarring/ugly. I really can't do it justice in description. If my descriptions interest you at all, listen to it. I've spent a lot of time on this and probably won't do better saying more. Give it a shot.
Best tracks: All listen to it now you silly willy
Topic: LieLowTheWantedMan's Top 50 albums v. jesus christ again bro come on (1) (Read 9610 times)