My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (in 5 Minutes) | Liner Notes

(I Only Said by My Bloody Valentine)

[Narrator] If Loveless, the seminal sophomore album

by Irish shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine,

sounds like a revelation to this day,

it's because it was at the time.

The brainchild of noted perfectionist

and sonic auteur Kevin Shields,

Loveless was an album big enough

to kickstart the band's career, help bankrupt their label,

and popularize a movement that still

leaves ears ringing today.

(When You Sleep by My Bloody Valentine)

But Loveless did not come from nowhere.

Formed in 1983 and allegedly not named

after the identically-titled 1981 slasher flick,

My Bloody Valentine spent most of the eighties

perfecting their live set.

By the release of Isn't Anything,

their first full-length studio album, in November of 1988,

the band had found a sweet spot.

Influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain's

1985 landmark Psycho Candy, as well as sixties pop music.

By this point previous vocalist David Conway

had been replaced by singer and guitarist Bilinda Butcher,

who also provided lyrics.

In 1990, My Bloody Valentine would release

a noisy, defiant EP called Glider,

burning Isn't Anything's beatific haze in its wake.

Brian Eno hailed opening track Soon, as,

A new standard for pop.

Glider, and its equally inventive followup EP Tremolo

formed the runway from which Loveless took off.

(Soon by My Bloody Valentine)

Released seven months after the Tremolo EP,

and just six weeks after Nirvana's Nevermind,

Loveless was a labor of love that took two years

and cost a half million dollars to record.

While Kevin Shields has defended his band

against accusations of single-handedly

bringing Creation Records towards bankruptcy,

the album's long gestation period

proved both mentally and physically taxing for all involved.

Both Shields and Butcher experienced bouts of tinnitus

during the recording sessions,

while Shields claims to have spent

entire months without seeing daylight.

The studio schedule was intensive,

plagued by faulty equipment

and Shields's increasingly obsessive habits.

The tambourine part alone in To Here Knows When

allegedly took an entire week to record,

but the results were staggering.

(To Here Knows When by My Bloody Valentine)

Introduced by the iconic drum fill

of opening track Only Shallow,

Loveless represented the perfect storm

of droning guitars, cloudy rhythm, and swooning melodies

that would define the shoegaze genre.

(Only Shallow by My Bloody Valentine)

With Loveless, and the confrontational

wall of sound production style it introduced,

My Bloody Valentine rightfully earned

their place as a leading light,

influencing bands such as Radiohead

and The Smashing Pumpkins.

They even received a claim

from the previous decade's influencers,

like Husker Du's Bob Mould, and The Cure's Robert Smith,

who lauded My Bloody Valentine as,

The first band I heard who quite clearly

pissed all over us.

After touring the album,

accompanied by flautist Anna Quimby,

who recreated the high end feedback

and vocal samples from the record,

Shields would enter a long period of hibernation.

He emerged only temporarily to give interviews

and contribute to soundtracks,

including Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation in 2003.

Talk of a followup album remained hushed and cryptic,

but even while My Bloody Valentine was inactive,

Loveless's influence never went away.

Throughout the nineties and two thousands,

it remained an ever-present blueprint for underground music.

In 2012 they issued long-awaited remasters

of all their work, including Loveless.

Finally, in 2013, they surprise released

a self-titled followup album, a mere 22 years later.

(New You by My Bloody Valentine)