Loveless (album)
Second studio album by Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine.
Loveless, the second studio album by Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, came out on 4 November 1991. Creation Records handled the UK release, while Sire Records put it out in the United States. The recording process stretched from February 1989 to late 1991, with final mixing and mastering continuing into October or November of that year. Kevin Shields—the band’s vocalist and guitarist—took the lead, spending that time exploring glide guitar technique, alternate tunings, digital sampling, and painstaking production approaches. The album landed at number 24 on the UK Albums Chart. Critics praised it heavily for its sonic breakthroughs and for what they described as Shields’ “virtual reinvention of the guitar.”
The band had originally booked time at Blackwing Studios in Southwark, London, starting in February 1989, hoping to develop a more studio-focused sound for their second LP. According to Shields, Creation Records thought the whole album could be finished in five days. When it became obvious that wouldn’t happen, he said, “they freaked.” After months that yielded little, the group moved in September to The Elephant, a basement studio in Wapping, where they spent eight more weeks without much progress. In-house engineer Nick Robbins recalled that Shields made it clear Robbins was “just there to press the buttons.” Robbins was soon replaced by Harold Burgon, whose main contribution, Shields later noted, was showing the band how to use the studio’s computer. Shields also said the studio “confiscated” the session tapes three or four times because bills hadn’t been paid.
Burgon and Shields then spent three weeks at Woodcray studio in Berkshire working on the *Glider* EP, which Shields and Creation owner Alan McGee agreed would come out before the album. Alan Moulder was brought in to mix the *Glider* track “Soon” at Trident 2 studio in Victoria; that song later closed *Loveless*. Shields said of Moulder, “As soon as we worked with him we realized we’d love to do some more!” When the band returned to album work, Moulder became the only engineer Shields trusted to handle tasks like miking amplifiers.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- My Bloody Valentine
- Recorded
- February 1989 – September 1991
- Genre
- Shoegaze / noise pop / dream pop / neo-psychedelia / noise rock
- Label
- Creation (UK) Sire · Warner Bros. (US)
- Producer
- Kevin Shields / Colm Ó Cíosóig
- Prev Title
- Tremolo
- Prev Year
- 1991
- Next Title
- EP's 1988–1991
- Next Year
- 2012
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
My Bloody Valentine were scheduled to record at Blackwing Studios in Southwark, London for February 1989, and intended to conceptualise a new, more studio-based sound for their second album. Guitarist Kevin Shields said their label Creation Records believed the album could be recorded in five days. After several unproductive months, the band relocated in September to the basement studio The Elephant in Wapping, where they spent eight unproductive weeks. In-house engineer Nick Robbins said Shields made it clear from the outset that Robbins 'was just there to press the buttons.' Robbins was quickly replaced by Harold Burgon, but according to Shields, Burgon's main contribution was to show the group how to use the in-studio computer. The session tapes were 'confiscated' by the studio 'three times because bills hadn’t been paid. A common myth claims the album was mastered on an aged machine that threw it out of phase, but the phase issues on the original CD actually stemmed from a mastering error, not an old movie dialog cutter.
Reader's Guide
Loveless has been widely cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, a landmark work of the shoegaze subgenre, and a significant influence on various subsequent artists. Its prolonged and costly recording process—involving nineteen studios, multiple engineers, and a rumoured cost of £250,000 (disputed by Shields)—strained Creation Records financially, leading owner Alan McGee to drop the band from the label after its release. McGee found Shields too difficult to work with, a factor alleged to have contributed to the label having to sign a co-ownership deal with Sony Music to stay afloat. My Bloody Valentine struggled to record a follow-up and broke up in 1997, making Loveless their last full-length release until their eventual reunited effort m b v in 2013. The album's sonic innovations, particularly Shields' glide guitar technique and meticulous production, have cemented its reputation as a defining work of the genre.
Did You Know?
- The album was recorded at nineteen different studios.
- The final production cost was rumoured to have reached £250,000, though this number is disputed by Kevin Shields.
- Shields and vocalist Bilinda Butcher hung curtains on the window between the control room and vocal booth during vocal recording.
- The album was mastered on an aged machine that had been used to cut together dialog for movies in the 1970s, which threw the entire album out of phase.
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