Loveless (album)

Loveless is a famous music album by the Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine.

It is known as a landmark work of a style called shoegaze. Many people also call its sound dream pop or noise pop. This album is considered one of the most influential records of all time. It changed how many artists made music after it was released. Even though it was hard to make, it reached number 24 on the UK Albums Chart. The music is special because it sounds very different from other rock songs.

Kevin Shields led the making of the music with many new ideas. He used a special way to play the guitar called glide guitar. To do this, he used a tremolo arm to bend the strings while he played. He did not use many extra tools like chorus pedals to change the sound. Instead, he used simple methods and careful work in the studio. He even played his guitar through an amplifier to create unique sounds. Bilinda Butcher helped by singing and writing some of the words. She wrote about one third of the lyrics on the album.

Making the album was a very long and difficult journey. The band started recording in February 1989 and finished in September 1991. They worked in nineteen different studios to find the right sound. Sometimes they only stayed in a studio for one single day. They even had to move to a basement studio in Wapping for eight weeks. During the recording, the band members suffered from tinnitus, which is a ringing in the ears. They had to stop working for a few weeks to recover from this.

There is a lot of debate about how much the album cost to make. Some people believe it cost around £250,000 to finish. However, Kevin Shields has disputed this large number. He said the actual money spent on the music was closer to £160,000. The recording process was also very complicated for the record label, Creation Records. The label owner, Alan McGee, eventually dropped the band from the company. This happened because the long delays and high costs were very hard to manage. Even the staff at the label felt the stress of the long project.

Loveless connects to other music in many interesting ways. Much of the sound was influenced by the musician Neil Young. One song, "What You Want," was a tribute to a song by The Cure. The band used many digital samples to build their drum sounds. Most of these samples came from the drummer, Colm Ó Cíosóig. Although the band had other members, Shields did most of the music himself. This careful and unique way of working created a sound that people still study today.