Still Listening to Loveless?

http://www.continuumbooks.com/book_details.cgi?bid=12375&aid=&ssid=FCU862K3I86CU8&name

xpost

It was in fact voted as such three years back. And I didn't even vote for anything!

I also still listen to London 0 Hull 4.

Customers who bought this book also bought:

* Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Chris Ott
* Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
* Books from The Thirty Three and a Third Series.
* The David Sedaris Box Set [UNABRIDGED] by David Sedaris (Author)
* Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken

HAHAHA

Being that there are a dozen or so threads about this record, I ended up picking this one somewhat arbitrarily. Thing is, I haven't given a proper listen to this record, for, oh, about a dozen years. And now that I've finally been spending some time with it again over the past week or so, I'm sure that the world is waiting with bated breath for my pronouncements. So, here goes!

My first thoughts upon listening to "Loveless" again are concerned with wondering just why it has taken me so long to get back to it. I mean, overall, it seems to have dated pretty well, and is pretty deserving of its canonical status.

However, lemme say that the album doesn't begin all that promisingly. "Only Shallow" plods and plods along and, like too many or even most of the songs on the record, wears out its welcome towards the end. There are four- and five-plus minute songs here that I feel would have benefited from trimming off a verse or two, or at least adding a proper bridge to break up the monotony.

With the opening muddy guitar splodges of "Loomer", though, the redemption and wonder begins. This and "To Here Knows When" are easily my favorite tracks; aside from the seductive melody of "Loomer" and its fantastic guitar textures, the "wrongness" and slight queasiness of how both sound-- out-of-time, out-of-phase, and forever threatening to fall apart entirely, make the songs for me.

"Touched" doesn't really do it for me, though; it seems like a poor-man's "Let's Go Away for Awhile" with faux-humpback whale calls.

What else, what else? Well, who could resist the ecstatic clarion call that is "When You Sleep" (which also features the nice trick where the bassline does all kinds of crazy Brian Wilson-ish things as it floats in some weird tension-building transcendence in counterpart to the root note of the chord (or whatever musicologically is going on there; at any case that same device seems to be used to good effect in a bunch of songs on this record)). "I Only Said" is a nice companion piece to "When You Sleep"; the vibe is similarly swimming in ecstasy, but at this point the guitar has become if not more insistent, then more insinuating and dirty (insert foreplay ->> coitus metaphor here). While listening to this song sober though, I can't help but feel that it could stand a snipping of its five minutes-plus length... I dunno, though, maybe the lengthy-seeming coda here is the part where the listener is supposed to be peaking or fucking or something.

After this, things get a little "meh". "Come in Alone" is pleasant enough, but has too much of a sameness of the songs that it's sandwiched between... funny whale-sounding bits alternating with plodding verses which go on at least one too many. "Sometimes" goes on for too long, and lacks any of the virtues of the highlights of the record. "Blown a Wish" at least thankfully gets back to some of the off-kilterness of "To Here Knows When". "What You Want", however, just sounds like more rehash of the preceding weaker songs, without any particular distinguishing features. Ah, but then comes "Soon", which, after all these years, is unimpeachable.

Oh, also, I went back and listened to the "Glider" and "Tremelo" ep's. "Glider" is alright; I'm certainly not going to argue with "Off Your Face"... but "Tremelo" has "Swallow", with the Jajouka-ish horn-sounds and Indian-reminiscent percussion calling to mind "Their Satanic Majesties Request"; in the end, the song is pretty much as good as the best of anything on "Loveless". "Honey Power" is like a version of "Only Shallow" that's actually not a chore to listen to two minutes into the affair; Kevin comports himself well on the deep melancholy of "Moon Song"; and "To Here Knows When" is, well, "To Here Knows When".

With the opening muddy guitar splodges of "Loomer", though, the redemption and wonder begins. This and "To Here Knows When" are easily my favorite tracks; aside from the seductive melody of "Loomer" and its fantastic guitar textures, the "wrongness" and slight queasiness of how both sound-- out-of-time, out-of-phase, and forever threatening to fall apart entirely, make the songs for me.

dude you have READ MY MIND, these are my two favourites, and you might just have nailed why I adore 'loomer' so much. your stance on the other tracks is, again, really similar to my own; 'I Only Said' used to be 'overlong', but then I realised that the extended coda was, in fact, totally glorious.

the one we disagree on is 'come in alone', which i love love love (the 'bendy' chord-effects here are as good as any on the album), but aside from that, great stuff!

I still do. Thankfully because of iTunes I get to sequence the album how I prefer it, moving Only Shallow between What You Want and Soon. I hated the fact Only Shallow opened this record up. I don’t know why.

When You Sleep and Sometimes for me as far as favorite tunes go.

Been listening enveloped since 2003.

wau.

"What You Want", however, just sounds like more rehash of the preceding weaker songs, without any particular distinguishing features.

It has the best chorus on the whole album! Turning it up really loud helps, but I suppose that goes for the whole album.

The sequencing is perfect!

To JGo upthread: thanks; I guess that "great minds..."

Dunno 'bout "Come in Alone", though; it still plods along too much and too long for my tastes. One of the reasons that I may seem kind of harsh in my criticism of the songs towards the end of the record is b/c I think that when Shields is "on", his sheer songwriting chops are very compelling, indeed. Somewhere on one of the ILM MBV threads a poster (Nabisco, maybe??) mentions how many of the songs would stand alone excellently w/o any of the various shoegauze-ish effects, and that the best of them are like some of the great Byrds songs in terms of interesting chord progressions, great melodic sensibilities, etc. The songs that I have complained about are ones in which it seems to me that the songwriting itself veers towards lazy. But, yeah, regardless, they do still sound pretty great when turned up loudly enough, and, as well, if one is souxed up it probably doesn't hurt any, as well.

But, really, the most important part to be gleaned from all my squoggle in that post up there is that "Loomer" reveals itself to be an incredible artifact in the annals of recorded songdom. And I would cite "When You Sleep" or "Honey Power" as being examples of the perfect marriage of Byrdsian songcraft (think "Why")+ Brian Wilson bassline magic + Shieldsian studio/effects genius.

And yeah, the sequencing on the record does leave a lot to be desired!

I find the sequencing to be very good, myself. There's a definite arc. 'Loomer' used to be my default imagisong when playing in goal and needing something to quell my anxiety. The album is nigh-on perfect until 'Sometimes', and even then a load of people love that one.

wow this record still sounds so good.

I find it fascinating how effortless the final project sounds after reported untold studio hours, etc.

Even in the midst of the most (theoretically) abrasive guitar attacks, the entire recording exudes a drifty somnolence. I recall an interview with Kevin Shields where he talked about being inspired by hypnopompic states. I guess it's comparable to Richard James' claims that Selected Ambient Works II was influenced by lucid dreams...

someone has tried to improve on the original by remixing it, it sounds pretty good, a little lighter and sunnier it seems, the guitar is more focused or something:
http://soundcloud.com/gordrann/loveless-album-new

via mefi: http://www.metafilter.com/116555/Loveless

That's no remix, that's a re-performance! Pretty impressive

wow

i don't/do wanna be the first to shit on someone's labour of love but the angle of 'improved guitar sounds!' seems sorta a weird thing, here. i almost feel like it's more in the lineage of the dirty projectors guy remembering a record & remaking it. though that was real good.

This version is a "new mix", it seems. He has an older version posted up on Soundcloud. I think he means "improved" upon his first attempt, not improved upon the original

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb1/opsphillips/hang.gif

ty poxen

STILL AT IT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xdyav8r3mA

still the best, i'd like to listen to it in a room with walls that are membranes, the sound coming from all around. not quadrophenia but infintyphenia. in my living-room in berlin which is more than 3m50 high. that should make the thing even more vague and dizzy as it already is as you wouldn't know anymore where the music came from, it would come from everywhere. instead i listen to it on a two to three inch bluetooth speaker. in a way that is the tragedy of "progress". we have endless possibilities but in the end the output device is just rubbish as it is too much work to connect good speakers to the smartphone. or probably it is just my laziness. how i love the juxtaposition of that flute sound on "what you want" with the guitar shredding, that is such an improbable marriage.

yo I was listening to this today, it rules

Played something from Isn't Anything today. Feed ME with yOur Kiss.
Or at least from the e.p.s cd.

I celebrate their entire catalog as often as possible

https://i.imgur.com/93Napp2.png

I still listen to Say Anything.

https://i.imgur.com/OVdhTSh.jpg

i've used "only shallow" as my alarm for years and it's good for that but also it's kinda taken the edge off it

I'm an Isn't anything preferrer. Loveless sounds very Britpoppy to me these days. The sonics are astonishing of course, but ultimately the mood it conjures is familiar and of a piece with hedonistic ravey indie like Stone Roses and Primal Scream.

Isn't Anything is gauzy and fragile and emotionally ambiguous and all the stuff people say about MBV. It also achieves a rare neutrality between Britishness and Americanness.

My obsession with both of those records (and m b v) was only just starting to wane ever so slightly when they announced the analog reissues, and that pulled me right back in. MBV is music that doesn't ever not sound good to me, regardless of my mood, and I can't say that about many things

Maybe this revive will finally make me get around to uncorking m b v from the Notorious wine cellar and listening to it for the first time.

Think the only band I can listen to after this that is not MBV itself who can halfway measure up is Oneida.