Loveless

Loveless is an album that grows in legend with each successive year. The group took 22 years to complete its follow-up m b v. The stories of Kevin Shields’ perfectionism are heartbreaking. Yes, Loveless is a full-out assault on the senses and massive amounts of ink and cyber-ink have been spilled over the album’s intricate greatness. It is a difficult album to initially penetrate. A cursory listen does not yield the insights necessary to understand what is happening here. The first key is arguably “When You Sleep” where the dense wall of sound liquefies just enough to hear the organ and vocals and to catch the wave of deep psychedelia present here. Shields’ and Bilinda Butcher’s vocals melt together as the swerving intensity of “I Only Said” careens like a racecar around curves sharper than anticipated while “Come In Alone” is blacklight love at its most alluring. This was an album that took two intense years and $500,000 to finish, money the label did not recoup and that it could not afford. There are no easy answers, but headphones, a lava lamp, and a dark room help bring the blueprints of this legendary album into focus.