Loveless

by

My Bloody Valentine

Edit

Loveless is the second studio album by alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Released on 4 November 1991, Loveless was recorded over a two-year period between 1989 and 1991 in nineteen recording studios. Lead vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields dominated the recording process; he sought to achieve a particular sound for the record, making use of various techniques such as guitars strummed with a tremolo bar, sampled drum loops, and obscured vocals. A large number of engineers were hired and fired during the process, although the band finally gave credit on the album sleeve to anyone who was present during the recordings, "even if all they did was make tea", according to Shields. The recording of Loveless is rumoured to have cost £250,000, a figure that came close to bankrupting the band's record label Creation Records.

My Bloody Valentine's relationship with Creation Records deteriorated during the album's recording, and the band was removed from the label due to the difficulty and expense of working with Shields. While Loveless did not achieve great commercial success, the album was well received by critics. Widely regarded as a landmark work of the shoegazing genre, the record has been cited as an influence to several artists, and by critics as one of the best albums of the 1990s.