My Bloody Valentine’s second studio album, “Loveless”, set the precedent for shoegaze and alternative music in the 1990’s. The unreplicatable guitar matched with ambient synth creates a melodic dissonance within each song known only to the brief time period in which this music was popular.

On the opening track, Only Shallow, breathily sung lyrics accompany a stellar and full sound. These artfully constructed and complimentary elements, matching a light voice with darker undertones serve to create an off color yet perfectly poised archetype for future alternative bands. The third song on the album, Touched, which is criminally short at fifty seven seconds, sets the stage for the chaotic and entrancing piece “To here knows when”. Even this, however, is overshadowed by the fifth song on the album, When you sleep. This off-putting song is hauntingly nostalgic and perfectly fitting to the melancholy suburban tone that was so poignantly represented in the 1990’s. The ironic use of a catchy upbeat poppy synthesizer serves to accentuate and further acknowledge the sinister whisperings barely audible above the din of music, which are a simple yet powerful lament to the inability to trust in emotion or love.

The seventh tune on the composition, Come in alone, betrays the rest of the album up until it’s advent with a strong, driving beat. This is accompanied, however, by the familiar, almost evanescent, “buzz band-shoegaze” sound generated throughout the entire album that itself was actualized by My Bloody Valentine.

“It’s heartfelt yet innocent” says Junior Devon Johnson, who similar to me felt a pang of heavy hearted and grim confession through the faint voice and dark aesthetics in the song.

Blown a wish, the ninth song of the album, has very light and carefree instrumental tone. This is eerily juxtaposed by singing that seems to mourn a forgotten emotion, and slide guitar that, while it may be lost amid a sea of noise, is guilty of antagonizing and conflicting in such a discordant manner with the other instruments that the initial purity of the song is quickly compromised and abandoned. The last track, Soon, enters with a rolling drumbeat and a simple set of guitar chords matched by a catchy synth piece that is repeated throughout the song. The airy lyrics are softly spoken over a hauntingly discordant wave of sound, which fittingly fade out within another playfully light but unnervingly dark repetitious ending that brings to close a fantastic album. Ultimately, it receives a ten out of ten from me, and I’d recommend that anyone interested in a perfect clash of shoegaze and early alternative music to check out My Bloody Valentine and this, their second studio album, Loveless.