Loveless: the most expensive album ever made — was it worth it?

The story is better than almost any album could live up to. Loveless is the one that does.

By the time My Bloody Valentine began recording it, they'd already pointed the way.

Isn't Anything (1988) was loud, gorgeous and unstable — guitars that seemed to be melting in real time. It should have been the destination. For Kevin Shields it was a sketch.

What followed has hardened into legend: roughly two years, a reported nineteen studios, a string of engineers driven to quitting, and a bill so large that — depending on whose telling you believe — it helped push Creation Records toward collapse. Shields disputes the most lurid numbers. It almost doesn't matter. The myth of Loveless is part of Loveless.

And you can hear the money — not in polish, but in strangeness. Shields' "glide guitar," bending the tremolo arm mid-strum so the pitch swims, turns a rock band into weather. Vocals sit under the guitars, more breath than words. Nothing else sounds like this, because no one else was deranged enough to spend two years chasing it.

Was it worth it?

In 1991, the commercial answer was no. It sold modestly, and the band effectively vanished for twenty-two years before returning with m b v (2013) — a sequel that, astonishingly, sounds like it was recorded the week after.

The historical answer is a resounding yes. Every reverb-drowned guitar band of the last thirty years stands in this album's shadow. If you want the softer, prettier branch of that family tree, our dream pop guide starts where the noise lets up; Loveless is the loud heart of it. You'll also find the band among our alternative rock essentials.

Rate it below — then tell us: the masterpiece the myth promises, or a legend that outgrew the record?