my bloody valentine - Loveless (first reaction) 

I'm liking this album even more with every listen. Uncut reaction is on patreon: www.patreon.com/DAVECHER

The greatest thing about this album imo is the fact that even if we strip down the noise and aesthetic importance of this, it would still be a perfect dream/indie pop album. The melodies and chords are just perfect.

Fun Facts: There is barely any reverb on anything. Most of the tracks only have a few guitar tracks, several at most. Almost all over the drums are recorded samples played by Kevin with an MPC machine. The vocals are more layered than any of the instruments. They wanted the singing to sound androgynous so they blended Kevin's and Bilinda's tracks together. Kevin Sheilds wrote most of the lyrics. He had the idea to cover all the microphones and himself with blankets while recording his vocals. They would record a lot of them during the late nights and early mornings. Bilinda would sometimes listen to Kevin singing from outside the room and write her own lyrics to sing based on what she thought he was singing.

Souvlaki by Slowdive is one of the other big Shoegaze albums. I'm sure you'd love it! Though arguably no band did this sound better than MBV

My personal favorite record. Loved seeing the reaction slowly go from “wtf” to “ohhhh okay.” Trust me, it gets better with every listen. The perfect mix of noisy textures and dreamy pop. Solid vid!

Some interestings and nice concepts about Shoegaze that make it a unique genre: 1. Wall of sound (the use of layers and layers of vocals and guitars), 2. Glide guitar (a technique created by Kevin Shields, the guitarist from MBV, this adds a vibrato to guitar lines), 3. tons and tons of guitar effects (reverb, reverse reverb, delay, fuzz, distortion...) You can search about those elements if you're interested about :) Lyrics are not usually the focus, but the atmosphere, feelings and textures instead. The BIG 3 of Shoegaze is: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride. Shoegaze has survived through the years by mixing around with Alt Rock, Indie, Post-rock (especially this one) and Ambient music.

sometimes is definitely depressing asf, wonder why it’s one of my favorite songs ever on the planet, it’s so good and i just love it so much. i also have an insane about of memories connected to that song lol

Souvlaki by Slowdive is another great album in Shoegaze

Years ago, on my first listen I did NOT like this album. Now it’s one of my all time favorites. Kevin’s use of reverse reverb on his guitar is masterful, and even his non-reverbed vibrato arm work on his guitar is groundbreaking. Bilinda’s vocals add so much space to the soundscape, Debbie holds down the groove on bass, and Colm may only ever play like two or three fills but damnit can he play the hell out of them. I adore this band.

Always nice seeing a reaction to Loveless. Great 90s album, another one worth checking would be In the Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. Possibly the best indie rock album of that decade

This album takes multiple listens before you truly appreciate how good it is. I was 18 when it was released in 1991 and it took me at least five or six listens before it even began to fall into place. There's a good few albums that have grown on me over the years and this is definitely one of them. It has such a unique style and texture to it that other bands have tried to replicate over the years since, but very few have managed to accomplish the same result.

That flute sound in i only said makes it seem like I am floating everyone I hear it. When I have a crush on someone, that sound or the entirety of soon makes me melt like butter everytime I hear it. My forst listen was back in November 3rd of last year. 2 days before its 32nd birthday. It took 3-4 listens before it became my favorite album ever. The feeling is indescribable still to this day. Now it makes sense where The Smashing Pumpkins got their sound. Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness was my favorite album until I discovered this gem. I have the album on CD, Cassette, and LP. I love it so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watching people hear this masterpiece for the first time never gets old.

It was fun watching you hum along, because if you ever saw this band live the music went through you and made your whole body hum (It was loud). I'm glad you enjoy this album!

touched honestly might be one of my favorites on the album i don’t know what it is about it but it just really sticks with me, and not to mention the personal connections i have to that song and the album as a whole

Maybe one of my favourite albums ever. Some other great albums of the same mood are Boo Radleys "Giant Steps", Slowdive's "Souvlaki" and "Nowhere" by Ride. Oh, and The Verve's "A Storm in Heaven".

"when you sleep" is most triumphant, huh? back in college i bought the cd 5 singles for "SOON" and "To Here Knows When". i really thought the cds were warped. then i tRIED AGAIN again AND I Could hear that melody . and i was sooo blown away. it took a while for me to convince some of my friends. i saw Primal Scream Xterminator tour a decade later, but ended up escorting Kevin Shields thru Deep Ellum Dallas Txas.looking for aftershow nightlife. i think it was a weeknight. some Dj friends of mine just happened to be throwing a party that night. and the house crowd definitely knew who he was. and the drummer from Stone Roses. one more bloke. kevin was so sweet.

This album nearly bankrupted the studio that released it. It cost something like £160,000-250,000 to record. The studio expected recording to take five days- it took two years. The 29-year-old second-in-command at Reaction records had a nervous breakdown, calling Kevin Shields and begging him to deliver the album. His hair turned grey as the studio hemorrhaged money. Sheilds and Belinda Butcher (the vocalist) hid themselves behind a curtain in the studio so that the engineers wouldn't bother them or offer advice. It's amazing that this album even exists, and it shows the real cost of creating something that is near-perfect aesthetically

I used to ski all day everyday to this CD. Tons of powder, the suns out with clouds passing by, you have your kush and MBV playing as you fly down the slopes with your rose tinted glasses. Im sure you heard this before but you should react to Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures or anything from Siouxsie and the Bnashees. Cheers

Definitely respect your decision to not score the albums you listen to on first listen. I find myself coming back to albums months after discovering them and hearing something almost entirely different; to accurately rate an album after listening to it once is extremely difficult (depending on the album, of course). Some albums - the ones that hit you right away - such as OK Computer, are just obviously amazing. Others take more time. But yeah, thanks for making these videos. You've actually reignited my interest in many albums. But even aside from that, your analyses are much more interesting to me than most other reactors.

Seriously whoever came up with the name my bloody valentine is a genius. Best songs Sometimes, blown a wish, what you want, only shallow. This genre tends to in my experience be two things punk and D.I.Y. the lyrics are not usually important if you are interested in the genre check out the album Space Song by Beachouse if you have not already its classified as dreampop which is technically the same. Congrats on your semester and good luck on it.

I have been listening to this album since the day it came out (which blew my fucking mind) and on every listen I still discover new things. I literally bought it because of the cover and have never bought an album where the cover explained the whole sound entirely like this. It is to me one of the very few PERFECT albums ever made and so underrated by the general public, the 2nd being "Music has the right to children" by Boards of Canada. It was the most inspirational and influential album that came out in my lifetime for me and there will never be anything like it. I was fortunate enough to meet Kevin Shields and he could not be a more humble nice person which made it even cooler to be so inspired by him. Anyway, I'm glad younger people are taking the time to appreciate what came before.

Quebec by Ween would be a great album to react to. Such an underrated band.

i love how the YT reaction genre is bringing Loveless to so many new people.

loved your reaction, i'd recommend mbv's other albums as well as slowdive's souvlaki album. loveless and souvlaki are generally considered the two best shoegaze albums and both are amazing in their own ways :)

I get you man! And I liked the way that you got this album! Thanks (1 year belated) for the vid!

Such a dope album and so far ahead of it’s time - the guitar effects are soooooo sick

you should listen to LSD and the Search for God or Velocity: Design: Comfort. Both amazing shoegaze albums, the second being more glitch/dream pop.

I had to listen to this album 2 or 3 times before it finally clicked. Its one of my favoites though. To here knows when is my favorite track, i get lost in that shit when im stoned.

Played it to friends when this came out and no one liked it but me 🙂Apparently a record label went bankrupt when producing this album? It took like 2 - 3 years to produce .

if you’re more curious about the “noise” part of noise rock, check out sonic youth! daydream nation is a foundational indie rock album by them

Really enjoyed this video! Loveless has been tied with Boards of Canada's Geogaddi as my favourite album of all time for over 10 years, which is crazy for me to think about as I'm used to that changing as I find new stuff. Always go back to these albums, and really speak to me. For a first listen you took away a lot of what I consider to be the coolest stuff about it. It's an overwhelming listen, and as a first time into the genre you had a lot of insight here. My world was changed when I decided to listen to the album while tripping on psychedelics....I could hear all the layers distinctly...and it's interesting, because the layers aren't simply guitar overdubs, most of it has to do with parallel saturation/EQ/Compression on a guitar. Very harmonically rich stuff happens at high volumes on preamps, and the combination of bending guitar chords using the whammy bar pulls out so many overtones and phantom melodies, which ultimately guide Kevin's playing in real time. It's all about the tones here, they create the movement within the chords. Whenever I listen I find my mood and focus will decipher cohesive melodies and grooves within the tones of a single guitar, it's a remarkable shapeshifting album whose simple arrangements permit the engineering to allow for exploration of its textures. Like a moving painting. For instance, in Only Shallow's chorus you can sort of tap out of the 4/4 rhythm and focus on the tremolo pulse on the upper guitar licks, and it makes the whole song's tempo appear to speed up and slow down. I think the fact that it's within a relatively simple rock context makes it all the more compelling--it's like, there's an entire world hiding within a single chord. These sorts of things exist in ALL music really (for instance all over OK computer, as you were mentioning that album), but it's super cool how MBV manages to make this element a central focus and guide the creation of their work. Boards of Canada has many tracks that give this impression as well, which is why I put them in the same category regardless of genre (they have also mentioned MBV as a big influence I later learned!). If you haven't done so, check out Twoism and Geogaddi, incredible stuff.

Lush is another great shoegaze band! Spooky (1992) and Split (1994) are constantly in my rotation!

Souvlaki by slowdive is also a masterpiece. on the more poppy side of the spectrum is Antisocialites by Alvvays and it’s also quite good. I’d love to hear your thoughts on either of those!

shoegazer LPs lush "gala" anything by lush is wonderful RIDE "NOWHERE" and their other LPs which arent necessarily shoegazer, but they made a point of changing up each album.

You should check out Slowdives album ‘Just for a day’. There’s basically no reactions on youtube to that album despite it being amazing!

"The production sounds really good" -Said no shoegaze fan ever.

he gotta listen to velocity : design : comfort

“It just sounds massive” what a perfect way to describe it haha. Great album!

PLEASE LISTEN TO SOUVLAKI. My favorite album of all time.

Rare album that still gets better with every listen and I have had it for 30 years and it's always an experience, though would highly recommend also checking out isn't anything the first album and the EPs released before they are equally impressive and I probably listen to isn't anything more

Lyrics are essential but only the singer will ever know them.

And a shoegazer is born ❤️💜

I know that you love Radiohead, so I'll give you an example of Shoegaze's influence on Radiohead: Blow Out (last track from Pablo Honey) :)

What You Want is my favorite. That flute mixed in...

Isn't Anything is more raw than Loveless-but I think I love it even more than Loveless.

isn’t anything by mbv is probably my favorite album by them and the drums are definitely more out there and better, i recommend it honestly 🤷

everything by MBV is wonderful

Great Review; they have sophisticated crypto- lyrics, heavy Glide -guitar saturated with s=distortion and an array of pedals they gaze at all night long

I really hope you react to their last album mbv as well, because in my opinion it's even better than Loveless.

Great reaction to a hugely influential album. I personally prefer their earlier album Isn't Anything, but I accept that I'm in the minority. You Made Me Realise, or maybe, When You Wake (You're Still In A Dream) would probably be my favourite MBV song.

MY FAVORITE ALBUM OF ALL TIMMEEE

i could straight up mansplain the entire history of shoegaze rn but i won’t for everyone’s safety, but i really appreciate how you are going in completely unaware of shoegaze and still like thinking about it in a great open minded way because i see a lot of people immediately shrug off shoegaze right off the bat and not even give it a try, like you just have to really really listen.

@2:01 I'm mainly into music that's considered quite heavy, I think that's why I love MBV so much really. But no one, well, rarely, when people are talking about MBV do they ever call it heavy, or say it rocks, which is weird because it's extremely heavy and rocks pretty hard.

It’s on my top 10 albums I’ve ever heard and I’m a lyrics guy.

8:48 Guitars, in Shoegaze it's all about guitars

I went round to Bilinda's (the vocalist) flat for tea once. She was lovely.

idk if you take requests but it would be awesome if you checked out glitter by pasteboard, another phenomenal shoegaze album that never gets enough credit

Listen to Beach House , Bloom or Teen Dream

Check out another great shoegaze band from the 90s, Curve, and their album Cuckoo.

you should give Slowdive a try. i feel like it's the best band to get into shoegaze :)

it’s so funny to me because i seriously think of mbv as chill and not in your face at all LMAOO

There was a Floor Tom the entire track you were saying "no drums" lol

I would pay good money just to hear "sometimes" for the first time again

Soon is the best track by far.

Gala - Lush Ringo Deathstarr

Please react to The Flying Club Cup by Beirut

I think he was expecting it to be more.....................chill.

It's funny you said lo-fi and rough around the edges. The production costs were so high that it bankrupted their label!

" a great high synth thing" 😂 better not let Kevin shields hear you say that.

man react to fka twigs - magdalene plz

No synths, all guitars.

listen to bladee lol

You styled like Our generation is weird