Ben Kim on Loveless

Now that we're all coming down from our m b v high, I'd like to share a commentary on My Bloody Valentine that gets at better than anything I've read what inspires such devotion to this band. It's a blurb from Ben Kim of Chicago that appeared in the 1991 Pazz and Jop (March 3, 1992, p. 7). Don't know him. Don't know where else he wrote. But wow!

"Combining the swirling half-sense of the Cocteau Twins with the majestic grunge fury of Sonic Youth might seem obvious - but actualizing the Spectorian potential latent within these two major design trends of post-R.E.M. alternative rock required genius and ability that nobody until My Bloody Valentine could muster. Imagine the passion overload of "Walking in the Rain" stretched to an hour's length: that's how devastating and nearly unbearable Loveless is. Indecipherable singing, from Stipe to Fraser to Moore and beyond, has placed an ever greater burden on the music to evoke, to signify, and it's a weight too great for most. But Loveless's lovingly textured noise and melody achieves that elusive combination of emotional versatility and specificity."

And for the next chapter, MTV Unplugged should invite the band to do an episode to prove once and for all that the melodies are there, though the singing can remain indecipherable for all it matters.