in short, the album was the result of a man possessed of his vision. during the two years it took to produce loveless, kevin shields, the band's principal creative force, saw the band through 19 recording studios and ultimately found himself in charge of every aspect of the process - from laying down bass tracks to mic'ing amps. while estimates vary, the album cost somewhere in the ballpark of £250,000 to produce - a figure so astronomically large, that it begs the question: "was it worth it?" from a financial perspective it was certainly not - while critically respected upon release, i can't imagine those costs were recouped, which leads you then to question the value of art, the importance of unrestrained creative license, and other such lofty questions...i have a sneaking suspicion that shields might have been "difficult to work with," but the whole story and the very idea that someone would go to such lengths to accomplish his creative vision is legendary - of course it's easy to spend boatloads of other people's money, but according to shields' account, he and the band sank a sizeable chunk of their own into the project.
i liked reading robert smith's (of the cure) two cents: "it's the sound of someone [Shields] who is so driven that they're demented. And the fact that they spent so much time and money on it is so excellent."
and, of course, a few album cuts:
my bloody valentine- "blown a wish"
my bloody valentine- "what you want"
on
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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