2/5/2026:

Man, I should probably have something written for my favorite album of all time. But hopefully you can empathize with having to write about something you connect to on such a deeply emotional level. Sure, I could go through Loveless track-by-track and describe why I think every composition choice works using adjectives yanked out of a thesaurus. That’d be something. Yet it would fail to capture the abstract qualities, which feels meaningless for music so ethereal. To properly bridge my perception with the objective notes audible to everyone would be necessary to properly convey what Loveless means to me and why I consider it a masterwork.

I feel a kind of obligation to do it, too. For as beloved as Loveless is, I think certain aspects of it are still underappreciated even by some of its fanbase. Whenever I hear someone claim the album’s lyrics are irrelevant, it’s like a dagger through my heart; which I then consider yanking out and turning it on whomever shared such a plebian opinion. I’d sooner respect someone calling the lyrics bad over someone willingly not engaging with them. There needs to be a definitive piece on Loveless that explores its emotional depth while grounding it in the album’s universal experience. It seems everyone’s either too technical or writing sophomoric slam poetry. Bleh.

You know what one of my greatest regrets is as a critic? There was a night where I had just curled up into bed for another unproductive sleep session. For whatever reason, divine providence chose to enter my brain at that inopportune moment. I suddenly began writing, in my mind, the perfect review for Loveless. Every word I had struggled to find in my normally-conscious mind was boiling up in this sudden inspiration. But I was fucking tired, man. I’d write it tomorrow. Of course, upon waking up, I had lost all of that intuition. Had I ruined my sleep schedule for a few days, I could’ve written something to be appreciated by a dozen or so people.

And so, I continue to kick the can down the road. Someday I’ll write the ultimate Loveless analysis. But that day is not today. I’m tired, man.

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Older thoughts

An almost entirely emotional experience. As such, I find it hard to describe without becoming self-indulgent. Beautiful, harsh, sad, warm, distant, close, powerful, gentle. Just speaks perfectly to my mindset. The melodies are smooth and memorable, and the raw noise that twists and circles around them just accentuate the raw emotion. The lyrics are surreal, often-train-of-thought and detached, yet still seem to portray a specific idea or feeling. As such, I can listen to this album, understand its feeling (or what I perceive that feeling to be), and match the lyrics to suit myself. On top of all that, the album is masterfully produced and performed. Loveless sounds so familiar, like something I’ve been wanting to hear all my life. And for that same reason, I know I will never hear anything like it.

Every time someone calls a shoegaze/noise/dream pop album better than Loveless, I have to check it out by principle.

Every single time, it doesn’t even hold a match to Loveless.