Day 0685 - Loveless

My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" (1991)

Another enjoyable late-era shoe-gaze album.  Funnily enough, I didn't think too much of this on first listen, but then I gave it another go through headphones and it kind of clicked for me.  Not sure if this is just headphone music, or if I just needed time to get on board with it.

The band spend a lot of time (and money) experimenting with sounds and studio techniques and I'd say it's paid off.  The sounds are almost orchestral, there's a wall of sound that is most likely guitar but (full credit to them) I can't tell for sure.   There's enough melody tucked away in there as well that it's not complete drone.

Day 0481 - Beauty and the Beat

The Go-Gos "Beauty and the Beat" (1981)

Originally started in LA 1978 as a punk rock band (their singer had even been in the Germs for a while). The band claimed that they could barely play their instruments when they started, but that they seemed propelled towards success, with this, their first album spending 6 weeks in the Billboard chart.

By the time this album came out, much of the band's punkiness had been airbrushed with a gloss of a new-wavey take on the old-school girl group pop sound.  It actually works really well, like, catchy songs but with some guts and a bit of rock to them. Not a million miles from something like Letters to Cleo with their cover of "I want you to want me" in "10 things I hate about you".