almauro

I thought MBV was on to an interesting idea, fusing Jesus and Mary Chain noise pop with the ethereal rhythms of Cocteau Twins, but lacked the song-writing prowess to turn this into a classic. The good songs tend to sound similar and the boring ones stagnant and would benefit if they'd been shortened (filler perhaps?). The publicity it received in the early 90's was very good, making many top 10 lists, but has waned recently, because it’s one of those albums that’s decent, but derivative.

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rock n music blog

White Lies

what exactly is this album derivative of?

I mean, you hear about Interpol being derivative of Joy Division, Bloc Party derivative of Gang of Four - how is Loveless derivative? You say it sounds like a fusion of The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cocteau Twins' music, which is debatable to begin with as there's plenty of other influences at work. But even so, that's a combination of two ideas into a new one - in other words, not derivative, just musical evolution and progression.

almauro

You make a good point and let me try to answer it this way. When I hear an original song by a great band, I'm unable to distinguish the musical influences. For example Radiohead and "Paranoid Android". I've listened to that song dozens of times, and I can't honestly say it sounds like anybody else but Radiohead. Yeah it's got prog rock, alt rock, new wave, and other sub-genres in it, but it's uniquely Radiohead and sounds like no other band. When I listen to MBV, i begin to lose interest half way through a song and start thinking, that sounds like J&MC, or they remind me of Cocteau Twins, or as some other posters noted, Bauhaus or Sonic Youth. Great bands absorb influences into something new, whereas bands that fall short, wear them on their sleeve.

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