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Originally Posted by Glice
To explain that idea of form - MBV's Loveless is considered a groundbreaking album. And within the rock context, it definitely is; from a timbral point of view, it is. In terms of production, it is. But on a formal level, the songs are structurally identical to the more prosaic Ecstasy and Wine or any other bog-standard late-80s schmindie.
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Even in terms of Rock, an album like Loveless is far less innovative than I think it's generally credited with. What that album marks is a sense of opening up parameters within an already myopic 'back to basics' Punk idea of what Rock is: (simple chord structures, standard drum patterns, etc) but certainly can't compare, in terms of innovation with the plethora of albums released in the late 60s-early 70s by bands such as Soft Machine or Yes (and obviously Beefheart) all of whom strike me as having a for more expansive attitude towards what Rock could be. I'd certainly say that, compared with those, Loveless closes Rock down far more than it opens it up. I'd even go so far as to say that, in terms of the Valentine's peers, an album like The Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician was infinitely more innovative than Loveless - which I still can't see as anything more than a decent welding together of Dinosaur Jr riffs with Cocteau Twins textures and Beach Boys harmonies. Fortunately, innovation is one of the factors furthest from my mind when I listen to Rock.