BEST LOOP ALBUM POLL

gilded eternity, cause i got tired of heaven's end

Saw these live once. They were quite loud. Copped off and left the gig early. Which was nice.

What's with all the Loop action? Do they have a retrospective coming out or something?

theres nothing more to be said about Loveless

I'm voting for the first EP collection just cuz.

it's hard to tell the difference between the albums anyway

^^^ this

You forgot the live album

If Fade Out is the CD version that includes the Collision EP and "Mother Sky" then it wins, otherwise A Gilded Eternity which sounds better but maybe wasn't quite so laser beam focused and obsessively RIFF.

I thought Dual was the live album. I never had any live album from them, though.

That's a good point, Spencer - Heaven's End is probably stronger musically, but A Gilded Eternity's production sound is much better.

Dual is the collection of Collision and some other EP.

Dual is the collection of Collision and some other EP.

Dual is the reissue of the Eternal comp (which is in turn the Collision and Black Sun EPs together) with a live track stuck on the end.

I thought Dual was the live album. I never had any live album from them, though.

It was a limited release on some Italian label in 1992 (I don't have it in front of me to double-check). Some discographies list it as a bootleg, but since a track from it appeared on Dual there is speculation that the band may have bootlegged themselves because Beggars was being a pain (Beggars was being a pain to the Darkside and Sun Dial around the same time also). The live disc also got some decent (if brief) distribution.

Anyway, the live album is tremendously gargantuan and plain fucking HEAVY. If only the current batch of stoner-metal clods out there now could get as worked up. It's my fave release of theirs but admittedly that's more of a side-effect of my main frustration with them. Loop could have the great material, great production, and an ample amount of the X-factor that holds it all together, but not all three at the same time. Shorter bursts (like Arc-Lite hold together a lot more than the full-lengths.

Shorter bursts (like Arc-Lite hold together a lot more than the full-lengths.

See also: the Wolf Flow version of "Straight to Your Heart," which devours the world.

^^^ the slomo feedback section of that is the best thing they ever did

Have to disagree as I can't even think of a misstep. I think the thing that might be frustrating for some is that their aesthetic was totally complete from the beginning. All their releases were variations on the same theme and it of course depends on your level of interest in it. The only differences depended on the environment used to record, although it seems like they had some more time with the "Arc-Lite" single and especially A Gilded Eternity.

One thing that always entertains me is the similarity between "The Nail Will Burn" and "Mountain Song" by Jane's Addiction.

that's xpost.

Where's Eternal? Wasn't that the two 12 inch compilation with the Can cover?

I love you, flowersdie, but if you read the thread you will see more than a few comments about that.

I love you too Ned.

I was blind, but now I can see.

Anyway,

The World in Your Eyes is my favourite 'start of the summer' album, so out it comes now. Mmmm, Brittlehead Girl....

Well it took some digging around last night but I did find mention of the live album here. It's fun to read the messages in the run-off grooves of their records too! I also was surprised to learn they covered Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" for a Drake tribute album. I listened to it and it was actually a really quiet and faithful version with a very beautiful guitar part in place of where there is piano in Drake's version.

See also: the Wolf Flow version of "Straight to Your Heart," which devours the world.

This might be the 'favourite album being the one I bought first' thing talking but I think that Wolf Flow versions of songs are really, really bang on in terms of production, guitar sound yadda yadda... I had a friend in college who was basically exclusively into metal, and really liked Kyuss, so ignored a lot of the stuff I liked but was pretty impressed when I played him that album. So er yeah, Wolf Flow

didn't they cover "cinnamon girl" at some point?

Yes, the discography says they did. I'd like to hear that as well, but it's not as uncharacteristic as the Drake cover.

In the meantime, I am nearly weeping at realizing the prices World In Your Eyes & Heaven's End are going for now on CD ($US 60-100). I do not want to fucking rip Heaven's End from vinyl and I don't even have World In Your Eyes anymore in any form despite owning it on vinyl and CD in the past. Sigh. Neither amazon or iTunes or emusic has them available for download either and that's pretty pathetic. This is why people are forced to download for free, folks.

And no I still don't know which album to vote for, though I'll probably cave in and say Heaven's End eventually. I'm going to try to listen to Wolf Flow with a really open mind. That's the one I don't know very well. It's really weird (and great) to reconnect with this band again because to be honest I've never been able to do it since they were around. They were little more than a relic of the past to me until that recent Best Shoegazing Band poll thread.

didn't they cover "cinnamon girl" at some point?

It's on "The Bridge" tribute album (the same one that had the Sonic Youth cover of "Computer Age")

Oh a Sonic Youth Neil Young cover too! That's great. Shit. Hell..was that song on Trans? Wow, it sure was. That's great. I really like that album by NY. Also, I've had the Sonic Youth "Confusion Is Sex" CD hanging around lately meaning to pull it out. But damnit I wanted to talk about Loop.

See, I'm trying to enjoy Wolf Flow and I can't. I really can't. The fucking production ruins everything. It's too restrained. Stilted. The vocals are way too high in the mix. The riff is not central enough. Things don't explode into outer space like they should. It's not all-encompassing enough. Sorry. Though I can understand why folks who might have had Wolf Flow as their first experience of Loop might feel differently. Peel Sessions work really well for some bands and for other bands they just don't. That's a fact of life.

Elvis T. please check yer email thanx

I am nearly weeping at realizing the prices World In Your Eyes & Heaven's End are going for now on CD ($US 60-100).

au contrairé - a copy of World in your Eyes just went on eBay for about $25 this week

Well goodness, that's good to know. I didn't check ebay.

if it goes for under $20 i'll outbid you though ;-)

Heheh. :)

Elvis, you are right about the live album. There is some fantastic stuff on that. Blistering at times.

I listened to The World In Your Eyes again and came out far more bored and disappointed than I expected. Definitely their weakest effort. They were just finding their footing. The sad thing is the best songs on that are the slower, blissed out ones that actually remind me of Spacemen 3 (and even - dare I say it - shoegazing?) and you know, for Loop, that's nowhere near good enough.

Damnit I need to go to bed but this live album will not let me. Oh my god Arc-Lite is on this thing. Oh for the love of...you know when that single first came out I was completely confused by it. Now I fucking love it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I think it's real nice A Gilded Eternity won. That album has taken me many years to fully appreciate, and that's the mark of a really good album.

My appreciation considerably changed when I finally played the record at the required 45rpm instead of 33...

Until then I thought they built the template for Sunno))) et al. :)

HAHAHAHAHA

Hey you know what? I'm hearing the b-side of Arc-Lite right now - "Sunburst". Someone on the "best shoegaze band" thread said they really liked this one. This is really cool. I don't even remember this one, though I did own that 12". Yeah this is unlike anything else they ever did. Wow.
Really nice.

LISTEN TO THE COVER OF CINNAMON GIRL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"From Centre To Wave" from the live album is beyond words.

Loop is cool, but not good for listening to while drinking by yrself...you pass out very quickly!

Ha! You're addressing the amateurs mate, not me.

justice miscarries. wolf flow is waaaaaaay better than a gilded eternity.

theres nothing more to be said about Loveless

Too bad Loop's three albums preempted Loveless by a good margin. Har har har.

this might get me banned but i'll take heaven's end and wolf flow over loveless any day

Live album, man. I'm getting in touch with my inner psychedelic hippie freak. They are sooo much more goth than you. Don't even try.

Loop's awesome. This buzz (or ressurection), i think, is because Robert is going to re-release all Loop's discography. By the way the solo "acoumastique" album of Robert is FUCKIN GREAT

See this thread: Loop - RFD.