I wonder if My Bloody Valentine were aware of the avalanche they were about to trigger when they first took Belinda Butcher's airbrushed vocals and smothered them with layer upon layer of white noise guitar?

Along with The Jesus ... Mary Chain's Psychocandy, their 1988 debut 'Isn't Anything' pretty much defined a genre and opened the floodgates for imitators like Curve, Ride, Slowdive and Lush -- bands whose music is almost as interchangeable as their names.

Having done the groundwork it seems ironic that MBV have yet to enjoy the commercial spoils normally associated with such trailblazing.

It's mainly their own fault. They've never been a particularly prolific outfit and Loveless has been delayed for over two years by diplomatic wrangles so complex they'd give even Perez de Cuellar sleepless nights.

Now that it's finally arrived, the album lives up to the most exalted of expectations and reveals that underneath it all My Bloody Valentine are really a pop group at heart, albeit a severely traumatised one. Openers 'Only Shallow' and 'Loomer' are both as laden with melody as they are decibels, songs of fractured beauty and jarring extremes where Butcher's breathy tones are starkly contrasted by Kevin Shields' tastefully brutal riffing.

It's a basic formula they gleefully rejig throughout the record's eleven tracks resulting in a sound that's easily identifiable yet never overly predictable. 'Touched' demonstrates a willingness to experiment, an Arabesque intro making way for an extended instrumental break which swoops and soars as frantically as an amphetamined seagull.

Elsewhere a little light relief is provided by the surprisingly chirpy 'The Here Knows When' while the hypnotic 'Come In Alone' is so frail and delicate it ought to be hooked up to a life support machine, pronto. Shields takes the microphone on 'Sometimes', another exercise in introspection which envelope you in warm waves of controlled feedback.

The Valentines sensibly save their best shot till last, 'Soon' benefiting from Colm O'Ciosoig's cleverly sampled fiddle and cello. It's the closest they come to a potential hit single and a welcomely upbeat note to end on.

Loveless joins Primal Scream's Screamadelica in supplying the current crop of new bands with an important reference point. It sets standards that others would be well advised to aspire to.

11