Album: Loveless
Year: 1991
Then again, I kept playing the puzzling Loveless in order to get to its final song, the glorious mesmerizing “Soon,” which ended the album on a massive high.
One of those songs that get you lost in time and space, “Soon” almost defies any kind of musical analysis, but then, I wouldn’t have anything to write about, now would I?
Unlike most of the rest of the songs on Loveless, where the beats were fighting against the song, “Soon” stood out because it rode on top of a drum loop that could have powered any number of contemporary hip-hop songs: it was propulsive, moving ever forward, almost sprightly.
Meanwhile, Kevin Shields came up with what I think is the greatest of all of his guitar hooks: an infinite pinwheel of colors, which he alternated with soft fuzzy washes of sound. There are vocals, of course, what sounds like both Shields and Bilinda Butcher singing what sounds like might be words, but of course, they’re really more like musical splashes of contrast to all of the fiery guitar chaos going on.
Controlled chaos of course: every single note of “Soon” was exactly where it was supposed to be, drawing you into its endless white hole of gravitational pull, as it was in the beginning is now and shall ever be world without end amen. Nothing exists but that infinite pinwheel of colors and isn’t it pretty lets just stare at it for awhile. Or forever.
“Soon”
Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page