A Gilded Eternity

Since this was Loop's third and final album, 1990's A Gilded Eternity can be heard as the South London band's long goodbye. Groups such as Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. had turned up the noise quotient in the Amerindie underground, while My Bloody Valentine was deafening everyone on its side of the pond by the end of the '80s. Loop's Robert Hampson never tired of his hypnotic eternal riffing, but he also pressed his mates to creep outside the box. "Blood" encourages drummer John Willis to go tribal, while the vocals swim in and out of the mix with an eerie distance that's purely magical. "Vapour," "Afterglow," and "Breathe into Me" have an assuredness that comes from years of making variations on the same record. (That isn't a knock; many of the best bands slowly refine and repeat their core sounds.) Neil Mackay's bass leads the near–Joy Division apocalypse of "From Centre to Wave." "Be Here Now" serves as a perfect farewell anthem. The 1990 digital edition features "Shot with a Diamond" and "The Nail Will Burn (Burn Out)," both from a rare 7" single, plus the bonus track "Arc-Lite (Sonar)."