Sculpture Magazine

Back in the early '90s when bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and The Pixies, dominated MTV's 120 Minutes, there were a handful of even-further-underground breaking bands who never quite got their due.  U.K.-darlings, The Cranes, were a perfect example of one of these bands.  Fifteen years later, the band is re-releasing, Loved, complete with 18-tracks and 7 new songs.

First heralded by the legendary John Peel in the mid-'80s, brother and sister duo Alison and Jim Shaw continued to tinker with their band's sound before really gelling creatively and commercially.  After their successful 1992 tour opening for The Cure, The Cranes released arguably their best album with Loved.  Characterized by the era's typically dreamlike production, songs such as "Pale Blue Sky" and "Reverie" give way to woozy guitar and drums, as if the instrumentation was underwater.

However, it's Alison Shaw’s Lolita-like, come-on vocals that set The Cranes apart from their predecessors at the time.  Loved is a complete, perhaps magnum opus, which refuses to be strictly pigeonholed into one sound.   When the closing song "In the Night" is finally reached, there is a bright, pink sunset across the sky signaling the end of another day and the completion of an album, and band, the hopefully will get another listen with this re-issue.

Track List

01. Shining Road

02. Pale Blue Sky

03. Reverie

04. Lilies

05. Are You Gone?

06. Loved

07. Beautiful Friend

08. Bewildered

09. Come This Far

10. Paris and Rome

11. In The Night

Bonus Tracks:

12. Shining Road (Brauer Mix)

13. Liles (Flood Mix)

14. Don't Close Your Eyes

15. Organ Song

16. Paris and Rome (Flood Mix)

17. September

18. Green Song