You know you're getting old when undergraduates are writing their dissertations on albums that you bought when you were a student yourself. Apparently a guy at some American college has just written his thesis on My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless", which came out, after endless delays and accumulating mystery, in 1992 (my 3rd year).

The Valentines, as we called them, were my most favouritist band in the whole wide world until I heard "Loveless", but it's now lauded as their absolute highpoint. To me it had the feel of a band who'd spent too long in the studio and had just lost the plot. Of course, that's its appeal to many, but I preferred it when guitarist/leader Kevin Shields was working under pressure to produce the EPs that came out in the long, long pauses between albums. He is famous for hating working in such conditions, but if the result is skewiff combinations of fey and brutal like "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "Drive It All Over Me" then I'm not complaining at all. The "Tremolo" EP that preceded "Loveless" gave a taste of what was to come, but was just long enough to intrigue without boring.

This thesis discusses MBV "within the context of the shoegazing scene" apparently. Really, who wants to remember ? All those bands claimed the Valentines as an inspiration, but their approach was so utterly prosaic I honestly couldn't see any resemblance whatsoever. They reminded me more of low-rent Jesus and Mary Chains. Superficial resemblance (feedback, tra-la vocals etc), but that was as far as it went. I fancied Miki Berenyi of Lush something rotten, and was massively jealous of Mark Gardener of Ride, who was devilishly good-looking and rumoured to be knocking her off- the music went in one ear and out the other, mostly.

Other memories ? Spliffs, trying to dance funky to the Stone Roses, Penguin Modern Classics piled up around library desks on deadline week. Student life. Wonder what the thesis's writer will do when his time in the real world comes (if it hasn't already).