When you first heard Loveless, did you think your copy was defective? Did you bring it back to the store and ask for your money back?

When I first heard it I was deliriously happy and wondered how I’d lived without it.

Two tracks were singles and I'd heard Only Shallow on the radio anyway.

First time I played it was on a CD-ROM drive that was kind of (in theory) rad in itself in 1991.

^ Exactly. Pretty sure I hadn't heard "Only Shallow" itself but "When You Sleep" and the singles had been on radio here for months before I borrowed a library copy. I'm kinda impressed that so many people seemingly procured stuff based purely on... what? Particularly vague recommendations, or something?

I think I read a review in the VV or somewhere. I only remember having the cassette and being infatuated and playing it in the car for my friends

Shields should just come out and say "we didn't intend for it to sound that way, but we left the tapes out in the sun and we didn't want to redo them"