Audiopile Review: It’s puzzling that UK dreampop band Cranes never got the critical, cult, or commercial success they deserved. Perhaps it’s all down to the freakish and wrong fact that they somehow never got signed to 4AD. Or maybe it’s just that they eschewed easily marketable genre identification in favour of developing a sound uniquely their own. The band’s 1994 album ‘Loved’ was a phenomenal realization of this sound. Everything from flamenco to industrial music was harnessed in the pursuit of a darkly romantic aesthetic. But it’s Alison Shaw’s disconcertingly childlike singing that really made Cranes a band like no other. The certified non-geniuses in the British music press scoffed at her high, unearthly tones. But if you open yourself to it, Shaw’s voice is a deeply moving instrument. Once you fall under its spell, you may get a little addicted, but you can never become desensitized to its true strangeness. So, Cranes may never have received quite the success they deserved. But they made some excellent records and Robert Smith was a huge fan, which is an admirable goal for any band to achieve.

Portsmouth’s finest Cranes have been enjoying a second spell in the sunshine as today’s music listeners clamour to get their hands on anything from the original shoegaze generation. Led by siblings Jim and Alison Shaw they blended goth, shoegaze and dream-pop around the distinctive vocals of Alison Shaw. Loved was their emotive third album, originally released in 1994.