The original vinyl-only edition of
The World in Your Eyes brought together
16 Dreams and
Spinning -- 1987 12" releases that preceded
Loop's first album,
Heaven's End -- and added two songs.
Loop naturally were at their rawest during the early phase documented by the set. Taking cues from
the Velvet Underground, early
Can, and especially
the Stooges, the band etched a kind of negative space rock with alternately constricted and stretched-out primal stomps like "16 Dreams" and "Head On," and darkly shimmering ballads such as "Brittle Head Girl." The latter, along with an appropriately menacing cover of
Suicide's "Rocket USA" (taken from
Loop's first of three sessions for
John Peel's BBC program), were throw-ins on the first edition. The CD and cassette versions of the 1991 reissue appended "Burning Prisma" (aka "Burning World," originating from the live promotional EP
Prisma Uber Europa) and a faster, swirlier take of "Spinning" (available first on the various-artists compilation
Good Feeling). When
The World in Your Eyes was reissued on CD in 2009 (and 2025), it was expanded to three discs, though "Rocket USA" was omitted (presumably a licensing issue). It added the 12" releases from 1988 and 1989, as well as tracks recorded for tribute albums, the other two-thirds of
Prisma Uber Europa, a trudge through
Godflesh's "Like Rats" (taken from a 1991 split single on which
Godflesh also covered
Loop), and previously unissued demos. "Collision," "Black Sun," and "Arc-Lite," the lead songs of the EPs, are all raging tempests. A howling transformation of
the Pop Group's "Thief of Fire" and a comparatively faithful reading of
Can's "Mother Sky" aren't far behind. ~ Andy Kellman
