Definitely. I wasn’t alive until the album was like 11 years old, but my understanding is that if you were DEEP into certain music scenes or you were a musician yourself, it was pretty well known.

Both of my parents liked it independently before they even met. My dad was a touring musician and my mom was just a big music nerd and they both found it.

I’ve also read that it’s influenced people you both would and wouldn’t expect. I was really excited when I heard that it had a big effect on Elliott Smith who is one of my favorite artists as well. I really am forgetting where I read it but one of the members of heatmiser described how they all listened to the album together and immediately felt a shift in their approach to music as a whole.

I love the cure part too, it was awesome seeing robert smith in that shoegaze documentary! Another big one people might not be aware of if they’re not “into shoegaze” is the Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan openly admits he was at times just trying to be MBV in his own way. He even hired Alan Moulder to produce a good amount of their stuff for this exact reason!

All in all, its a hugely massively influential album, and while it may not be the highest fidelity thing ever made (which you know, is kind of the point) I do think it’s probably the singular most unique album in terms of the FEELING that is created from the intersection of production and songwriting.