Greg Fasolino of
Trouser Press said: "'Shining Road' has an enchanting
pop melody and rushing guitar pulse, 'Lilies' flirts with fragile funkiness and 'Paris and Rome' feels like a European music-box waltz. Using odd squeaking noises and distant
whammy-bar twangs, 'Beautiful Friend' cunningly fashions an unusual
ambient/
Western hybrid; the title track actually rocks." Cranes' entry in the 1995
Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music notes that while Alison Shaw's vocals are "noticeably more prominent in the mix" on
Loved than on earlier Cranes recordings, the band's music remains rooted in
dream pop. Writing in
The Rough Guide to Rock, Ian Canadine found
Loved to be "very similar in tone" to Cranes' previous album
Forever (1993), as well as "somehow too comfortable, though containing some echoes of the clang of old on 'Reverie'." ==Track listing==