LUSH Albums POLL

::head explodes::

Gala is the obvious choice, but I am of course going to have to go and listen to all the albums in order because I haven't heard some of them in donkeys.

I always thought I didn't like Lovelife but the last time I listened, I was enchanted. I remember in the mid 90s not liking it because it seemed too stripped down and I missed all the effects, but on getting it again a few years ago, I actually really liked it a lot, the songwriting was spikier and it was almost like a throwback to their early EPs.

Also, at the time I suspected it was a britpop bandwaggoning move because of the Jarvis thing, but I read more recent interviews where they talked about making a non-effects laden record as a deliberate move so they could highlight their songwriting and stop being seen as Robin Guthrie's etherial Vanity 6 or something.

I spent a good portion of last week listening to Lovelife in the car and it's really great.

Listened to Lovelife a couple of times lately. Really wish they'd recorded Ladykillers in a different key. Miki doesn't usually sound so gruff. Generally never thought of them as an album band, just a string of really great individual tracks. Adored the early stuff, but this is pretty much my definition of early 90s cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F4aHdMxM0k

Going back through Split there were tracks I used to view as filler and would simply skip but now I'm finding really fascinating. Case in point: Desire Lines. I had no idea they had a video for that song. Such a long, slow, dirge-y track for a single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9tcEuUWuhc

Gala when all's said and done. Spooky's bloody brilliant though.

Spooky, but really when the discography's this good they're all valid winners.

wtf is Topolino?

Japan only Lovelife B-sides compilation.

Re Hypocrite/Desire Lines: When the Manic Street Preachers released two singles on the same day back in 2001, the BBC news website reported it as the first time that a band had ever done this. Well, I wasn't going to have Lush written out of history like that, so I emailed them to remind them that the Manics weren't the first to do this. They amended the story, but bearing in mind the way that they described the Lush version, I'm not sure that I did the right thing.

Every time I hear Lovelife I am reminded again and again of how great it is, and how *stupid* I was when it came out.

By the time "Last Night" comes on, I'm a gibbering wreck. Still tend to skip the Jarvis song, mind you.

But, argh, you know, Gala is Gala. The two things make lovely bookends.

I loved Lovelife on release, less so now. I like Lovelife, but not like I love Gala.

Ian, if I recall, Colourbox did this also: "Baby I love you so" and "the official Colourbox world cup theme" were both released the same day by 4AD as well.

I'm American and was born in the '80s so Lovelife is the only one I've heard.

^this

"Desire Lines" reminds me a little of Mazzy Star...

(should be mentioned though that Undertow was my first & only exposure to anything shoegazer for a very long time...)

I was listening to "Undertow (Spooky Remix)" last night and I wasn't too into it, but after going back and listening to the original it made me think that Studio could have done an amazing remix of the same track.

I had only heard Spooky and Split for the longest time. By the time Lovelife came out I had ignorantly lost interest. (Sigh)

Would some kind-hearted poster care to give me the lowdown on each of these albums. The only one I'm sure I know is 'Spooky'. My Lush experience started with the 'Mad Love' EP, then 'Sweetness and Light', then 'Spooky', then (at least two years later) a CD single that I can't remember the name of (but there was a long, slighty dubby track that went "I was waiting at the station when your train came in...." and a better track whose tube I can remember but none of the words), and after that just Britpop singles which I saw on TV or heard on the radio, but didn't buy.

(but there was a long, slighty dubby track that went "I was waiting at the station when your train came in...."

this is a cover of "love at first sight" by post-young marble giants group The Gist

Yeah, that's it. I didn't know it was a cover. I'm going to see if I can find out what the poppier track I like was...

...it's called 'Cat's Chorus'.

Going with GALA, even though it's not really an album so much as a collection of previously released E.P.'s (like that matters).

Could go with Gala or Spooky as both were favorites at the time. I've never heard anything after Split though so I probably shouldn't weigh in at all.

Let's just say were I to eventually vote I'll go for Spooky.

Going back and refamiliarizing myself with this discography has only made this decision much more difficult.

Would some kind-hearted poster care to give me the lowdown on each of these albums.

Gala - An LP-length comp. of their first three 4AD-issued UK EPs. This served as an introduction to the band for US buyers &, b/c of the consistent strength of the material, will likely win this poll (deservedly imo).

Spooky - technically their debut album, the critical consensus at the time seemed to be that it was a relative disappointment in comparison with the material that Gala was comprised of. Some would argue that the gauzy Cocteau-ness of Robin Guthrie's production was not the best context for the band's pop/punk smarts, tho you can't really disguise the power & hooks of A+ trax like "Superblast" & "Nothing Natural"

Split - "uneven" or simply "varied," depending on whether you prefer 3-minute sugar-rush pop tracks or extended shoegaze space-dirges, I like this best of their proper LPs b/c it contains an even amount of both. They seemed to be in limbo b/w their shoegaze roots (which had already been laid to waste by the UK press by this time) & the straight-up pop band they were soon to become. Personally, it is that identity crisis that really sells this (underheard & underrated) album imo. I'm voting for it in this poll b/c Gala will already win handily enough.

Lovelife - by far their most immediate pop material; their official bid for Britpop consideration &, as such, their most commercially successful album. Jarvis Cocker guest-spot. Hanging out w/ Elastica & Echobelly, etc. This wasn't the same sea-change (compromise?) in style as it was for Ride etc., b/c they had already proven themselves remarkably adept at this power-pop on past albums, even though they had hidden it under layers and layers of reverb & fx. A very consistent album & (for good reason) highly rated by lots o folks. personally, not really my cup of tea.

Topolino - Someone else will have to comment on this b/c I was never so taken by Lovelife to feel compelled to dig into the b-sides and such from that era.

thanks pillbox

no prob.

Chris Acland RIP - so sad that that tragedy ended their career b/c I would have loved to have seen where they proceeded from Lovelife. This poll has me interested in revisiting that album (admittedly, it has been a loooong time) & checking out Topolino as well. The others have never been far outside of my regular rotation.

quality links gathered from this thread:

http://thequietus.com/articles/04017-lush-interview-mad-love-20th-anniversary

http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/sweetness-and-light-the-miki-berenyi-interview-2008/
http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/seinking-ships-miki-berenyi/
http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/lush-mad-love/

http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/not-just-the-ticket-38-lush-april-12-1992/

oh and fyi as i pointed out in ye olde thred, all their back catalogue; EPs, albums, singles, b sides (and Topolino) are all on Spotify.

Even though I love Spooky too, I voted Gala, because it was one of those tectonic-plates-of-my-musical-taste-shifting moments. I remember very vividly watching 120 Minutes and seeing this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvhc2gRBM4

"De-Luxe" and the rest of the Mad Love EP segment of Gala are pretty unfuckwithable. But I totally agree with Pillbox, Split as a whole is such a perfect balance of their gaze-y past and their poppy future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ItVSTgYWdM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtf1QNkEwA8

I should really listen to the middle two, because I've only been caning the first and the last.

The singles on Spooky remain brilliant (I had forgotten about Superblast!) but it remains a deeply flawed album.

Split, though, is a lot better than I remember it. Starting to recall why I loved this band so much...

Since Topolino is a b-side collection it's pretty all over the place (no surprise) but a few of the standouts are a couple of cover songs. One being I Have the Moon the Magnetic Fields cover which sounds really appropriate. The other is a cover of Demystification by Zounds.

Well, so far I've excluded Spooky and Topolino, but the other three are still very much in the running.

I suspect I'm going to go to the shoegaze/pop compromise option and go for Split, even though it's odd, I would never, at the time, have thought of that as their best album.

That Zounds cover was responsible for getting me into Zounds, and from there, all the Crass Records stuff.

Found out not so long ago Emma & Miki used to be friends with another Crass Records band, Lack Of Knowledge, and Emma was even briefly in a post-LOK band after LOK broke up, according to the Southern Records page for Lack Of Knowledge: http://www.southern.com/southern/band/LACK1/?section=history

Heard Split for the first time this weekend (yes, I also think that is ridiculous) and in so many ways this was my perfect band. That album is astonishing.

I have only just realised that the song "Lovelife" is actually on Split, not Lovelife. And so that is the final push that sends Split over the edge for me.

Which surprises me, as before I started seriously re-listening to these albums, I always thought I'd pick Gala in a heartbeat. (bring on the toy boys, etc!)

That definitely seems to be knee-jerk judgement around here (Gala being the best) and even I originally thought that I liked Spooky more than Split but I was wrong.

Although, I think that the only result of this poll that I'd be happy with would be if they all tied (or were at least pretty close) except for Topolino which I could understand not getting as many votes.

I don't regret voting Gala in the slightest but Split is amazing.

"Knee-jerk" was the wrong word. It's a popular opinion and I thought that I would follow suit...but I think I am enjoying Split a teensy bit more.

It's odd to me that Gala is the most well-regarded one, because amongst my friends in high school Split (along with Foxbase Alpha) was THE album. None of us even heard another Lush album until years later. Good to hear a lot of love for Split here, since obv it has a lot of nostalgic pull on me which makes it hard to attempt to judge in objectively against the others.

Huh, I thought I posted it here this morning but I guess I didn't.

Was Gala the album named after Gala Eluard/Dali? I vaguely recall some odd rumour that was the case, but have not been able to find confirmation/denial. (I mean, they had already referenced surrealism with the "Mad Love" ep)

I don't know how reliable this is, but I found this on the Light From a Dead Star Lush fan page:

In December of 1990 4AD/Reprise compiled and released Lush's two preceding EPs as Gala, their first release in the United States. The group named the album after Salvador Dali's wife.

http://www.lightfromadeadstar.org/Biographies/Index.htm

It's in the "Contemporary Musicians" bio.

Not sure I trust a source that reckons Meriel Barham was/is a bloke, mind you. But I am convined that I read it in other accounts, so I'll take it as true.

And duh, Black Spring = Henry Miller reference, so Gala Eluard/Dali would be totally in keeping with that theme.

I swear my brain has a hole in the back of it where information leaks out of it...

Not sure I trust a source that reckons Meriel Barham was/is a bloke, mind you.

Oh geez, you're right. Sorry about that. Contemporary Musicians is not the most reputable source.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

spooky getting more votes than split is very surprising

Kind of reflects my interest at the time in each successive Lush album.

Yeah, I thought Split was generally considered to be a better album than Spooky. I think it is.

Aw, I was hoping for Split to rank a little higher. Pleased at the lack of a one-sided blowout.

Yeah, that's weird. I was expecting Gala to win, but Spooky is an odd choice. But then again, the singles from it were pretty kickass and Split really did get buried in the critical backlash to shoegaze.

I voted Split as a kind of best of both worlds choice though Lovelife is by far my most played of these albums.

and Split really did get buried in the critical backlash to shoegaze.

Not so sure about this. The shoegaze critical backlash had already started in the second half of 1991. By 1994 shoegazing was ancient history, it was more a question of a backlash to grunge with Britpop taking over.

Poll results in chronological order (hence in order albums are pictured at the top). I voted Split.

Poll results in chronological order (hence in order albums are pictured at the top).

"Matador" off Topolino came up on shuffle a bit ago & w/o looking over, I just assumed it was Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Prob not a whole lot of opportunities for that case of mistaken identity.

O man, I TOTALLY forgot about this track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G2GoFl3bHc

If you immersed this track in a swimming pool of chorus & reverb fx, this could have been a standout on either Gala or Split

As it stands, it is merely the great, lost Velocity Girl track!

this band was so so so great

I kinda wish that last album hadn't gone the direction it did, but I otherwise agree hardcore. Sing-Sing is a decent post-breakup consolation prize, too.

The whole of their discography is on Spotify now.

oh I KNOW

Not too much post-band activity, huh? Sing Sing was nothing special, and Miki guested on a few tracks here and there. Guess real life took over...

the first sing-sing album is great, 'tegan' and 'i can see you' as good as anything lush released imo. they did go a bit less interesting but were never crap.

Lush would be the winner of the "when the shoegazers stopped gazing" poll.

Always an appropriate soundtrack to winter weather.

Not sure why I wasn't vociferously defending Spooky on here first time around.

I was listening to "Undertow (Spooky Remix)" last night and I wasn't too into it, but after going back and listening to the original it made me think that Studio could have done an amazing remix of the same track.

I would love to hear a version of their cover of Love At First Sight in this form.

Oh I would love a whole album of remixes, I must listen to the "Undertow" one practically every day! Who originally did "Love At First Sight"?

I'd be totally OK if Lush decided to play all of Topolino on the reunion tour. B-side Britpop Lush is just proof-positive that they wrote better songs and covered better songs than all those other blowhards.

spooky turns 25 today

That's...that's hard to take in.

. . . yeah

Jesus. I still have dreams about the room I was in that year (I had this and Scar then and Sweetness & Light on Shiiiine compilation predecessor Happy Daze). I need to get a new dream writer, he's way out of touch.

Spooky is the one for me, gossamer Guthrie production and all

I once interviewed Emma Anderson and she hated Spooky, said they felt like lab animals during the recording because Guthrie wanted everything quantised and time locked to reverbs etc. I remember being so disappointed after Black Spring that they made this anaemic, stiff sounding record.

Emma ranks Spooky as her favourite these days. https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/rank-your-records-lush-emma-anderson

Hate the process, love the result, maybe. The interview I did was in '94 so the bad experiences were presumably more vivid.

Split > Spooky > Lovelife