What happened to LUSH?

Replace Spooky and Loveless with At War with Satan and What's THIS for...!, replace bubble bath and glass of wine with 40 oz of Crazy Horse and eliminate the reading material entirely and you have my solution.

DESIRE LINES

oh man...

I found Lovelife for a dollar the other day, it's pretty rad. Very chipper for what appears to be a concept album about breaking up.

I've reintroduced Spooky into my rotation in the last month or so. Somehow, before, my attention had always drifted off by the time the album reached "Monochrome." So I was listening on shuffle the other day and that song came up and absolutely wiped me out; the choruses in particular and the bridge at about 2:15 are Lush at their melancholy best.

I'm really happy about my poor listening habits way back when, because now I get a new favorite song without having to buy another record. It's the small victories.

spooky is the only lush disc i've never heard in full. i don't know why people are so keen to work with robin guthrie as a producer when he clearly isn't terribly good at it.

"For Love" > "Sweetness and Light"

Hmmm ... I've never been one to really pay too much attention to production, but I don't notice any thing overtly bad about Spooky. I mean, it sounds pretty damn good to my ears.

A quick scan looks like all their records were produced by him, except for Lovelife.

I miss Lush.

Early singles are obviously terrific, but Split is easily their best full-length - and one of my favorite records period.

(to elaborate on that) Split straddles the middle ground between Spooky and Lovelife and combines the strengths of both: buzzy power-pop & Cocteau/shoegaze dreaminess, whereas the other two LPs lean a bit too far in either direction.

ah but Split transcends the sum of its parts no? I'm with you in saying its one of my favourite records ever.

pillbox sort of otm, but to me those slow tracks in the last 2/3rds of split kind of kill its momentum. "lovelife" is my favorite lush song, though, and "kiss chase" might be #2

this was my favorite band in high school. it's been too long. those guitars + miki and emma's voices together was such a rush..

Winston, I'll give you "Never-Never" on you observation (though I still really like that song, I can see how it would drag for others), but if you're referring to "Desire Lines" or "When I Die," you're nuts.

oh no i loooove "when i die"! "desire lines" i would probably be more ok with if it didn't follow "lovelife" (let alone the previous 4 tracks)

You know, my mate put on "Spooky" one evening and I really liked it until I found out it was the same band that recorded "Single Girl".

you're weird

At some shows during Lollapalooza '92, Miki and Emma would join Ministry onstage when they played "Supernaut". I always thought that was pretty cool. I can't imagine the boys from the Jesus and Mary Chain doing the same thing.

The latest from Miki

Thanks for that, Jack.

for some reason, that interview made me sad.

i saw miki throwing herself at some kid younger than i was at a black box recorder show in the camden underworld in 2000. she was sideways and her skin was grotesque. goodbye teenage lust...

that said, i'll still support a good chunk of gala, spooky, and split. i haven't hear lovelife in ages, but recall being pretty fond of the silly duet with jarvis cocker. thnking of "ladykiller" now, i'm guessing it would play out much like songs from blur's the great escape. cute and fun, but sounds from a world i cannot imagine having been excited in.

she was sideways

What does that mean?

Anyway, Lush wasalways one of the few shoegaze bands that never did it for me. I spent a lot of time with 'Spooky' when it came out but it always sounded so lifeless and tinny.

I appreciate Guthrie’s contributions. I’m not sure that Lush themselves were capable of making a great album 100% all on their lonesome. Guthrie’s production is no different than, say, the strings on Split that give that album the extra edge.

I dislike both Guthrie’s Christmas tree production and how weak 60% of Spooky’s songs are. Found Emma’s twitter tedious but hadn’t realised Miki was a reactionary as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-qPHoqr74
This film on the criterion streaming?

Yep, in the US anyway