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Jan 06, 2016 Lush By Aug Stone

Ethereal (or “Etheriel”), that was always the word back then. But Lush‘s celestial shimmer represented only one element of their overall sound. The lower depths of the Lush bass and drums joined in to propel those chiming guitars and sweet yet haunting voices outwards, even taking the whole to some unforeseen places. Chorus gives a chance to look at Lush’s trajectory from the spooky sonic storm of the collected EPs on Gala and their debut full-length Spooky to their distinctive spin in the Britpop maelstrom (third album Lovelife, especially with dancefloor filler “Ladykillers” and Jarvis Cocker duet “Ciao!”). Viewed this way, second album Split can be seen as straddling the line between these two periods, giving us the best of both worlds, made even better by the strength of songs such as “Kiss Chase,” “Hypocrite,” “Desire Lines,” and “Lovelife.” And getting past the Britpop moniker, Lovelife features some stunning sheer pop in the form of “500” and “Single Girl” (especially its middle eight).

Most interesting about this set is the huge amount of extra material (B-sides, demos, and sessions) included, impressive even if one had been keeping up back then. The 1996 Japanese CD of Lovelife B-sides, Topolino, has been greatly expanded to include 13 extra songs and those B-sides themselves are must-hears for any pop fan. The band’s cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “I Have the Moon” is absolutely gorgeous in an epic Disintegration-era Cure way. On the other side of the spectrum, Miki Berenyi singing Zounds’ “Demystification” is an unexpected delight. Other notable covers are two by Wire (a slightly rushed take on “Outdoor Miner” and putting their own dual-voiced take on “Mannequin”), “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” (The Rubinoos), “I’d Like to Walk Around in Your Mind” (Vashti Bunyan), and the “Rupert the Bear” theme tune. (www.lushofficial.com)

Author rating: 9/10