new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Lush was never the most original or creative act, but they were extremely entertaining. From an American perspective, it was easier to follow Lush than it was most of the other shoegazing acts like Ride or Swervedriver because they landed a sweet US distribution deal with Reprise Records which aggressively pushed their product to college radio and found the band a slot on one of the Lollapalooza tours. The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock compares the band to a poppier version of My Bloody Valentine, by way of Cocteau Twins, which is fair, but also shows how much of their sound had been mined previously.

The band formed in London in 1988 and signed to indie 4AD records the following year. In the studio with Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie producing, they released the mini-LP Scar in 1989, followed by the EP "De-Luxe" and the single "Sweetness and Light" in 1990. These fifteen tracks were packaged by Reprise in America as the Gala LP. The sound is very dense dream pop, with thick and swirling synthesizers and walls of guitars -- the guitar sound alone is reminiscent of Warehouse-era Husker Du, although few would agree with me there, and the synths, the barely visible backbeat, and the lost-in-a-forest vocals of Miki Berenyi don't have a thing to do with Du. Berenyi was an indie starlet in the making; Melody Maker and NME fell in love with the photogenic half-Japanese singer with the shock of bright crimson hair. The records were all murky and mysterious Vaughn Oliver designs as were common with 4AD Records; the photos in the rock weeklies were glamorous and pushed Miki to the forefront.

Their first proper album, 1992's [Spooky], is a perfect detour between the Twins' 1990 LP Heaven and Las Vegas and their 1993 release Heaven or Las Vegas. Still working with Robin Guthrie, and still producing the same angular dream-pop of the Twins, Lush's album did not receive strong reviews -- it was suggested that Guthrie's production was hampering their own development -- but the album made #7 in Britain and the "For Love" single made the top 40.

Split was produced by Mike Hedges and represents a mammoth improvement. Their dense sound perfectly matches Miki's vocals and the result is compelling and disturbing. "Light from a Dead Star, "Desire Lines" and especially "The Invisible Man," with its "please let me start screaming" refrain, are frightening songs, the soundtrack to a terribly failed relationship.

Lush's sound evolved during the Britpop chart attack of 1995, and they spent several months that year in the studio working on a more conventional rock sound, with the vocals pushed way out in front of a cleanly-picked guitar. The more conventional sound won them more listeners in England, despite some of the critical raves they had earlier gained with ease. The delightful, singable "Ladykillers" and "Single Girl" were minor hits, but the album's centerpiece is "Ciao!," a hilarious duet with Jarvis Cocker, wherein the singers dissect either side of a breakup with acerbic wit and backbiting hatred.

Lush broke up in late 1996 following the suicide of drummer Chris Acland. Since then, the former members have only worked sporadically. Miki Berenyi memorably contributed vocals to an album by Fruit (the act formed by ex-Kitchens of Distinction singer Patrick Fitzgerald). (5/02)