Lush, "Chorus"
Lush only recorded three albums, but the amount of music the group amassed in their brief career is astounding. I count four distinct phases in their time: an an abrasive noise phase followed by a wall-of-sound (shoegaze?) prettiness, a brief flirt with some deep introspection, and ending with Britpop. Now that they have announced their re-emergence, 4AD has assembled this collection which I'm excited about, yet only slightly annoyed at.
4AD
Winning points for the collection include the inclusion of numerous demos, sessions, and B-sides, the beautiful packaging, and the updated sound. I don't know if the music has been fully remastered, but it certainly sounds louder and fuller, thankfully, than the original releases (without any "brick-walling"). This was always a point of contention for their earlier music: as bombastic as it was, there was something about CD mastering in the late '80s and early '90s that didn't serve this music appropriately. Mastering could be simply atrocious sometimes: low frequencies were dampened for the sake of vinyl mastering, since phonograph preamps would correct for that end of the spectrum, but CD players didn't, and many companies simply handed over the LP master recordings to the CD plant. Despite the music spanning the various phases of the group, the rich sound on Chorus remains consistent and doesn't waiver from disc to disc.
Aesthetically, however, Chorus doesn't make for a great listen start to finish. Lush had evolved so much that to throw everything together with an approximate chronology feels a bit clumsy. The 3 full length albums, Spooky, Split, and Lovelife are bookended by the collections Gala and Topolino. The group's history, however, begins with the mostly dissonant 1989 EP Scar. When heard first, followed by the follow-up EPs of Mad Love and Sweetness and Light, the trajectory makes sense: it is evident how quickly the group evolved into a pop song powerhouse but didn't leave the noisy roots behind. Gala, on the other hand, was a collection, arranged primarily for the North American market that didn't purchase and promote singles/EPs in the way the Europeans did. So it makes sense that the current single appeared first on Gala, but on Chorus, it's awkward, even moreso when radio sessions from 1994 and 1996 appear as the bonus for the disc that is primarily 1990 material.
Spooky was the first full-length album, and with the production of Robin Guthrie, was a monster debut. The guitar layers are rich, blanketed by the shimmering vocal harmonies on top, neither of which detract from the driving rhythm section. Bonus material comes from the Black Spring and For Love EPs that led up to Spooky, including many fantastic B-sides such as "God's Gift," "Astronaut," as well as "Outdoor Miner," one of two Wire cover tunes Lush recorded and released. But then it gets awkward again. Instead of including the demo versions from 1991 (which end up on disc four?!), the 1999 remix of "Sweetness and Light" (from the Splendor soundtrack) and the 1994 DJ Spooky remix of "Undertow" appear. Did some youngster at 4AD mistake _DJ Spooky_ with the album Spooky because this mix is out of place.
I think I started to fall out-of-love with Lush on Split. The album was inconsistent on the whole and a bit of an identity crisis. It was more melancholy than not, and lacked the overall vigor of Spooky, furthermore I was never a fan of the breakthrough hit single, "Hypocrite." "Desire Lines," on the other hand, released as a single on the same day, is a masterpiece: an epic piece of pure bliss that patiently evolves over its creepy 7¬Ω minute duration. It was a bold choice as a single and pure heaven, even in the demo version which appears oddly on disc four of the set. Split also had a the pop genius tune "Lovelife," with an undeniably infectious riff that could have easily been made it a hit single. Once again the bonus track selection leaves me confused. The two tunes from the Hypocrite EP appear, including the wonderful Young Marble Giants cover, "Love At First Sight," and two tunes from the Desire Lines EP appear, however the remix of "Lovelife" is left off and appears nowhere on the set. Also notably absent on the set is the version of "The Childcatcher" from the 1994 4AD compilation All Virgos Are Mad and the version of "Tinkerbell" from Volume Ten. I'm thankful for the acoustic versions featured, but they're all from 1996 and are out of place here, especially as two appeared as B-sides to 1996 singles.Other 1994 recordings such as "Rupert the Bear," "Lit Up (demo)," and "All This Useless Beauty," would make more sense here, rather than scattered between discs four and five.
Lovelife has to be my least favorite Lush album. Despite it being much more upbeat than Split, all the power, energy, and innovation gave way to snotty Britpop. Miki Berenyi's accent became over-exaggerated on just about every single song: it's almost as if this was an entirely different singer from the early EPs. "Ladykillers" seems like "Hypocrite" part 2, "Single Girl" wasn't much better but at least more tolerable, and "Ciao!," featuring Jarvis Cocker remains pretty unlistenable. "Last Night" is clearly the album's highlight, as it sounds like they took their time and focused well on composition, rather than simply tossing together any old riff and attitude. (The stellar hexadecimal dub of "Last Night" on the 500 EP is criminally absent from this collection too.)
The fifth disc, Topolino, was originally a collection of music from the singles released from the Lovelife album. As a collection, I enjoy it much more than Lovelife as an LP. Highlights include the stunning cover of Magnetic Fields' "I Have the Moon," the original "Sweetie," (for the first time on disc), and "Piledriver," a rare song written by drummer Chris Acland, who took his own life later in 1996, ending Lush. Once again, however, the chronology of bonus material is wrong. I can't figure out why the 1996 acoustic versions of "500," "Kiss Chase," and "Olympia" ended up on the 1994 disc 3, but it's a pleasure to have "Rupert the Bear" finally!
Perhaps I'm being too harsh (fans are the worst, right?), and there's plenty more to be thankful for (radio sessions, demos, and other previously unreleased music along with a very nice sounding mastering job) than not, but I wouldn't unload all your original singles yet!
 
