LUSH レコード& CD

Review: Originally released in 1992, Lush's second studio album really stuck a flag in the ground for the band. Having bestowed the 'mini LP' Scar on listeners three years earlier, at which point they became one of the first outfits to have the term shoegazing applied to their sound, it would take a full length offering to truly establish a framework for the outfit's approach to the (sub)genre. Spooky did just that, opening on the beautiful, grinding greatness of 'Stray', in many ways the record only builds intensity and grandeur from thereon in, providing a home for some of the most incredible moments of opiate indie rock you could ask for. Helped no end by the production of Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, 31 years later it remains a landmark.

Review: Album number three from English rock set Lush was first unveiled in 1994. By this time, the group had already established a reputation for themselves as masters of shoegaze, having helped spearhead the movement back in the late-1980s with the critically acclaimed mini-LP, Scar, alongside a host of EPs and singles, some of which would wind up on the band's beloved compilation albums. Split is certainly an apt name for this record, which sows the seeds of a departure in sound that would come into full bloom on the Britpop record Lovelife, a couple of years later. In this instance, there's still plenty of opiate and operatic walls of hyper-emotional sound, while in other moments things play out in a much more chart-friendly format, making this very much a historic document of changing trends at the time.