Vinyl love: Lush “Split”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Lush
Album Title: Split
Year released: 1994
Year reissued: 2016
Details: red vinyl, disc three in limited Origami box set, Record Store Day 2016 release, limited to 2000

The skinny: I’m posting this, the third disc and third part of a series featuring the pieces of previous Record Store Day purchase, just as I am preparing to wade out into the madness for more this morning. In my opinion and it’s likely an unpopular one, Lush’s second album “Split” was their best. The album served as a transition piece in their too short, three studio album recording career, bridging the gap between the dream pop influence of Robin Guthrie in “Spooky” (and their early EPs collected on “Gala”) and the Britpop exuberance of their final album, “Lovelife” (which we’ll see next weekend). It’s also very possible that the slightly edgier tendencies found here could have been rooted in their touring with the who’s who of American alternative as part of the Lollapalooza festival two years earlier. All this and the top notch work by Alan Moulder add up to an excellent album. 4AD pressed this third piece of the Origami box set to brilliant red, oft the colour of frontwoman Miki Berenyi’s hair. Yup.

Standout track: “Desire lines”