Tag: Limited edition

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lush “Lovelife”

(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: Lovelife
Year released: 1996
Year reissued: 2016
Details: pink vinyl, disc four in limited Origami box set, Record Store Day 2016 release, limited to 2000

The skinny: As I mentioned last week, Lush’s third studio album, “Lovelife”, was their Britpop album. Don’t look down your nose at them though. Everyone was doing it at the time. I didn’t mind the change in sound at all because I had gotten caught up in the hype of the scene, just as much as did many of my friends. Still, had you not followed their progression as closely as I did, you might not have recognized this as at all the same band that had us dreaming colours on “Gala” and “Spooky“. Sure, there was some ethereal sounds on “Lovelife” but the guitar driven pop had been amped up and Mike Berenyi’s vocals were without a doubt more obvious here than on any of their previous work. And yeah, she definitely does hold her own in a duet with Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker on the tune below. 4AD’s choice of pink for this fourth disc in the ‘Origami’ box set does not just match the colour palette of the album artwork but also feels in line the with the decidedly bubblegum tone of its sound.

Standout track: “Ciao!”

Categories
Vinyl

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”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lush “Spooky”

(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: Spooky
Year released: 1992
Year reissued: 2016
Details: grey vinyl, disc two in limited Origami box set, Record Store Day 2016 release, limited to 2000

The skinny: Last weekend, I started off this series within a series, sharing glimpses of the first piece in the Lush “Origami” box set, their 1990 compilation LP, “Gala“. The focus of this week’s instalment is the influential English shoegaze quartet’s debut album from 1992, “Spooky”. Much like a bunch of the material on last week’s album, this one was produced by Robin Guthrie, guitarist from Cocteau Twins, another highly influential band in the dream pop world, and whose touch obviously informed a lot of Lush’s early days. 4AD chose to press this particular album to grey vinyl, very much in keeping with the feel and beautiful artwork of the album. “Spooky” isn’t my favourite Lush record (though I know many for whom it is), but I really appreciate its sound and mood and it is home to the song below, my introduction to the group and number twelve on my Best tunes of 1992 list.

Standout track: “For love”