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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great, great band receives the compilation treatment., June 17, 2001
The amount of artistic growth Lush exhibited in the '90s was simply stunning. From the lush, cooing soundscapes of its earliest EP recordings (available in the States as the collection entitled Gala), Lush evolved into a songwriting showcase of magnificent proportions, so it was a shame that just as the band was creating some of its best music, internal ruptures (and a fatality among the membership) put a stop to everything.Lush's legacy remains a dazzling one. While the earlier, slightly naive songs like "Sweetness and Light" and "Nothing Natural" hold up, it's the music from the last two albums that's stunning. Along the way lead singer Miki Berenyi stopped trying to hide her limited voice within an ambient mix and instead relied on a much more powerful weapon, songwriting. While bandmate Emma Anderson's complex, U2-esque compositions continue to seduce, it was Berenyi's later, confessional, often painfully intimate writing that became the band's richest mine. Still, it was the tension between these two songwriters that made Lush's albums great. On this compilation you get less of a sense of that dynamic, but you can still tell which personality is which. Anderson's songs succeed on sonic grandiosity and innovative arrangements: "When I Die" is a truly moving account of the loss of a loved one, even more haunting in the context of drummer Chris Acland's suicide; "Desire Lines" slowly ebbs and pulls you into its sensual dreamscape; and even "Lovelife", a buoyant pop song, achieves a sense of high drama via almost inhumanly sparkly guitars and vocal tapestries. When Anderson shifts to pure-pop mode she tends to be less satisfying: "Single Girl" and "500 (Shake Baby Shake)" are enjoyable but forgettable pop tunes. Though this collection leaves out one of Anderson's best, "Tralala" from the Lovelife album, she remains well represented in the compilation, having written most of the early material. Berenyi's songs are Lush's deepest cutting work. Though the song that lent this collection its title, "Ciao!" (a duet with the odious Jarvis Cocker), is about the worst piece of garbage this band has ever produced, a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, I'm-so-cute shuffle with no charm whatsoever, the majority of Berenyi's songs are amazing, especially on the lyric front. Even with "Ladykillers", which Berenyi herself describes as an attempt to write a very basic, accessible pop song, she puts in verbal hooks to spare and some rumbling guitar riffs that show her rocker side. Same for the breathless "Hypocrite", a concise 2-minute dash of complex anger. "Light from a Dead Star" is possibly Berenyi's penultimate song, a unique, eccentrically arranged midtempo ballad with a stunning string section, simple structure, beautiful but forboding harmonies, and an aching lyric that examines love and loss with impressive economy -- three verses and out, leaving more to be suggested. Unfortunately, Ciao! leaves out many of Berenyi's equally beautiful work in the same vein -- the amazing "Papasan", the majestic, melodic ballad "Olympia", the slowly building, dramatic "Last Night", chillingly upbeat and catchy morality tale "The Childcatcher", as well as "Kiss Chase" from Split, which was a perfect marriage between energetic power-pop anthem and an incredibly dark, disturbing lyric telling a tale of pedophilia and helplessness. Still, what the compilation loses in the coherence of a Lush album, it gains in offering a sample of the band's work over the years. I have the whole catalogue and still I play this one, taking a reverse-chronological journey through this band's history and watching it explore, grow, and then flourish, if only for a brief time. I'd say if you're new to Lush, Ciao! would be a good place to start. Then again, even better places would simply be the Lovelife album, the zenith of Lush's songwriting career (again, "Ciao!" and "500" not counting), and Split, the band's artistic coming of age. For me, though, the compilation just serves as a sad reminder of what the world lost. Anderson and Berenyi, as musicians, had certainly only *hinted* at what they were capable of. So Ciao! becomes a eulogy -- complete with well written notes and the band's first photo appearances on their own albums! Just as Anderson and Berenyi were starting to reveal themselves, their journey was cut short, and we're the worse for it.
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by Lush 
