Customer Reviews

Spooky

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The one thing which no one reviewing Lush's albums seems to notice is the level of harmonic maturity in their songs. They never take the easy or obvious resolution in a cadence or turnaround. The modulations are subtle and sometimes abrupt. Who cares about the lyrics. Whoever wrote the music (my guess is its the guitarist) knows their harmony. Any jazz musician would find soloing over Lush tunes to be as challenging as much of the jazz standard catalog. This is not jazz but the level of songsmithing is there hidden behind layers of distortion. The other shoegazer bands arent even close. Lush is progressive pop, like XTC and Todd Rundgren, and Kate Bush.

I have owned this album for ten years and never get tired of it. It's a bit of a departure from other Lush albums, mostly due to the fact that it was produced by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie. Sensuous and shimmering, it is an album to listen to late at night with your eyes closed and only the Christmas lights on. Guthrie's sense of beauty and Lush's intensity blend seamlessly here. At times dreamy, at times passionate, at times haunting, and in all cases beautiful, this album takes the "otherwordly layered wall of sound" that the Cocteau Twins pioneered and moves it in a unique direction.

Ok, this record is not as good as, say, "Forever Changes" or "Marquee Moon", but you know what? in my humble opinion it comes pretty close. Although Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie's somewhat nebulous production isn't entirely satisfactory, this is a haunting collection of songs. It would be hard to sum up where the strength of this record lies. The song have a perfectly dreamy quality Guthrie's own band never fully realised, the multiple flanged/distorted/chorussed guitar qualls sounding like nothing else before or after in guitar music (and don't give me that tired old rap about how MBV "did it all before", they never did it with the same grace as Lush did!)or Miki Berenyi's soothing, just-slightly-out-of-tune voice. As for the latter-Miki's voice kept me hooked for ages, for one thing she sounds pretty sexy to these ears! This record should be the soundtrack to a wonderful love affair, a night in Tunesia stoned on kif or your worst nightmare-and at best it's all of the above. I personally cherish this record, you probably will too. In one word? Gorgeous.

I must admit to being baffled by reviews citing Guthrie's poor production; "Spooky" immediately strikes these ears as being
a very clean, even glossy effort that turns these otherwise
good but standard early 90s pop tunes into moody, swirly and ethereal shoegazer efforts. The vocals *are* slightly subsumed under the massive guitar sound (rather like the effect on My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless"), but this actually enhances the slightly mysterious mood. The songs are roughly split into two types: slow, trippy, oceanic mood pieces written by Berenyi and aggressive, punkish rockers written by Anderson; the two collaborate for the brilliant upbeat pop song "Tiny Smiles", perhaps my favorite track on the disc. Another highlight is the hypnotic, densely textured "Ocean", where the elegant phasing effect on the guitars is pure ear candy. The album does tend to lose some momentum in its second half, although "Superbang!" and "Monochrome" redeem it. Overall, however, "Spooky" remains
a superb effort from this curiously overlooked UK act of the early 90s; the reviewer below who cite's the group's sophisticated, jazz-like harmonic style is not kidding. Think of a cross between The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine, or a shoegazer effort with more of an emphasis on sophisticated pop songwriting, and this disc just may be for you.

In the band called Lush the level of true artistry could not get any higher.I feel that any piece of music that can capture the soul in a way that you actually listen to the music not only with the senses of the ear but also with the heart and the spirit is something to invest in. Lush will haunt you from the day you first listen to them until the end of your existence; guaranteed! Get this one it is worth it.

I'm sick of hearing people compare The Cocteau Twins to Lush. Yes, Robin Guthrie produced 'Spooky' and yes, The Cocteau Twins appeared on the shoegaze scene before Lush; but that doesn't necessarily mean one has to sound like the other or that one is 'better' at cultivating this kind of sound/feel/texture than the other.

'Spooky' is the most haunting of all of Lush's albums. And it is one of the quintessential albums that define "shoegaze." The album is dark, moody, and ethereal. "For Love" and "Untogether" are perhaps two of the primest tracks Lush has ever done before they went jarring and hard like with some of "Split" and "LoveLife." If you are thinking of buying something by Lush, GET 'Spooky'! and if you like it, then get "Gala" and then you'll thank me.

This is prime material from a band at their peak. Their sense of harmony and vocal interplay was unique and seemed to always hit those chill nerves in your spine. Just dug it out today for the first time in years; seems pretty timeless to me. Great production (the "Robin Guthrie" debate is absurd, the album is sonically brilliant), great songwriting...trippy interplanetary guitar segues, enough chorus and flange to swim in like sticky nectar.. Yum.

This is the first Lush album I have heard and it really caught my attention. I have listened to it the last year and somehow I can't get tired of it.
It gets me in a mood where beautiful feelings of sadness and happiness are combined.

I'm enough of a Lush fan that I own all the albums, "Topolino", a few singles, and the Sing Sing disc. I find all their albums to be equally good, though slightly different from each other. This is most similar to the "Gala" collection of ep's, and while the last two albums were a tad more brit-poppy, this is probably their most "shoegazing" one. The whole thing is very dreamy, but still with enough structure and hooks to make it catchy. "For Love" was the first song that really caught my ear, and "Nothing Natural" has an addictive bassline through-out the track. "Stray" is a good opener, just as "Monochrome" is an excellent closer. Everything else, is simply lush. Newcomers should get "Ciao" just for the scope of it, but there's no doubt this album itself is a "Superblast!".

Enough said. An oldie but a goodie. If only the original Lush were still together. An amazing band in many regards. This has to be one of my all time favorite albums and artists of all time.