Lush - Lovelife

MINE

Here we go, hanging out in Camden/ Drinking with my girlfriends on a Saturday night

Every time I think of this CD, the opening words to Ladykillers just run through my head on repeat.  I. Love. This. Album.  I used to have the chorus from Ladykillers as my email signoff.  Ciao! has gotten me through many a dark day.  Single Girl was me many a time.  If ever I'm feeling blue, Lovelife is certain to cheer me up.

Of course, the band came to an early end after this album, when their drummer committed suicide.  A point a recent commenter on an article in the Guardian about the death of former Stereophonics band member Stuart Cable chose to call "the curse of the 90's indie drummer" also mentioning Space and the Wonderstuff.  Kind of gruesome, but it makes you think...

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (I know the score I've heard it all before)

YOURZ

While Mine clearly has a great love for this album, I must confess that *gasp* I don't know it that well.  In the very early 90s, I had friends who were huge fans of just about everything 4AD (hi Nadine and Tim) but by the time this album came out, they'd moved away and I'd was more interested in lo-fi and slacker rock than the Brit-pop stylings of Lush.

But there was a time when shoegazer was a big thing with my friends and I and Lush, along with bands like Ride, Curve, Pale Saints, Charlatans, My Bloody Valentine and, particularly for me, Swervedriver (see our review of Mezcal Head here) were played and discussed with much fervour.  In fact, friendships were made and lost depending on which shoegazer band you liked or hated.  Such was our completely irrational, unfounded belief in the power of such bands.  (I'm feeling a little smug as the only survivors of that period were my favourite - Swervedriver.  Who's the cool one now, huh?)

For the most part, Lovelife lives up to its reputation for being one of the classic mid-90s British albums, with those gorgeous soaring harmonies and jangly-pop stylings.  I particularly like the opener, Ladykiller, Single Girl and the vaguely trip hoppy Last Night.  But the big surprise and the track of the album for me, is Ciao!, a duo between lead Lushette, Miki, and Pulp's Jarvis cocker.  Worth the price of the album, this one.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP particularly track 7

For more information: http://www.4ad.com/lush

The Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust

MINE

Ech, the debut album?  Not Surrender?  Sometimes the pointy stick is so cruel.  Exit Planet Dust is OK, but doesn't have the oh-so-fine tunes the Chems came out with later in their career.  I've seen them live a few times, at festivals and on their own, and I have to say Tom and Ed never fail to put on a great show.  With or without, er, enhancement.

It's weird to think that this album came out 15 years ago.  I spent a lot of time before and after then dancing my ass off in clubs to music of this ilk - and going to see artists like the Chems, Fatboy Slim, Paul Oakenfold and others whip dancefloors into a frenzy.  It was a simpler time... when I often wouldn't really sleep from breakfast time on Friday to late Sunday afternoon.  I'm healthier now, because I don't smoke any more, but I'm reasonably certain I was fitter then, as I could dance for six to eight hours with only short breaks.

OK, this isn't reviewing the album.  Only for completists, not as good as Dig Your Own Hole or Surrender.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

Well this is interesting.  Here's me expecting Mine to wax about this album, being as it is a Big Beat classic and the album that introduced the world to The Chemical Brothers.  But she doesn't like it so much.  Man, there's just no predicting her (which is cool by me because I love surprises).  Of all the 'dance' genres, the one I can stand to listen to with any regularity is Big Beat, mainly because it has some great, erm, big beats.  And The Chemical Brothers are one of the best, without a doubt.

I've seen The Chems a number of times now, mostly at festivals.  But the one time I saw them at a headline show, I was straight and sober.  It didn't make any difference to the show.  It was spectacularly massive, with a huge surround sound setup (imagine their huge sounds booming around over head and you get a small idea of it) and a light show unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Less reliant on vocals and more on beats, Exit Planet Dust established the duo as a force to be reckoned with both in their own country and around the world and included the Big Beat classics Chemical Beats and Song To The Siren (which sampled This Mortal Coil's song of the same name) as well as Alive Alone (featuring vocals by Beth Orton) and Life Is Sweet (featuring vocals by Tim Burgess from The Charlatans). 

This is the start of it all.  And the rest, as they (historians, I'm thinking) say, is history.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/

In our collection we also have Surrender and Come With Us