Tell’em, Max!
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[5.33]
Micha Cavaseno: Let’s be fair: Lush were terrible at the whole “making songs” business, like many shoegaze bands. And by a lot I mean everyone but Swervedriver and maaaaybe My Bloody Valentine, I guess. So in the context of shoegaze bands, this might be a 6 or a 7. Who can say? This is a genre of sad-sack indie rock that values texture, passive aggression and no musical ability whatsoever. How can you appropriately gauge one of the most childish and self-defeatist, unambitious drivel as shoegaze, one of the worst veins of indie, one of the worst veins of rock — in all mankind even? But between as fucking tedious and boorish a single as “De-Luxe” they did at some point learn how to not just mistake crescendo for victory. So good for them.
[1]
Patrick St. Michel: Is there a more unnecessary revival than shoegaze? Practically every heavy hitter of the early ’90s has reunited in the past few years, but it’s not like the world was gripped with the fear of the style going extinct. It never went anywhere! Look past the Cobain syndrome and you’ve got DIIV, and I think Pinkshinyultrablast had a buzz recently? I can get wanting to see My Bloody Valentine and Ride, but what does Lush have to offer in 2016? “Out of Control” sounds like a machine set to “swirling guitar” spit out a half-speed song that fails to capture what makes top-tier shoegaze so good or offer new ideas besides which festivals to tour.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: I’m glad that one of my favorite shoegaze bands have come back with a single more Spooky than Lovelife; their sound changed significantly over the four years between those albums (’92-’96), and I prefer them darker to poppier. The guitars still surge and sway and Emma Anderson sounds as fine as ever. A comeback to be proud of.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: Perfectly adequate nostalgia trip for those whose memories run in that direction, hard to explain to those whose don’t.
[6]
Alfred Soto: They continue where they left off, encasing guitars in rubies and dribbling them like basketballs: an acoustic My Bloody Valentine. There’s comfort in it. They sound more of the moment than they did in 1991.
[5]
Megan Harrington: Much like My Bloody Valentine finally passing that stone, Lush’s return to the hallowed high school halls of shoegaze feels inessential. Most, almost all, of what makes this genre magnetic to new listeners is its firm situation in a rapidly distant past. Completely over, temperature-controlled and encased in glass, it’s an exhibit worthy of a field trip.
[4]
Cassy Gress: Phew! Speaking of ’90s soundalikes, here we have another band sounding nearly exactly like they did twenty years ago, aside from Miki Berenyi sounding a little older. Before I clicked play, I had “I Have the Moon“‘s opening chords in my head, thinking, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they still sound like that” and they do. That lo-fi reverb guitar is such a solid ’90s marker, the chords mushing into each other. I wish the drums were less crisp — not so much as to turn the song into soup, but as it is they sound a little anachronistic.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: Lovelife was such a transformative moment for my ears — after I heard it, it felt like all their gorgeously textured but half-buried songs had addictive melodies hiding in plain sight the whole time. The same applies to “Out of Control,” a lovely wash of swoons, sighs and layers of guitars.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Goddamn, we’re headed for a late-period Green Gartside revival.
[8]