Lush - "Gala"

Yesterday my friend Darryl from back in Div School days posted the video for "Sweetness and Light" on his facebook page, which made me really happy! It was the final push I needed to end my international travel/jetlag/holiday/cold - induced hiatus. So the Lo Fi Life Project is officially back on. Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I had a fantastic trip to South Africa and Botswana. If you want to see some pictures, just let me know.

So on to the topic at hand. "Gala" came out in 1988. That's twenty years ago. This makes me realize that I am not so young anymore! But the fact that the lovely music of this album, and "Sweetness and Light" in particular, has never been far from my heart, cements "Gala" as a classic in my world. I think it's stood the test of time very well.

What I've always loved about Lush is the swirling, ethereal, enveloping wall of sound their guitars create. It's just so beautiful. This music is all about atmosphere. I don't know if I heard the Cocteau Twins or Lush first, but they occupy similar places in my musical life. When I want to be surrounded by gorgeous, contemplative sound, I look to these bands. The big differences are that Lush incorporates much more straight ahead rock rhythms than you'll hear on any Cocteau Twins albums, and their lyrics are all in English. So whereas I listened to the Cocteau Twins constantly while lying on the floor of my bedroom in the dark when I had mono, Lush is better for a solo road trip on a sunny afternoon.

Seeing Lush in the video Darryl posted endeared me to them all the more. I had never seen the video, and sadly never saw them live, so I had no idea that they were so dorky. I kind of figured they'd be all dressed in black, kind of too cool for school, but in fact one of them is wearing this cotton shirt with a floral pattern at the top. Made me wonder if my extremely bad fashion of twenty years ago wasn't so unique....

Figuring I had a few other things to learn, I read their wikipedia page last night. Turns out that one of the Cocteau Twins produced "Gala," which isn't surprising, and that Lush initiated a genre of music that came to be called "shoegazing." I think that genre has already come and gone, and I had no idea, but there you go. Apparently, "Gala" was actually a compilation of the band's first three EPs, which explains the fact that a number of the songs appear more than once on the album. It's a little embarrassing but no surprise that in my college haze when I first fell in love with "Gala," I failed to notice that. But honestly, it really doesn't matter. The music is so hypnotic that it works.

There's a certain amount of nostalgia in my love for Lush, for sure. Last night while listening to "Gala" and playing Take Two (a great game by the way), a visceral memory of those ratty couches in the WOBC office came flooding back. I could feel the scratchy fabric on my leg. But this album really is as enjoyable to listen to in the home I own today as it was back in my college days. If you don't own "Gala," and want to give it a go, let me know. And again, happy new year to all!