Lovelife

by

Lush

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This is a great off-the-beaten-path album. Years ago I got this for one or two songs and I find that I play it quite often, usually from beginning to end. There are surprisingly few albums that I do that with.

Their is a fair range of styles, but it basically is a girl-voice band with attitude, but style. The name "lush" is appropriate -- for the style and the playing. Kinda a laid-back lush playing.

The album starts out with an in-your-face rejection of womanizers ("Ladykillers"), but realizes that both sexes are doing the same things to each other. "Heaven Nobodies" is almost like that -- something snappy but you almost forget about the title before the song ends. "Shake Baby Shake" is almost a Kate Bush simple tune (ala the movie "She's Having a Baby"). "I've Been Here Before" is almost a morning-after to the "Ladykillers" opening -- a realization of what is going on around the scene. "Papason" and "Tralala" are more mellow and evening songs.

If there is one song that I play over and over, it would have to be "Last Night". It takes me back to evenings of watching "Miami Vice" with the driving down slick streets in a fast, sleek car -- an absent-minded mood with swooping backups.

Only to be rocked awake with "Runaway". I think they could have ordered the songs a little differently. The same goes for "Childcatcher", a good song in its own rite, but it almost should have been on a different album.

Oh, "Olympia". Now, that is softer than "Last Night", especially with the flute intro. This is clearly my favorite song from this album (but second most played). Your heart cries with slight pain and slight joy, especially as the strings come in. You feel "Olympia" throughout your body.

Definitely an album to recommend, but fairly safe that others have not heard of it. Give it as a gift -- they may be pleasantly surprised.