It’s not so much a shoegaze comeback as much as it is a shoegaze reanimation, and plenty of us are still riding the endorphin wave brought about by My Bloody Valentine releasing a new album and Slowdive touring extensively as a result of their sudden desire to tour extensively. Both of those things happened within the past five years, and now, the London-based Lush have announced considerable plans to incidentally join the fray. They’re releasing a vinyl box-set for Record Store Day, a new EP Blind Spot on April 22, and following up their first performance in 20 years at London’s Roundhouse last September, they’ve got more than a few spring performances scheduled, including one at this year’s Coachella. Did I mention Ride performed at last year’s edition, subsequent to Slowdive the year before? Are we absolutely sure this isn’t all planned?
The current iteration of Lush consists of Miki Berenyi, Emma Anderson, Philip King, and Justin Welch (formerly of Elastica, and the only member who wasn’t involved during Lush’s 90s heyday), and we should probably take a moment to appreciate the band’s legacy. As Graham Bendel expressed at the The Quietus six years ago, I’m not entirely convinced that the gulf of appreciation between MBV and Lush is deserving when we have tracks like the below from the latter:
And here’s a track from the upcoming Blind Spot EP, followed by a Miki commentary:
It certainly took some time to set up, but once we were in the studio, everything came together incredibly quickly. It was great fun! It’s been a long time since I’ve written Lush lyrics, and I realised early on with this EP that what I wrote about then is not what I feel comfortable writing about now. My perspective, and what is close to my heart, has changed, and I think that’s conveyed in the songs.
Blind Spot tracklisting:
01. Out Of Control
02. Lost Boy
03. Burnham Beeches
04. Rosebud
More about: Lush
