Lush's Split is perhaps one of the best albums ever recorded. I first heard Split's ethereal opener "Light From a Dead Star" over a decade ago, and I remember the strong impression on me - and even today the album still startles me with it's sheer honesty and timeless beauty. For those unfamiliar with Lush, they came from the early 90's shoegazer rock scene (a style which contained very brit-like hypnotic and reverby guitars) along with bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine. The heavenly vocals of guitar stylings of Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson were way underrated, the songwriting catchy and varied and to this this day they've never been never duplicated. This 1994 album proves them to be at the top of their game, breaking away from the pigeonholed shoegazer rock scene and producing something more.
The twelve tracks are represented on Split range in variety and musical styles from deep moving rockers like "Kiss Chase" to the almost-electronica "Undertow" to the the dark and moody "Never Never" The lyrical content of this album seem to be as wide ranged as the songs themselves - often poetic and abstract they allow the listener to piece together the message that Lush is expressing. To me it sounds mostly about relationship problems, loss, death and childhood trauma. A lot of songs contain messages of personal detachment - some of my favorites are to be found on the song "When I Die" a quite level-headed and bright song about dying which makes it even the more disturbing.
Ethereal, introspective, beautiful, moody with some bright spots here and there is how I describe Split to the average listener. Lush released one more album which delved more in the britpop scene, which contained some decent songs but it was more commercial and not nearly as brilliant as Split. After Lush's drummer Chris Acland committed suicide the band fell into oblivion. Lush should always be remembered for this amazing album, producing an outstanding gem in a scene that never really aspired to do just that.
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