Episode 78: Lush’s “Spooky” (1992)

Summary

Accelerated Culture – Episode 78: Lush’s “Spooky” (1992)

Release Date: February 1, 2026
Hosts: Lori & Scott Free
Podcast: Accelerated Culture: The Rise of Alternative Music in the 80s and Beyond

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Episode Overview

This episode of Accelerated Culture kicks off 2026 with an in-depth dive into Spooky (1992), the iconic (and perhaps underappreciated) debut studio album from the British band Lush. Hosts Lori and Scott Free discuss the band's origins, their pivotal place in the shoegaze/alternative scene, and work track-by-track through the album, exploring influences, production, band dynamics, lyrical themes, and the legacy of Spooky in music history. They celebrate Lush’s unique sound, their all-female creative core, and the impact and challenges they faced in the ’90s indie scene.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Catch-Up and Podcast Updates

• Host Hiatus & Health: Scott addresses the show's recent break, candidly sharing about a health issue that affected his eyesight and made show prep more challenging. Lori expresses support and relief that he's recovering.

  “I experienced what could best be described as a neurovascular incident that has left me with significantly worse eyesight than I had before.” – Scott Free [01:35]

• Podcast Milestones: 2024 Webby Honoree, half a million downloads in 2025 – the show is on the rise and grateful to fans.

  “2024. We were Webby honorees. 2025. We hit half a million.” – Lori [03:24]

2. Lush: Band History & Background

• Founders: Mickey Bareni (vocals/guitar), Emma Anderson (guitar/songwriting), both initially ran a fanzine before founding the band in the classic punk DIY spirit.
• Name Origins & Pronunciation: Much comedic debate over pronouncing “Bareni” and how Americanized names get mangled.

  “Because apparently the Y is silent… the name's actually Hungarian.” – Lori [05:30]

• Cultural Heritage: Mickey’s multicultural background (Hungarian/Japanese); connection to pop culture—her mother was a notable actress in Space: 1999 and You Only Live Twice.
• Band Character: Lush as an all-woman/post-punk band, often fighting both gendered bias and genre pigeonholing.

  “It was not the stereotypical show us your tits… that kind of shit did not fly with these girls.” – Lori [17:00]

• Shoegaze Roots: Lush got labeled as shoegaze for their lush, effects-heavy guitar sound and onstage focus on pedal boards (the ‘shoegazing’). Later, they wore the genre badge with pride, even though they were pop at heart.

3. Songwriting & Rivalries

• Band Dynamics: Tense but productive creative “rivalry” between Mickey and Emma—resulting in more refined, competitive songwriting.

  “[The publishing] was very smart that they did it that way.” – Lori [28:27]

• Production: Producer Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) was both muse and source of friction; his ethereal, effects-rich style shaped Spooky’s signature sound.

  “Robin Guthrie brought them into the Cocteau Twin studio September Sound to record the album, and it still holds up.” – Lori [24:43]

• Timeline: Lush move from punky beginnings to elaborate studio work with Guthrie; early works include the beloved mini-album Scar and compilation Gala (1990) for US listeners.

4. Spooky (1992): Track-by-Track Breakdown

Track 1: “Stray” [25:34–34:09]

• Ethereal opener, gorgeous harmonies, almost Gregorian or hymnal tones.
• Pitchfork: “A hymnal somehow above the earth.” [27:21]
• Sets the tone for “voices as texture,” not lyric clarity; classic shoegaze.

Track 2: “Nothing Natural” [34:21–39:17]

• Signature Cocteau Twins-style production; Lush at their most ethereal.
• Song deals with relationship disappointment; first single, well-received.
• “Their approach was unflinching and direct. Lush at heart had more in common with Nirvana.” – Pitchfork via Scott [35:26]

Track 3: “Tiny Smiles” [40:04–44:38]

• Sweet pop, reminiscent of Stereolab; rare co-write by both women.
• Lyrics reference specials/Fun Boy Three/Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed.”
• Touching on feelings of rivalry in the band:

  “The jazzy scales and tricky intervals are a struggle for my limited singing talent.” – Mickey (via Lori) [41:41]

Track 4: “Covert” [44:57–48:37]

• Dark/sweet tension; inspired by Anaïs Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love.
• Themes: duplicity, secrets, emotional risk.

  “I am the spy, and that just kind of totally changes your perspective…” – Lori [48:18]

Track 5: “Ocean” [48:54–52:30]

• Lush, dreamy and sensual; ambiguous mix of seduction and danger.
• Features Robin Guthrie’s effects, but tension over his drug-fueled absences in studio.

  “But then at the 2:06 mark, there is this huge rushing guitar effect…” – Scott [50:31]

Track 6: “For Love” [52:36–60:13]

• Possibly their catchiest “pop” song; prominent Pixies bassline, ABBA-esque dark lyric under a bright melody; second single, major exposure.

  “There was a cynical sadness in the lyrics that contrasted with the bright chiming music.” – Mickey (via Lori) [54:53]

Track 7: “Superblast!” [60:20–64:08]

• Riot-girl energy meets dream pop; a bracing palette cleanser mid-album.
• “Super Blast royals at a speedy punk pace… not their effects pedals, but a pop punk band with a heightened sense of aesthetics.” – Pitchfork via Scott [63:22]
• Scott’s favorite track for its energy and power (see Notable Quotes).

Track 8: “Untogether” [64:48–67:52]

• Poppy, Beatlesesque core with dream pop shimmer; Emma on harmonies.
• Discussed as “Beatlesian in spirit” and vivid relationship storytelling.

Track 9: “Fantasy” [68:53–72:52]

• Notable shuffle-beat, possibly owing to electronic drum pads.
• Vocally lush; themes of longing, secret affection.
• “Planets spin around your head, Milk and sugar in my bed…” – Lori [71:20]
• Joking: “Milk and sugar in the bed… do you want ants? This is how you get ants.” – Scott [72:39]

Track 10: “Take” [73:19–75:57]

• Vocal interplay, complex harmonies, introspective lyrics about performance, perception, and withheld truth.

Track 11: “Laura” [76:27–80:40]

• Bass-driven with a punky drive; homage to songwriter Laura Nyro.

  “It’s about Laura Nyro. And that's odd, but… it really works.” – Scott [79:06]

Track 12: “Monochrome” [80:59–84:15]

• Emma-written, Mickey’s favorite to sing (and gets choked up recording it).
• Waltzy, moody ending – possible allusions to parents’ relationship and emotional pain.

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Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Shoegaze and Gender:

  “Shoegaze was very much a female friendly genre… The bands and the labels turned that on its head and turned it into a badge of honor.” – Scott Free [19:23] “I don’t think any of us ever gazed at our fucking shoes… The term shoegazing came off as a sort of insult. So it's very funny that it's become a genre. Revenge of the Nerds.” – Mickey Bareni (via Scott) [19:32]

• On Band Dynamics:

  “There was some competitiveness between Emma and Mickey… I think it also did kind of force both of them to up their songwriting game.” – Lori [23:31]

• On Production:

  “Robin Guthrie… His ethereal, effects-rich style shaped Spooky’s signature sound.” – Lori [24:43]

• On Album Legacy:

  “For an album from 1992, it’s still getting a lot of coverage… This album had some stay in power and some influence, maybe more now than it did when it came out.” – Scott Free [09:09]

• Track Picks – Host Preferences:

  “I think I'm going to go with For Love… that's also the one that first introduced me to Lush.” – Lori [85:27] “My favorite track is Superblast!… so much energy!” – Scott Free [85:57]

• On Lush’s Image and Press:

  “They featured prominently in their videos… but notable at the time because she had this bright pink red hair. This was before… you see it every day walking down the street like you do now.” – Scott Free [31:43] “We’re dressing ourselves, we’re keeping it cool. We know what we’re about and we don’t need sex to sell this band.” – Scott Free [32:57]

Notable Quotes with Speaker & Timestamp

• “There was a falling out in Lush, and if I'm honest, it still hurts." – Mickey Bareni, 2025 Guardian interview (cited by Scott) [08:32]
• “He [Robin Guthrie] was brilliant, lovely. We didn't have a clue about what we were doing, but he brought out the best in us.” – Emma Anderson (via Scott) [22:27]
• “When they signed their contract with 4 AD, they did the publishing by name. So there's some that are credited to Mickey, there are some that are credited to Emma, there's some that are credited to both.” – Lori [28:27]
• “This is not a love song. This is a song about Mickey as a child, seeing her parents.” – Scott [56:54]

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Lush After Spooky: Legacy, Loss, and Revival

Post-Spooky Career

• Lollapalooza 1992: Lush was the only all-female act on the main stage that year.
• Lineup Changes: Original bassist Steve Rippon left, Phil King joined.
• Further Releases: Albums Split (1994) and Lovelife (1996) saw Lush incorporate more Britpop, with Lovelife their highest charting effort.

The End and Aftermath

• Band Hiatus & Drummer’s Suicide: The group disbanded following the 1996 suicide of drummer Chris Ackland.

  “Once he took his own life, the band just stopped performing. They stopped recording.” – Scott [92:42]

• Brief Reunion: Shoegaze’s 2010s resurgence led to 2016’s Blind Spot EP and a handful of shows.
• Current Projects: Mickey Bareni (Baroshka, MB3), Emma Anderson (Sing Sing, solo album “Pearlies” 2023); both moved into other careers and family life.

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Important Timestamps

• Band History/Origins: [10:36–17:34]
• Studio Evolution & Shoegaze: [19:23–23:29]
• Production/Robin Guthrie: [24:00–31:00]
• Track-by-Track Album Review: [25:34–84:15]
• Post-Spooky / Lush Legacy: [86:37–95:09]

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Final Thoughts

Lush’s “Spooky” stands out, according to Lori and Scott, for its fusion of pop songwriting, shimmering dreamscape production, and an enduring indie spirit. The episode concludes with a reflection on the band’s continued influence—"maybe more now than when it came out"—and a look at both hosts’ favorite tracks (For Love for Lori, Superblast! for Scott).

Preview of Next Episode:
A deep-dive on Copper Blue by Sugar (Bob Mould's post-Hüsker Dü project).

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For Listeners New and Old

This episode provides a rich introduction to Lush, thoughtful commentary on ’90s indie culture, and an open, authentic look at music as both artistry and personal history. The hosts’ chemistry and wit—especially in sharing discoveries, rivalries, and hilarious asides—make the conversation lively and full of heart.

Transcript

[Scott Free]

Accelerated Culture fans love new wave deep dives. Hit synth and swagger for articles and PDFs on Duran Duran in excess and more synth and swagger.com.

[Lori]

Welcome to the Accelerated Culture Podcast. A sonic journey through the vibrant and revolutionary sounds of the 1980s and 1990s. And now 2024. Webby honoree for best Indie Podcast. I'm Lori, along with my co host, Scott Free, and in this podcast, we explore how new waves stormed the airwaves in the early 80s and gave way for the rise of alternative music in the 90s. Find us on the [e-mail]. Hello, and welcome to episode number 78 of the accelerated Culture Podcast. I'm Laurie.

[Scott Free]

And I am Scott Free. Welcome back, Accelerated Culture vultures.

[Lori]

Yes, welcome back. This is our first episode of 2026. None of this new Year, New Me crap. I'm going to be the same delightful person that I've always been, the same.

[Scott Free]

Laurie that we all have come to know and love and loathe. 2026. Yay. So good so far.

[Lori]

Oh, my gosh. So, Scott, what have you seen? What have you done?

[Scott Free]

Boy, what have I seen? All the usual stuff, but blurrier than it used to be. Okay, Accelerated Culture warriors, you may have noticed a significantly longer break than we usually take between episodes, and that one is my fault. In the beginning of December, shortly after the release of our last episode, I experienced what could best be described as a neurovascular incident that has left me with significantly worse eyesight than I had before, which made the process of reading up on the bands that you know and love from the alternative era and writing my notes and getting ready for these episodes a bit more laborious and painstakingly slow than it has historically been. I am on the mend, and there's hopes for a recovery. But, yeah, thank you for your patience bearing with us. And thank you, Laurie, for your patience in, of course, waiting for me to be ready to get back on the alternative horse.

[Lori]

Yeah, so I was thinking to myself that January has historically been a very bad month for the podcast because it was two years ago, around this time, that your predecessor was being a whiny little bitch and decided to quit.

[Scott Free]

I think that was a very good month for the podcast. Okay.

[Lori]

All right. All right. Well, Scott, I'm really happy that you're on the mend, and I'm happy to have you back. So thank you for doing this. And yes, listeners, thank you for your patience.

[Scott Free]

Happy to be here.

[Lori]

And yeah, so this is going to be a good year. For us. I can feel it. Right? 2024. We were Webby honorees. We were 2025. We hit half a million.

[Scott Free]

That is a lot of downloads. Thank you, listeners.

[Lori]

Yes. Just going to keep getting better from here, Scott. I'm excited.

[Scott Free]

Right on. That said, I have seen one show since last we talked and it was a fitting way to send out 2025. It was actually on New Year's Eve day in a chapel at a cemetery on the north end of Chicago, wherein I saw a show called Liminal Rights, which was Allison Chesley on cello and Steve Marquette on guitar with a bank of effects pedals making droney, dreamy, weirdo noise that served as a beautiful funeral for the dumpster fire of a year that was 2025. Fitting that it took place in a cemetery. And, yeah, good riddance to that freaking year.

[Lori]

2025 is dead and buried. Yeah. I love it.

[Sam]

I love it.

[Scott Free]

What have you seen? What have you read, Laurie?

[Lori]

Well, I haven't seen much of anything because, you know, I'm more of a homebody than you are.

[Scott Free]

Fair.

[Lori]

However, I have been reading a really, really good memoir by one of the subjects of our episode today. That's Mickey Barany, who is the lead singer of Lush.

[Scott Free]

Yes, let's talk about that name for a second, Mickey Bareni. Because I saw a couple interviews in doing my research, and even one weari in the interviewer said Mickey Barenyi, and then put up in a titles a chiron, if you will, that said pronounced bareni.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

Because apparently the Y is silent.

[Lori]

Well, okay. So. Well, actually, actually, yes, the name's actually Hungarian. She's Hungarian on her father's side and Japanese on her mother's side.

[Scott Free]

Oh, fun fact. Her mother. This is one for my brother, Dr. Dave. Her mother was a Japanese British actress who actually starred in eight episodes of Space 1999.

[Lori]

Oh, oh, right, that one. I didn't know. I knew that she was in the James Bond movie you Only Live Twice. She is in the introductory credits and she is one of the Asian ladies in one of the bathhouse scenes.

[Scott Free]

All right. But yeah, my brother, big space 1999 fan. So enjoy that bit of trivia.

[Lori]

Yeah, enjoy that. Dr. Dave, back to you.

[Scott Free]

Read the memoir by Mickey Bareni.

[Lori]

Yes. Okay. My friend Erika is Hungarian and I asked her earlier today, how do you pronounce this? And she said it was Bareni, but she says, I'm not rolling my R's enough. So Barreni.

[Scott Free]

Yes, well, here's the thing. I don't. When I go out to eat Mexican food, have a burrito. And I'm not going to say Bureni.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

As far as I'm concerned, it's Boreni. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

[Lori]

Well, and that's fair. I mean, that's obviously an Americanized pronunciation. My maiden name is a long Polish name, but we never pronounced it correctly either. We always pronounced it Americanized, so. So, yeah. Anyway, Mickey's memoir, which, by the way, was not ghostwritten. She actually wrote it herself and it's pretty damn good.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, she is a colorful character with some strong language. And from what synopses I've seen of the memoir and seen her talk about it in interviews, she gets down into it like there are some painful parts of her life that she really delves into, she is not afraid to share.

[Lori]

So her memoir is called Fingers Crossed How Music Saved Me From Success. So that's been most of my reading and it's been preparing me for this episode. So I'm really excited to dive in.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I have done, as is my way, some reading as well in preparation for this episode. And I'll be talking about each of these, but a couple articles from the Guardian. In particular, a 2015 article by Dorian Linsky, Lush Reunited. We were seen as a band who'd turn up to the opening of a packet of crisps. Great title. Another Guardian article, indie legend Mickey Barenyi. There was a falling out in Lush, and if I'm honest, it still hurts. Interview by Dave Simpson from February 20, 2025.

[Lori]

I've got that one too. So that's going to be one of my sources as well.

[Scott Free]

A little bit from the 4ad website, 4ad.com just a profile of the band as well as a Pitchfork review of the album that is the subject of today's episode. We will get into that. I'll talk a little bit about their review. We're not talking about my review.

[Lori]

Okay, super. And then one other source that I have is a WordPress blog called this Is that Song by Somebody Named d. Lee from February 28, 2012.

[Scott Free]

So, all right. So for an album from 1992, it's still getting a lot of coverage in the teens and the twenties of this here century, which tells you this album had some stay in power and some influence, maybe more now than it did when it came out.

[Lori]

Yeah, okay. No, I think. I think that's a fair assessment. You know, I think they got overshadowed by some of the other shoegaze bands that were really big at the time. My Bloody Valentine Cocteau Twins. They didn't get as much attention, but they're still absolute legends in their own right, for sure.

[Scott Free]

And even they would tell you they were maybe not entirely a shoegaze band. If you don't already have a firm background, a firm knowledge base in the shoegaze genre, may we recommend an episode or two of this podcast to really get you up to speed? In particular, our album review of My Bloody Valentine's, loveless.

[Lori]

That's episode 47, Perfect.

[Scott Free]

And the Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas, episode 40, which figures very prominently into the production of today's album.

[Lori]

Yes, yes.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. So, Laurie, what album is it we're talking about today?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, that's right. We are talking about Spooky, which is the 1992 debut studio album with a little asterisk there by Lush.

[Scott Free]

Lush.

[Lori]

Lush, That's a great name for a band. Lush was an ethereal, shoegaze leaning pop band from London that existed from 1987 to 1998, and they only released three albums in that time. One of the group's three original members, vocalist Muriel Baremake, left very early on to join another shoegaze band called the Pale Saints. The other two gals in the band, Mickey Barenni and Emma Anderson, have been friends since, I want to say 86. They had actually collaborated on a fanzine. You remember fanzine, Scott?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I love that they. Yeah, they collaborated on a fanzine that was about music and, and smartassery and pop culture and cool stuff. And there came a point where they were like, you know, we could keep writing about the music, but maybe it'd be cooler if we started making the music.

[Lori]

And it's that whole punk rock, do it yourself ethos that we keep talking about, for sure. Yes. And I love it.

[Scott Free]

From the Guardian article, Lush reunited. We were seen as a band who would turn up to the opening of a packet of crisps. In that article, Mickey talks about how they came to decide. You're weird and I'm weird too. We could trust each other. I always felt we were seen as followers. Anderson, Emma says, disgruntled, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain were the sonic geniuses. And the other bands we were copying now nicely, and this is from the perspective of 2015. It feels like we're seen as influential ourselves. So, spoiler alert. The band got respect eventually.

[Lori]

Yeah. Initially their band had a name, Baby Machines, which I think is very clever. Kind of like on par with the breeders, another 4 AD band. But I Guess it was inspired by the lyrics of a Susie and the Banshee song then. The next name they were going to use was Dewatchkas, and that is a Clockwork Orange reference.

[Scott Free]

Oh, sure, that's what the Droogs referred to the ladies as in Clockwork Orange speak.

[Lori]

Exactly. And I thought that was a clever name too. But ultimately they decided on Lush, which is a really great descriptive name, especially when we start listening to the album tracks and we start hearing these beautiful sonic layers.

[Scott Free]

While yes, it is an apt descriptor of their music, particularly as you get into the studio albums that they made. Apartment for sure. Especially when we talk about the production of this debut album, Spooky. However, it was as much intended to play on the older meaning of Lush as a heavy drinker. Because these ladies are they party.

[Lori]

Oh, I'd say now that I didn't know as far as the drinking reference. I knew they liked to party, but they recruited Steve Rippon on bass and Chris Ackland, who was initially the drummer, but he actually had played a few instruments in the band guitars, and I think at one point he might have actually played bass for a little bit too.

[Scott Free]

When they started off, they were not this lush, lush band that we will be talking about today. They were harder. They were basically working in the riot girl mode, making fast punk songs, which you hear hints of that in this album. You hear vestiges, but boy do they change once they get into the studio and get some producers. But when they were live, it was high energy and I got a great quote about.

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[Scott Free]

Supply those early live shows. Okay, we were kind of punk rock in one way, says Emma Anderson. We'd think, well, if they can do it, why the fuck can't we? Basically our idea was to have extremely loud guitars with much weaker vocals. And really the vocals were weaker due to nervousness. We'd always be going, turn them down, turn them down. We weren't good enough to just jam, continues Bareni. So the songs had to come first. We had to go for good melodies. So I guess we drew on any music we heard in our youth, anything from the Beatles to Carly Simon, any pop music. The rest swaths of sounds. The effects came after the song and we were probably born of incompetence and lack of confidence. We just didn't think we were good enough to do anything more complicated.

[Lori]

They made their live debut, Scott, at the Camden Falcon in North London. And that's significant to me as a Madness fan, because that is where Madness is from that general area. As a matter of fact, one of the things Mickey says in her memoir is when her Japanese grandfather got her her first Sony Walkman. One of the first tapes that she bought was absolutely by Madness. And she's a huge Madness fan, so.

[Scott Free]

Nice.

[Lori]

I feel some kinship with her there. So, yeah, as I mentioned, Muriel Barham left the band and joined another band called Pale Saints. And then Mickey and Emma took over the vocal duties and the songwriting duties. Mickey handled most of the singing, while Emma focused mainly on the guitar, at which she excelled.

[Scott Free]

So they started in their raw live shows getting some attention.

[Lori]

Yes. And I had seen a few articles from around that time that they were calling Lush the most hated band in Britain because, well, it's fronted by two women and it was not the stereotypical show us your tits. You know, that kind of shit did not fly with these girls. They were not following the stereotypical woman in music kind of thing.

[Scott Free]

No. But they were following in the footsteps of big shoegaze bands. And all the shoegaze bands that we have mentioned, particularly My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, have prominent female figures in them, if not straight up bleeders. My Bloody Valentine, while it is very much a Kevin Shields project, does have a prominent female voice in Belinda Butcher. Belinda Butcher, yes. And the Cocteau Twins. Well, I mean, it's all about the ladies voices in the Cocteau Twins.

[Lori]

Right, right.

[Scott Free]

But also it's about the sound that was. Well, we'll talk about that sound because that figures prominently into this album.

[Lori]

Absolutely.

[Scott Free]

They were following in that shoegaze band. And shoegaze was very much a female friendly genre. Shoegaze, we've talked about that in the context of the previous bands in previous episodes. But shoegaze was originally a term coined by the British music press to bust on these bands to rip on their live shows because they weren't actually gazing at their shoes and they were looking down at their pedal boards. Because so much of the shoegaze sound is about taking these guitars and these vocals and putting them through chorus and reverb and phasers and flangers and a little bit of distortion and all the effects that you can throw at the sound on these pedal boards on the ground. And so the band Spends a lot of their live show just looking down. And so they're like, yeah, you're just, what, are you going to go to the show and watch these guys gaze at their shoes? So shoe gazing was born and they were ripping on the bands. The bands and the labels turned that on its head and turned it into a badge of honor.

[Lori]

And I love when stuff like that happens. You take a term that's intended as derogatory and then you take it and you own it. Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Free]

Mickey talks about it in the 2025 Guardian article. I don't think any of us ever gazed at our fucking shoes and laughs. The term shoe gazing came off as a sort of insult. So it's very funny that it's become a genre. Revenge of the Nerds.

[Lori]

In their early days, as you mentioned, Scott Lush leaned more towards punk, that whole Riot girl sound, and didn't approach songwriting with much seriousness. But once they committed to being a serious band, they landed a deal with the influential record label 4ad.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, it's interesting. They had a live show and a lot of publicity was done for the show to bring record companies in, bring A and R people in to check out the band and shop them around. And most of them passed. But among the few that did express an interesting. Ivo Watts Russell, the founder of 4Ad, was at that show and got them to record their first ep, which would be Scar.

[Lori]

Yes. It was a six track mini album and it became a major success in the uk. With a little bit of talent, charisma, some strong material and some good fortune, they quickly became a major topic of conversation in the UK music scene. Their second EP was produced by 4 AD legend Robin Guthrie. He's the guitarist of the Cocteau Twins. Okay.

[Scott Free]

So the band was sending out demos. Emma Anderson in particular was sending out demos and she sent one to Robin Guthrie personally. And he was interested. He was actually interested before they signed to 4ad in the first place. But he and the Cocteau Twins were also on 480. So when Lush gets signed, that is an easy hookup, right?

[Lori]

Yeah. It started off as a very good pairing, Robin Guthrie with the band. As we're going to see, it wasn't always Sweetness and Light, because that was the name of one of Lush's initial singles. Yeah. See?

[Scott Free]

Very clever points.

[Lori]

The Cleverness Of Me the Ladies do.

[Scott Free]

Actually give him quite a bit of credit. Already talked about how at their early live shows, it was make the guitars loud and make the vocals quiet because we actually don't believe in ourselves as Singers and we want to drown ourselves out. That somewhat carried into their songwriting for their studio stuff. They got more serious about their songwriting when it's like, okay, it's time to get into the studio and record. And that's when they started developing a working method that was considerably different than their live stuff.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

When they were writing for recording, writing for the studio, they tended to have sort of more holy form songs that would either be written by Emma or by Mickey. There wasn't as much collaboration in the songwriting as we would see in some other bands. Generally there's a trade off in the songwriting. But in talking about working with Robin Guthrie, Emma said he was brilliant, lovely. We didn't have a clue about what we were doing, but he brought out the best in us. He came to our gigs, turned up at our peel session as the backseat driver, and really looked after us. For someone like him to genuinely care about our music was just brilliant. Or at least that's how it started.

[Lori]

As far as the songwriting is concerned. I think there was some competitiveness between Emma and Mickey as a result. I think it really forced them both to elevate their songwriting.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. They had to step up the game, right?

[Lori]

Absolutely. Even though they had some success in the UK with their live shows, with their Scar episode, to introduce them to American listeners, 4ad compiled Scar, the Mad Love EP and the Sweetness and Light single, plus two extra tracks into a compilation called Gala that was released fall of 1990. And it was supported by a music video for a song called Deluxe. For many Americans, that was the first exposure to the band.

[Scott Free]

I have a quote that I love from the Guardian interview from 2025. Okay, so the question is posed. You've talked about breaking into America. Did you actually want that level of success? And the reply, if we had, we wouldn't have been on 4ad, because Pixies and Cocteau Twins were on 4ad, and neither of them had had a top 10 single. They were popular and respected, but 4ad was not the label to push you up the US charts.

[Lori]

Right.

[Scott Free]

It got mad cred and respect. What they don't have is chart toppers.

[Lori]

Right, Right. They're more of an indie label. Exactly.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Lori]

So they did appear. They did some touring. Glastonbury Festival in 1990, and then they toured with the shoegaze band ride in 1991. And that then leads us up to this album, Spooky. Robin Guthrie brought them into the Cocteau Twin studio September Sound to record the album, and it still holds up to this day. So I'm really looking forward, Scott, to doing the track by track with you.

[Scott Free]

Well, that being said, no time like the present. Let's just jump into that track by track. Now. The whole point of the episode, isn't it?

[Lori]

Yes, it is, and I'm excited.

[Scott Free]

It is your album pick, so usually that means you kick it off.

[Lori]

So the first track is called Stray. Let's listen.

[Sam]

Sam.

[Scott Free]

What an opener, right?

[Lori]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

That opening baseline is almost ominous. But then the jangly, phased, flanged guitars jangle and shimmer and soften it. And then, man, those vocals, those harmonies, right?

[Lori]

Yes. It's gorgeous. We have Mickey and Emma kind of sharing lead vocal duties on this song. I think it's the only one on the album where they're both kind of taking the lead. But, yeah, I agree with you. The harmonies and Phil Repons bass is. Yeah, it's phenomenal.

[Scott Free]

So the Pitchfork review from July 2, 2023 by Julianne Escobedo Shepard. I think she describes this opening really nicely. Stray opens with Moreni taking the highlights and Anderson providing the lower harmonies in a statement about troubled wandering that sounds almost Gregorian in tone. A hymnal somehow above the earth. Right?

[Lori]

Yes, yes.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. It has its almost religious feel to.

[Lori]

It in that respect. It kind of reminded me of. I don't know if you remember Miranda Sex Garden.

[Scott Free]

I remember the name.

[Lori]

They're kind of more of a madrigal or cor. Choral kind of styling as far as their vocals, but that's the first thing I thought of when I first heard this song.

[Scott Free]

Right on. Going for the obscure. I like it.

[Lori]

Yeah, well, that's me. So Mickey Barenni actually is credited with writing this song. Now, she mentions in her memoir that she always thought that the way to do it was just to, you know, all songs by Lush, but when they signed their contract with 4 AD, they did the publishing by name. So there's some that are credited to Mickey, there are some that are credited to Emma, there's some that are credited to both. And if you know anything about the music biz, at least the way it used to be, I don't know how it is now. A big chunk of your royalties would come from the publishing rights, so it was very smart that they did it that way.

[Scott Free]

Right on.

[Lori]

It's very short, actually. The song itself is only 2 minutes and 7 seconds, but lyrically, in your green field sleep Chasing through the trees do you still see me? Do you still hear me? Do you still need me? And that's the entire song?

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Now, did you know those lyrics just by listening to the song?

[Lori]

No, I had to look them up for sure.

[Scott Free]

Right. Because again, that Gregorian chant feel that it has to at that hymnal feel and those, again, pardon the on the nose terminology, but lush production, it's kind of incomprehensible. Those voices just become an instrument and a texture. Right. They could be saying anything. And who else had that approach to vocals?

[Lori]

My Bloody Valentine. And Cocktail Twins.

[Scott Free]

And the Cocktail Twins. Right. So while we talked about the band in their early days, in their early live show as being like, turn the guitars way up and turn the vocals down because we don't want to be heard because we're not confident here, they've got really confident voices, but still incomprehensible because the lyrics aren't the point. Right.

[Lori]

And prior to recording this album, Mickey and Emma both took some vocal lessons to try to improve on their skills. And Mickey had said something to the effect of she didn't really get much from the coaching, except it made her more confident in her singing.

[Scott Free]

And, yeah, you can read other reviewers critiques of the ladies voices. Emma is generally thought to have the stronger voice, particularly on the higher registers. She's got a clear and strong voice. Mickey, you know, it's a head voice when it should be chest, at least if you're, you know, in a choir or whatever. But it's expressive and, yeah, it gives the band their unique feel, their unique voice. So, yeah, they don't all have to be classically operatically trained just as long as the training they did take made them willing to send it, you know.

[Lori]

Right, right. And the shimmering guitars, that is such a Robin Guthrie trademark. We're going to hear that throughout the album for sure.

[Scott Free]

Strum the guitars, throw some phaser, throw some flanger on it, throw some chorus on it, and detune it just a little bit so that it sounds practically like a harpsichord. Yeah, that's Cocteau Twins all over, right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And Mickey and Emma, both very strong. Guitarist Emma, a little bit stronger than Mickey as far as her skills go.

[Scott Free]

Derek.

[Lori]

One of the things about this that was so unusual, I think, at the time, you know, we had girl groups, right? We had like L7, we had the whole Lilith Fair thing. This wasn't a girl group in the strictest sense, but we had two women front and center, you know, guitar, vocals, songwriting, lyrics, and it was really refreshing. It was really nice to see.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. And they were very distinctive looking. They featured prominently in their videos. Mickey Barenyi is a striking, beautiful Woman again, the half Hungarian, half Japanese. Beautiful features, but notable at the time because she had this bright pink red hair. Right, right. This was before it was, you know, you see it every day walking down the street like you do now. Incredibly distinctive. So she stood out. It made a lot of the music press see her as the lead in the band. But she took great pains to make sure that everyone in the band had their voice in the press and did not want to be the spokesperson for the band. But then also, you know, the music industry and magazines and whatnot would try to sexualize them and give them, you know, revealing outfits or, you know, tart them up for press. And Emma and Mickey were like, nah, we're dressing ourselves, we're keeping it cool. We know what we're about and we don't need sex to sell this band bad.

[Lori]

Respect. Mad respect, right? Yes.

[Scott Free]

Act two, Stray track one. Talked a little bit about those vocals, talked a little bit about those instrumentals. At the 150 mark, the voices drop out and the drums kick in. Just huge and reverby and forceful and the song changes tone like suddenly. But we're like a minute 50 into a 2 minute and 8 second song. Right. The ladies are back for just one more line. Do you still meet me? And then it's out. Like, this is Pixies esque. Soft, loud, soft and like a My Bloody Valentine wall of sound, all in a bite sized, two minute frenzy of a song.

[Lori]

Yes. Now the drums that you mentioned, that's Chris Ackland again.

[Scott Free]

Yep.

[Lori]

Gotta give credit where credit is due, for sure.

[Scott Free]

And there are few tracks in here where it's like, okay, this band has been ethereal and doing that shoegaze thing. Yeah. Mad respect for Chris Ackland. When he lets loose, he. He goes for it. Right?

[Lori]

Absolutely, yeah.

[Scott Free]

Anything else, Stray?

[Lori]

No, sir.

[Scott Free]

Well, all right then. That brings us to track two. Nothing natural.

[Sam]

You.

[Lori]

So this is Mickey again on lead vocals, as are most of the tracks on this album. So I'm not going to say that for every track it's going to be too repetitive.

[Scott Free]

But Emma Anderson composed it and wrote the lyrics.

[Lori]

Yes, that's correct.

[Scott Free]

This is one of those. And again, we can't say this for every track, but that Robin Guthrie produced this one shows so hard. This feels like a Cocteau Twin song, does it not?

[Lori]

I think I might have actually thought it was Cocteau Twins the first few times I heard it.

[Scott Free]

Easy mistake to make.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

The ethereal voices, the flangey strum guitar, but with more punch than The Cocktails had. Right, yes. Like, feel that. Stronger, you know, punk energy from their younger days. It's. I mean, it's still soft, ethereal and lush, but it's a little harder than some of the shoegaze stuff that we've heard so far from the Pitchfork review that I will reference occasionally. I like the way this is worded. They may have sounded impressionistic. Their words weren't easy to discern without a lyric sheet, but their approach was unflinching and direct. Lush at heart had more in common with Nirvana. They could sneak pop melodies into the messy overdrive and guitar pedals the way. Briani's voice, in particular, had a sort of eely characteristic, like it would disappear just as you are about to get your arms around it. So the lyrics aren't easy to make out, but they are powerful.

[Lori]

Right, right, right. As opposed to Cocteau Twins, which is mostly glossolalia.

[Scott Free]

Glossolalia, Gibberish, word salad sometimes. But here they've got words impressionistic in texture, not necessarily intelligible, but when you dig into it, there's meaning there. This is poetry, not just throwing words out there.

[Lori]

Before I met you I was blind Pills and liquid filled my mind Beneath your outline I was new Overflowing with your tune and then there's this chorus that repeats and it's just. And don't you know you're beautiful?

[Scott Free]

You know, the lyrics talk about the disappointments of a relationship.

[Lori]

It's gorgeous. It's absolutely gorgeous. So it's no wonder that this was picked as the first single off of the album. The single was released on October 29, 1991. It peaked at number 22 on the US Alternative Chart and number 43 on the UK Official Chart.

[Scott Free]

Right on.

[Lori]

Their songwriting really matured in the couple of years that they did their EPs before this album.

[Scott Free]

Oh, for sure. Yeah.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I don't know if you listened to that first ep, Scar, or the compilation that came after it before the debut lp, Spooky, but you can see that arc harder in the beginning, but taking on those shoegaze tendencies, once they were putting it down on record here with this debut album, this is a fully formed band. They've got a sound, they've got a songwriting process. Two of them, in fact. And, yeah, teaming up with Robin Guthrie. Yeah, this is a gorgeous album.

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

And this is one of the most popular songs on the album to this day. And this track has like 1.3 million plays on YouTube music. A lot of the other tracks on the album are in the hundreds of thousands and not a ton of them. There's a music video to this track and it has 900,000 views on YouTube proper from the Pitchfork review. They talk about the video mostly close ups of Bareni singing next to Anderson, a quiet angel with bangs. Lush's visuals were clean, high contrast and full of color, with the women making deliberate eye contact with the camera more frequently than looking down at their feet.

[Lori]

Take that, critics.

[Scott Free]

All right.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

And that's all I have to say about that.

[Lori]

Okay. All right. Well, that brings us then to track three, which was co written by both of the ladies, Emma and Mickey. This one is called Tiny Smiles.

[Sam]

I.

[Scott Free]

So this is just the sweetest damn pop song, right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Free]

And it feels to me, and I think you'll agree, after our having done a whole episode on Stereo Labs Penguin, this feels like a Stereo Lab track pitched up an octave and without the French accent. Right. Plus Cocteau affected guitars.

[Lori]

Emma wrote the music, Mickey wrote the lyrics, and she wrote in her memoir. I know I wrote the lyrics for Tiny Smiles, but the jazzy scales and tricky intervals are a struggle for my limited singing talent. Emma winces at the flat notes, and when we overhear a band next door rehearsing, she wistfully comments on the female vocals, sighing, it must be great to have a proper singer. So despite the fact that they were collaborators, there was some rivalry between the two of them.

[Scott Free]

A little tension there, huh?

[Lori]

A little bit.

[Scott Free]

That's just a dissatisfaction. Dang.

[Lori]

And one of the reasons may very well have been because of that shock of pink red hair that Mickey had. She was more recognizable, I think. And as you mentioned, she kind of got labeled the front of the band.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Didn't want that title, but got it.

[Lori]

And I think that led to some resentment on Emma's part.

[Scott Free]

I could see that.

[Lori]

But again, I think it also did kind of force both of them to up their songwriting game for sure. Right.

[Scott Free]

And, you know, rare collaboration between them. You do not see a lot of that on this album. So, you know, they were able to put aside rivalries and differences once again. Pitchfork's description of their vocals and their interplay between those. Love it. Practically a lullaby, Their voices tinged in harmony and Ms. Wafting down like celestial detritus.

[Lori]

Like celestial what?

[Scott Free]

Detritus.

[Lori]

Okay. I don't know that word.

[Scott Free]

Flotsam and jetsam. Almost trash.

[Lori]

Oh, oh, oh. That's how that word's pronounced.

[Scott Free]

From the heavens.

[Lori]

Oh, okay. I've seen it in print. I've never heard it pronounced before.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. You know, the Song is just so damn bouncy. Right. But like in a leisurely way.

[Lori]

Right.

[Scott Free]

I have my own Pitchfork style. Overly poetic. It's like the audio version of A Sunny Spring Day.

[Sam]

Really?

[Scott Free]

That's all I got.

[Lori]

All right, well, so there's one thing that I noticed as I was looking up the lyrics to this song. There's a reference to Our Lips Are Sealed.

[Scott Free]

Interesting.

[Lori]

Now, as I mentioned, Mickey was a big fan of the two tone ska music scene Madness. And she was also a huge fan of the Specials and Terry Hall.

[Scott Free]

And I know where you're going with this.

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

If I may, when you've got those bands and that two tone scene, then it's just one short leap to Funboy 3. Fun Boy 3 did a cover of the Go Go's Our Lips Are Sealed, which for my money is superior to the original. And the original is a stone cold classic.

[Lori]

Oh, oh, oh. Okay. So Terry and Jane Widland of the Go Gos co wrote that song together. It was based on love letters that they had written back and forth. Because when the Go Gos were on tour opening for Madness, Terry and Jane hooked up. So they were kind of a thing. But it was secret. Right. So hence Our Lips Are Sealed. So it's not technically a cover because they both share the writing credit. The Funboy 3 version was very popular in the UK. Like, in the UK, if you mentioned Our Lips Are Sealed, everybody's like, oh, yeah, Fun Boy three. But here you say Our Lips are Sealed. Everybody thinks the Go Go's. So anyway, to bring me back to my point, I think that this might have been a reference to Terry hall in The Fun Boy 3 version of our Lips Are Sealed. But I can't prove that I'm willing to believe it.

[Scott Free]

Okay, all right, that's enough about Tiny Smiles. Let's move on to track four. Covert.

[Sam]

Sam.

[Scott Free]

Okay, so Lush can combine sweetness and darkness like no one else. Right. Both in the tone of the music. Again, I keep using the word shimmering, but those shimmering guitars, those sweet high harmonies, but then that slightly detuned flanged guitar. And then the almost like tribal sounding Tom. Tom drumming once again, Chris Ackland killing it. It reminds me so much of Echoes of Susie and the Banshees or Echoes of Echo and the Bunnyman. Take either of those. But particularly Susie. Right.

[Lori]

And Susie was a big inspiration for Lush. They've cited Susie as one of their influences.

[Scott Free]

It's a great formula. And then the lyrics double down on this sweet and dark thing.

[Lori]

Yes. Do you know anything about the lyrics.

[Scott Free]

I mean, I've read them.

[Lori]

Okay, what do you got? All right, well, actually, they were inspired by Anais Nin's A Spy in the House of Love.

[Scott Free]

Is that how you say her name?

[Lori]

Anais? Yes. So back to the conflict between Emma and Mickey.

[Scott Free]

Ooh, a dirt.

[Lori]

Yeah. In Fingers Crossed, Mickey wrote. When I informed her that my lyrics for Covert were inspired by Anais Nin's A Spy in the House of Love, which she had bought me as a birthday present, she yelped in delight. Really? She was such a sucker for praise.

[Scott Free]

Working her, huh?

[Lori]

You know, I love any reference to literature. You know, I I the whole intellectual side of things. So I don't know that particular work by Anna Eastman, but I'm gonna check it out.

[Scott Free]

Nor I. But again, to this sweetness and darkness thing I'm hiding inside me. I sees through my smile as I shine for the eyes of another. Let him inscribe what he admires. Let him inspire so many lies. All right, already starts to twist a little bit later. I hide behind your eyes, for I know this illusion is kinder than what you'll find inside. If I reveal my crime, my deception, my invention, my obsession, you may despise what you find. Like shit got dark.

[Lori]

Mm. Yeah. I love it, though. I love stuff like this. And then the very last line of the song, I am the spy, and that just kind of totally changes your perspective on what this relationship is.

[Scott Free]

Still. I dream of the day you discover I am the spy. Not just that she's the spy, but the reveal of the betrayal.

[Lori]

Yes. Ooh, I'm getting chills. I love it. All right. That's all I got on that one.

[Scott Free]

It feels like plenty.

[Lori]

All right.

[Scott Free]

That brings along the track five, doesn't it?

[Lori]

Yes, it does. And this one is called Ocean.

[Sam]

Ram. Time.

[Scott Free]

Once again, much like in track four, covert track five, Ocean gives us that sweetness, like, sultry, sexy sweetness, but with a touch of the darkness and almost menace, right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Free]

Come with me into a cool blue stream. Nice. I'm down. Lead into oceans green lips open wide, drinking the tide. Okay, cut to later. And you sink with me deeper inside I'll make you mine. All right, Mickey. I am down. This is getting sexy, right? Take me down down where their voices drown Cool fingertips under the sea Stay here with me. And I'm like, wait, did I just get seduced and killed by a mermaid? Is that happened in the ocean here?

[Lori]

Or a siren, perhaps? Yeah, yeah, maybe.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, yeah. But then, like, also musically, you heard in the clip right there you got that very cocktails itch sounding instrumental again, that almost harpsichordy guitar effect thing. But then at the 2 minute 6 mark, there is this huge rushing guitar effect that like rushes through your head and pans from speaker to speaker and it is just so good. That said, it very much feels like Robin Guthrie's work. Right, yes. And the band was actually experiencing some tension with Robin Guthrie. True.

[Lori]

Yeah, that's true. So according again to Mickey's book, Robin started disappearing for several days at a time when he was in the studio. There would be a crowd of people that would sometimes show up and they only later realized that the people that were coming in and out of the studio were Robin's cocaine dealers who. Yes. So a lot of the work on this album, most of it was done by Robyn, it's true. But there was one time that he disappeared on like a four day bender, according to Mickey.

[Scott Free]

Allegedly.

[Lori]

Allegedly. But they ended up doing a lot of work with the engineers on the days that Robin was a no show. It's not all bad. As a matter of fact, she even says in her book, it's not all bad. Of course, recording at September Sound means Robin is in his own environment. So it's quick and easy work to record guitars as he has all the effects at his fingertips. He's fun to be around, engagingly chatty and mischievously gossipy, and he has great ideas bringing out the bright pop edge of our songs.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I see that worked.

[Lori]

Yeah. So it's a bit of a mixed bag.

[Scott Free]

Sure.

[Lori]

Yeah. That's all I got on that one.

[Scott Free]

Well, then I guess that brings us to track six, For Love.

[Lori]

Oh, I love this one.

[Scott Free]

I mean, it opens sounding practically Pixies, like, right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, Shades of Kim Deal.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that prominent bass line. Very Kim. Right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Free]

Then when the guitars come in again, it feels like a mashup of Cocteau Twins and Stereo Lab to me.

[Lori]

Yeah, I could see that. I could see that.

[Scott Free]

The jangle, the sort of sing songy vocals. But again, those, those guitar effects, like you said, Robin Guthrie can affect your guitars like nobody's business. And he can do it quick because that's his mo, right?

[Lori]

Yes, yes, absolutely.

[Scott Free]

I've also read that among the other influences they cite are abba. Again, they love pop music and this has sort of that ABBA feel.

[Lori]

Right, yeah, yeah, I could see that. Yeah. Right, yeah. This was actually the first song I ever heard by Lush. Fell in love immediately.

[Scott Free]

I can see it.

[Lori]

Oh, yeah. So, so good, because Mickey wrote this one. And again there's this competitiveness between Mickey and Emma. Mickey wrote I'd been particularly proud of For Love. There was a cynical sadness in the lyrics that contrasted with the bright chiming music capturing my mixed emotions. And you just mentioned abba, Scott, and that is true of many ABBA songs as well. So I would agree with you on that.

[Scott Free]

Bright poppy vocals with some, yeah, dark feelings in the lyrics sometimes.

[Lori]

Yes. So she continues. The song had a catchy bass line and some inventive transitions, along with a particularly satisfying key change that resolved to the chorus, which Robin paid the utmost compliment to by saying, that's really good. I'm gonna nick that. High praise. But then an executive from 4 AD wanted to release this as the first single, and Emma started to feel, I think, maybe a little jealous, at least according to Mickey, because a week later, Emma came back with the demo tape for Nothing Natural, and Nothing Natural would eventually become the first single. So again, I think that this competitiveness between the two of them, this friction, I think it helped them both elevate their songwriting, because those are two absolutely amazing songs. For Love and Nothing Natural. Yes, exactly.

[Scott Free]

Now, I can see how there would be competitive tendencies and maybe even slightly hurt feelings about Nothing Natural getting selected over for Love, but as far as more marketable pop songs go, Nothing Natural, we've already talked about For Love, the lyrics are a little more intelligible than in some of the other stuff on this album. The vocals are clearer and when you start hearing the lyrics. Pretty little girl, she shines Knowing she is young she smiles Happy just to be a prize Happy just to see his smile this is not a love song. This is a song about Mickey as a child, seeing her parents. Her parents who famously divorced. So it was their unhappy relationship splitting up.

[Lori]

Yes, yes. And she goes into a lot of detail about their relationship in her memoir. Even when they were still married, both of them were having affairs. Both parents. From what I understand, Ivan Barenni was kind of a bit of a womanizer, but her mom, Yasuko, she also had her share of affairs dalliances, as somebody who is in a James Bond movie might do. Right. So this was actually, then Scott, the second single off of the album. The first one was Nothing Natural. This one peaked at number nine on the US Alternative Chart and number 35 on the UK Official Chart.

[Scott Free]

Nothing Natural got the foot in the door and then love walked right in. Or, you know, in an alternative sort of sidled in sort of way. Again, as much as I love the Emma and Mickey harmonies in this track, at the 2 minute mark. It goes fully instrumental for just a little guitar solo. I may be more into it. And it's not like a raging technical guitar solo. It's simple and melodic, but expressive and beautiful in the context of this boppy instrumental. It does what it needs to do. It does. It simply does it beautifully.

[Lori]

And I think that's Emma. I think that's Emma on the guitar. I don't know that for 100% certain, but 95% sure it's Emma.

[Scott Free]

I'm willing to believe it as it was a single and this was the MTV era, the 120 minutes era. There is a video and from Pitchfork, focused primarily on Bareni's soft lit visage with a handful of pink roses and white daffodils intercut with scenes of the band playing just a simple alternative era music video, but focusing on Bareni, who's easy on the eyes, and the band playing like they do decent video.

[Lori]

Can I confess something to you?

[Scott Free]

Please do.

[Lori]

I've actually never seen a Lush music video.

[Scott Free]

Oh, wow.

[Lori]

91, 92. I didn't have a television.

[Sam]

So.

[Lori]

Yeah. So all the music that I heard would either be on the radio or, I think in the case of this one, the clothing store that I used to work at, I'm pretty sure that that's where I first heard this. On the tapes that we used to play for customers.

[Scott Free]

I love that they were tapes.

[Lori]

They were. And they weren't traditional cassette tapes.

[Scott Free]

Interesting.

[Lori]

It was closer to an eight track tape. They're small, they're not big, like eight tracks. But you had to shift from track one, two, three, four. You couldn't just rewind it and play a song again.

[Scott Free]

Fascinating. You were playing carts, cartridges.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this was a, you know, like piped in music service similar to Muzak that the company subscribed to. And they put together mixes and everything that came out around this time on those mixes. Oh, my gosh. I fell in love. So. Yeah, at the mall. At the mall. The mall has it all.

[Scott Free]

I think that is all for. For love. All right, well then where does that leave us?

[Lori]

That brings us to track seven, which is called Super Blast.

[Scott Free]

I forgot the exclamation point. It's called Super Blast.

[Lori]

I can't do that the way you do it.

[Scott Free]

That's fair.

[Lori]

All right, Super Blast, here we go.

[Sam]

Jesus.

[Scott Free]

Oh, man. Right at the beginning, those first four bars, you can get a glimpse into a parallel universe where Lush never grew out of their early Riot Girl roots.

[Lori]

Exactly.

[Scott Free]

This is just Lush going hard. And then Four bars in, it gets dreamy. It's still fast paced with a rock backbeat, but still dreamy, which is not an easy combination to pull off.

[Lori]

So this one was written by Emma Anderson, but again that is Mickey Bareni on vocals. And yeah, parts of it are kind of a throwback to some of their earlier stuff, as you had mentioned.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that. That four bar hard intro comes back a couple more times during the song in between chorus and verse. I want to say.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, and. And I think there's a couple tempo changes too, which normally I don't care for, but this one, I think it works.

[Scott Free]

I'll go with that. Pitchfork, I think, describes my feelings on the song just as well as I could. So let's steal from them Super Blast Royals at a speedy punk pace. A thrash song that confuses the prospect with the bait and switch of Anderson and Rennie belting patiently about abandonment. The Shoegaze label missed the point. Lush was not their effects pedals, but a pop punk band with a heightened sense of aesthetics. Okay, right, yeah, it's got that driving beat, it's got that hard, but it's got that tender dreamy love thing going with the guitars. Again, credit to Robin Guthrie or eyebrow raised at Robin Guthrie for taking this hardness and cocktailing it, but I think it really works.

[Lori]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. I was actually just reading a quote from Mickey's book where she was talking about how Emma in particular really seemed to thrive under Robin's tutelage. She says for Emma it's all about the song and Robyn is great at interpreting her ideas and making them happen. We're going to call this the third single but I have in parentheses in my notes kinda because it was released as a radio promo CD in February 1992, but I don't know that it was actually formally considered a single. Isn't that weird?

[Scott Free]

Not unusual for the time, but yeah, I'll give it weird.

[Lori]

Share with the okay, but yeah, if you started to kind of drift off into a slumber after the dream pop of the previous few tracks. Boy, you're awake now.

[Scott Free]

Oh yeah. Brings us to track eight, Untogether.

[Sam]

I. Tell me again. I'm not offended by the things that you say cuz it's such a.

[Lori]

Shades of Cocteau Twins dream pop. Right?

[Scott Free]

Even poppier than that. Like take away all those layered guitar effects and what do you have got? A solid backbeat, strummed 8th note guitar chords and a simple sing songy melody sung sweetly in the verses. Right. And Then the vocals go into two parts. The lead lower and those higher. Right, right. Pop song. Like Talked earlier. They cite the Beatles as an influence and yeah, that totally tracks. But like early Beatles. Like early Beatles where they were not experimenting. This is a pop song and unashamedly so. But it also has some Stereo Lab in it, I feel like. But then you get Robin Guthrie, who just comes in, and Robin Guthrie is the hell out of that pop song. And it's dreamy. Dream pop.

[Peloton Announcer]

Right?

[Lori]

Yes, yes. Okay. So Mickey wrote about what you just talked about with Robin Guthrie.

[Scott Free]

Okay.

[Lori]

He strips back and rethinks Untogether, releasing its potential and prompting me to write new parts that complement the new, spaceier feel. It's exactly the collaborative nudge I need.

[Scott Free]

Right on.

[Lori]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

It doesn't feel like a cocktails song. This is popular than the Cocteaus leaned, but it just shows the, you know, synergies.

[Lori]

Right, yes, yes. And you'd mentioned the backing vocals. The.

[Sam]

Ah.

[Lori]

That is Emma doing the backing vocals.

[Scott Free]

You can do the high and clear in a way that is not Mickey's forte.

[Lori]

Yes, yes. And I think Mickey would probably be the first one to admit that.

[Scott Free]

Yep.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Pitchfork talks about this a little bit along with For Love Untogether. Both of those are Bareni written tracks are as Beatlesian in spirit as any of the Brit pop boys who came before or after Bopalong songs, telling vivid stories about other people's relationships.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

Now, also, I love their use of Beatlesian.

[Lori]

Yeah, I was gonna comment on that.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Then there's also there are guitar solos. And again, like, one I mentioned earlier. They're so simple but expressive. They don't need flash or pyrotechnics. It's not that kind of music. It's just simple melody flowing along with the jangly guitar chords. This is a great song.

[Lori]

Yeah. Yeah. This is a really good one.

[Scott Free]

In a different mode than most of the rest of the album, mind you.

[Lori]

Now, it's interesting to me. I did not realize until we started recording this episode. The songs that I love on this album, my absolute favorites, were all Mickey Bareny.

[Scott Free]

Oh, interesting.

[Lori]

Not Emma. I didn't even know that because I only just recently looked at who had written what. So it's not that I am, like, biased towards Mickey, even though I suppose I kind of am, but I think so. Yeah. Mickey, if you're listening, you're a Mickey girl. That's fine. Yeah. Team Mickey.

[Scott Free]

Well, we'll see how that plays out when we talk about our favorites at the End of the episode. As is our way.

[Lori]

Yes. So that brings us to the next track. It is called Fantasy.

[Sam]

I.

[Scott Free]

Okay, so this song has a very different beat than anything else on this album. And I. I heard it and I went looking for the source of that shuffle beat. Like we're at the tail end of the Madchester era. Trip hop is happening concurrently with this. Surely this is a sample, I thought. Right. And no, the song credits have Chris Ackland on the drum kit, and that is pretty much it. But it shows. Again, he is a little more versatile drummer and he can make different things happen. I think this song is a totally different feel than the rest of the album, and it is largely due to Chris Ackland.

[Lori]

Oh, that's interesting. See, I wouldn't have even picked up on that. I honed in right away on the harmonies.

[Scott Free]

Right on.

[Lori]

That's what really sold this one for me. Now, I had been reading somewhere, it might have been in Mickey's book, it might have been somewhere else. I don't have the quote in front of me, and I don't know for sure it's about this particular song, but I do seem to recall at one point Chris Ackland being asked to use digital drum pads that were kind of a thing in the late 80s, early 90s, rather than traditional drums, and he did not like the feel of it.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Scott Free]

Most drummers I know will take an acoustic drum kit over an electronic any day.

[Lori]

Yeah. I'm speculating that. Maybe because you said, well, this almost sounds like it's sampled. Perhaps this was something he did on the drum pads.

[Scott Free]

It could be triggered rather than on an acoustic drum kit. That is possible.

[Lori]

Yeah. Again, I'm speculating.

[Scott Free]

So what else are we doing?

[Lori]

Right. Okay. That's all I got on that one.

[Scott Free]

That is not a lot.

[Lori]

Oh. Oh. Actually, no. Let's talk about the lyrics.

[Scott Free]

Please, let's.

[Lori]

Okay. Planets spin around your head Milk and sugar in my bed Even when you're far away I can hear you every day Wise hands grasping the delicate prize I just wait for the time of our lives. Isn't that gorgeous?

[Scott Free]

It is.

[Lori]

It's a lover who's far away but she can't wait to be reunited. And then the chorus. My desires can't be bought in black and white Only you make me feel secure inside For I know you really love no one but me and I smile because they think it's fantasy. Not to be beating a dead horse, but that theme of, you know, secret relationship, secret love, like our lips are sealed. Right? It feels very similar to me in that respect.

[Scott Free]

I will say one line in lyrics. Planets spin around your head Milk and sugar in my bed that just sounds like a mess. It just sounds like. What do you. Milk and sugar in the bed. What are you doing? Like, we're gonna. We're gonna. Do you want ants? This is how you get ants.

[Lori]

Right? Okay. On that note, I got nothing. Okay. All right. Well, then I suppose we should move on to the next track, Scott.

[Scott Free]

I suppose we will. That is track 10, take.

[Sam]

J.

[Scott Free]

Man, the interplay between their voices. Like, they're not just singing straight harmonies. It's two distinct parts that weave in and out of each other. But it's just so gorgeous, right?

[Lori]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

This is an Emma Anderson song. She both composed the song and wrote the lyrics, but both of their voices are spotlighted. I. I think it would be really hard to say. One is more prominent than the other, right?

[Lori]

Yes. I think Mickey's voice is a little bit more prominent again.

[Scott Free]

All right, fair. When you get into the lyrics, this is about hidden loves and the disconnect between the perception and the reality. He's perfect at least within his dreams Ouch. He's perfect to satisfy my schemes he doesn't know my name I don't recall his name A little later he's smiling at me he thinks he's won the night I'm laughing at him Imagine what you like I know he's seeing inside I'm bleeding But still he's playing to wipe the tears out of my eyes wow. Right? He claims he's crying I hide my crying I know it's cruel But I refuse to be the only one to know what is going on here?

[Sam]

Right.

[Lori]

Is it I refuse to be the only one to know? Or is it I refuse to be the only one to lose?

[Scott Free]

YouTube Music has it as. No.

[Lori]

Oh, okay. Well. Lyrics. Genius says lose. I'm gonna have to listen to it again. It fits a little better with the rhyme scheme, but. Eh. So another Mickey barenyi composed song. And damn, girl, I love her as a lyricist. Again, I don't want to be sounding like I'm, you know, Mickey fan girl, except I suppose I kind of am.

[Scott Free]

Interestingly, Spotify has it as an Emma.

[Lori]

Really take is Mickey Baretti. Yeah. But you believe otherwise?

[Scott Free]

I don't know that I believe. I'm just saying what Spotify says.

[Lori]

The last two tracks got, however, are written by Emma Anderson.

[Scott Free]

Oh, wow.

[Lori]

Yeah. Well, you know, some of these are a little bit more. I don't want to say Obscure, but there's a lot less background on them, you know, things that are written about them. Whereas the singles, obviously, there's a lot of information available. So, yeah, that, you know, that happens sometimes. So that brings us to track 11. This is called Laura.

[Sam]

Sam.

[Lori]

Well, we've got that punk riot girl throwback again here.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, at least in the. In that driving beat. The overall energy still has that big chorus, phaser guitar thing going. Again, very, very cocktails in that sense. But the energy of the song. Yeah, that feels like early echoes of live Lush. Right?

[Lori]

Absolutely. And Steve Rippon's bass is just.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that bass. I was gonna say again, it has Pixies feel to it. Right.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

There's something going on in the lyrics, clearly. There's a lot of words in this.

[Lori]

One, but all the best words.

[Scott Free]

I mean, so many words, big words, great words. There's clearly something going on. But they are, again, in the way that they did in their early live performances, going loud guitars and lots of them, and quieter vocals that you can't really hear. The band has developed the confidence. They don't need to do that. But these vocals are kind of Cocteau in that you cannot really understand what's going on. But there is a lot going on there. Right. The obvious question comes from the title Laura. It is unusual to have a song with a person's name as the title and the subject of the song, but to not have it be a romance, not to have it be a love song. Right, Ladies singing a song named Laura. But it is not a romance, it is not a love song. The clue came to me from the Pitchfork review that I keep referencing a bass driven rollicker about a general world weariness and finding comfort in the music of Laura Nero. Which then sent me down the rabbit hole of who the hell is Laura Nero? I read, okay, Laura Nero was a singer songwriter in the 1970s. And I'm like, okay, she must have been some kind of rocker, right? And yeah, no, I actually listened to a few of her tracks and she's got much more of a Carol King, Joni Mitchell, 1970s songstress with soft soul tendencies. It is a strange reference as far as I'm concerned, but you get into the lyrics and, oh, yeah, it's about Laura Nero. Lipstick girl, Blackstick curl in the New York sun Basically, you sing for me When I am hurt, stoned and blind Never mind Lucky's song Press the keys I can be where you belong I'm a fan of your hand it's about Laura Nero. And that's odd, but, you know, it really works. It's got the energy. It should be noted, once again, Chris Ackland on the drums just really going for it. It's a banger, right?

[Lori]

Yes. Yes. Okay, so I confess, I did not know the Laura Nero reference until you just mentioned it. But I just looked her up, and she did have a song in 1968 called Lucky.

[Scott Free]

There you go.

[Lori]

So, yeah, I think you're onto something here.

[Scott Free]

We've almost learned something today.

[Lori]

I did learn something. Thank you. I appreciate that. And you know what? That totally changes my perspective on this song.

[Scott Free]

That's what I'm here for. Ah, that and the free snacks.

[Lori]

You got snacks?

[Scott Free]

Okay, they weren't free. I had to buy them. It's true. It's a good point you make, but I'm open here for the snacks.

[Lori]

Okay, well, we got one more track, Scott, and then we can feast.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah, I guess that's on me. That would be the final track on spooky. Track 12, Monochrome.

[Sam]

Home. When you go. When you. What's going on when you.

[Lori]

All right, so another one written by Emma Anderson, but sung by Mickey Bareni.

[Scott Free]

You know, for someone who I guess sometimes got resentful of how much spotlight the other singer got, Emma sure did write a lot of songs that she gave up to Mickey, huh?

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, it seems that way. And actually, in her book, Mickey says that Monochrome is her personal favorite track on the album.

[Scott Free]

Oh, I will.

[Lori]

Yeah. She wrote I sided with Robin that it should be the single, but Emma had her heart set on nothing Natural, and I didn't want to lose my one chance with four love, so that was that.

[Scott Free]

Fair enough.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

You know, it's got that in threes thing going. I want to say it's in six, eight. Got an almost waltzy sort of feel to it. The threes, you know, it's lilting, and I don't know what else to say about that. Lilting.

[Lori]

One of the other things that Mickey mentioned in her book is that when she was singing this song, the lyrics actually got her very choked up, and she was actually kind of stumbling a little bit. So she had said to Emma, you know, this is really hitting me emotionally. And I think that, again, that was, you know, similar to, like, the Ana East Nin thing. Trying to build some bridges here or mend some bridges, but it didn't always end up that way. So.

[Scott Free]

Your eyes are like saucers but mine are just clouded in gray I've so much to tell But I can't and you just go away anyway, Won't you stay?

[Lori]

Hmm.

[Scott Free]

That's what was breaking her up, I think.

[Lori]

I think so. I think so. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Fair enough.

[Lori]

As she discusses in her book, you know, that she'd had a few relationships issues, and it also might have invoked shades of her parents. Yes.

[Scott Free]

If we're talking about her childhood. The final verse, the ground is beneath me but slowly it's falling away. You say we're like children, so why won't you come out and play?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah. That's got to be about her parents.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, it sounds like it.

[Lori]

Well, I mean, even though she didn't write it, but, I mean, that's gotta be. I bet you that's what's triggering it. Wow. You know, the rivalry or conflict between Emma and Mickey, I would go with.

[Scott Free]

The tension between them.

[Lori]

Okay. The tension actually extended to the name of the album as well.

[Scott Free]

Oh, really?

[Lori]

Yeah. Emma came up with the name of the album Spooky, and Mickey was against it. But then she later writes in her memoir that she's glad that they went with that title after all. So the album was released in the UK on January 27, 1992, and then a week later here in the US on February 4th of 1992. All right, it did chart on this was a more obscure Billboard chart called the US Heat Seekers Albums.

[Scott Free]

What?

[Lori]

Yes. Which is like breaking and entering the music charts, I guess. And it went to number 20 on.

[Scott Free]

That particular chart at Momentum, as opposed to full on sales.

[Lori]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's a good way to phrase that. Thank you. And then it did go to number seven on the UK albums chart.

[Scott Free]

All right, good for them. So we have closed out Spooky, at least in the track by track, as is our custom here. I ask you, what. What is your favorite track on Spooky?

[Lori]

All right. I've been going back and forth on this because I knew you were going to ask me. I think I'm going to go with For Love.

[Scott Free]

For Love, Yes. That was a Mickey track.

[Lori]

Yes. And that's also the one that first introduced me to Lush.

[Scott Free]

All right, fair. I did say we would compare at the end and see whether you were a Mickey girl or an Emma guy. And as it turns out, I may be an Emma guy because my favorite track is track seven, Super Blast.

[Lori]

Oh, I will fight you. If you're team Emma, I will fight you.

[Scott Free]

Bring it.

[Lori]

All right.

[Scott Free]

It's on.

[Lori]

Out on the playground during recess, you and me.

[Scott Free]

I'm into it. All right. Going down.

[Lori]

All right. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I mean, Super Blast has just that. So much energy. Yeah, it's just. Oh, God. I was about to say it's just a Blast, but the title is Super Blast. Didn't mean to. I don't want it.

[Lori]

But you know what, though, Scott? Knowing your musical taste as much as I do, I remember even when I was listening to this over the weekend, I said, you know what? Scott must really like this song.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I'm into it.

[Lori]

Well, and then what happens, Scott? Stuff.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. So a lot happens, in fact, but also not a lot. Depending on what your metrics are. The album comes out on both sides of the pond in early 1992. 1 Perry Farrell takes notice of Lush, likes them and signs them on for Lollapalooza 92. Lush were the only women playing on the main stage at Lollapalooza 92. So that was kind of a big deal and part of their minor blowing up in the United States.

[Lori]

Another thing that's notable, before they went on tour with Lollapalooza, back when Lollapalooza.

[Scott Free]

Was a tour, not a city within the city of Chicago, but yeah, going from big outdoor amphitheater to big outdoor amphitheater all across the country.

[Lori]

Right. So Steve Rippon, the bassist, left the band right after the recording of this album to focus on his career as a writer. Not a songwriter, but like a novelist, book writer. Unfortunately, though, he never, at least as far as I can tell, never published anything. Yeah, he had a book called Cold Turkey Sandwich, which was supposedly loosely based on his time touring with Lush, but he could not find a publisher for it.

[Scott Free]

Oh, that. That's a shame. I do like a good cold turkey sandwich.

[Lori]

You and my cat. I can't eat a turkey sandwich without him trying to steal it. So anyway, he was replaced by Phil King on bass, and Phil toured with the band for Lollapalooza.

[Peloton Announcer]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

The band would go on to release two more full length albums, Split and Love Life. That third album, Love Life, came out in 1996. Was it?

[Lori]

Yes, March of 96.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. And the music industry was changing, as it will do. Trends rise and trends fall. Lush was an English band, as we mentioned, I think in the beginning. And what was happening during the mid-90s was the rise of Brit pop. And shoegaze wasn't hitting like it used to. And they didn't jump on the bandwagon per se, but they did infuse that sound because at their roots, they were a pop band. Right?

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

The shoegaze thing was kind of foisted upon them in no Small part by the producer that they were working with. But, you know, they were writing pop songs, but with a punk energy at the beginning. But pop was really at the core of it. Right. And that's what Brit pop, I mean, it's right there in the name. Right. It's getting back to pop basics, but with a jangly British feel to it. Right?

[Lori]

Yes. And I think actually that third album. Didn't Jarvis Cocker from Pulp, speaking of Brit pop, didn't he have a duet with Mickey on one of the songs on that album?

[Scott Free]

I'm going to say yes.

[Lori]

Okay. That's a smart response. And that third album was actually their best selling album. It even charted on the US Billboard 200. Now it only went to 189. But that actually kind of surprised me because Lush was no longer on my radar by 96.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, the same, if I'm honest, 1996 also, you know who else's radar Lush fell off of was Lush's radar.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

1996, they kind of just stopped being active as a band. The tensions between Emma and Mickey.

[Lori]

Well, I think they just came off of a tour where they were opening for the Gin Blossoms here in the States.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that was a weird triple bill, right. It's the Gin Blossoms, the Goo Goo Dolls and Lush. Like one of these things is not like the other. Even if they're leaning into the Brit pop trend, that just doesn't make a lot of sense. So they come off that tour and.

[Lori]

They played their last performance on tour, September of 96. And a month later, October 17th of 1996, drummer Chris Ackland hung himself. Died of suicide.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, according to Mickey, this was not one of those where you could see it coming, that he had a long history of depression and that the writing was always on the wall. She was saying that until a month before his death, he was fine. He was a happy, go lucky, funny guy. And that he just sunk in that one month to this low point until he took his own life. It became a subject of great speculation amongst Mickey and her friends for the five years that followed as to why, what the hell happened. Like, they came off the tour and the tour was not what they considered a smashing artistic personal success for them. He had broken up with a girlfriend, but they had only been going out like a year, so it wasn't like the love of his life. And much of that year they were out on tour, so it's not like they were that close. So it's kind of a mystery to them as to why this happened. But once he took his own life, the band just stopped performing. They stopped recording. And then In February of 1998, a full year and a half after Chris's suicide, the band issued a statement, just as a courtesy to their fans. Mickey Brenny said in a later interview of that press release and the official breakup, I didn't even want the publicity of splitting up. I thought, isn't it fucking obvious? We knew it was over. Fuck the world. We retreated completely.

[Lori]

And, you know, that's consistent with what I've learned about Mickey. She really was very shy. Despite the orange hair and everything else, she really did not like to call attention to herself. So that does not surprise me.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, Never fully got over that shyness of their early shows, huh?

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

The band issued a statement saying that they were officially broken up. There would be no more Lush. And that was almost true.

[Lori]

Almost.

[Scott Free]

In the following 20 years, Mickey did not record any music and performed almost none. Both she and Emma got day jobs. They started raising families. And it seemed like their music careers were largely over. Then in 2016, there was sort of a resurgence. Shoegaze was getting popular again. And Mickey talks about how she kind of saw this opportunity that, well, this is happening. This is probably my last chance to be a rock star again. And so the band did get back together and recorded an ep.

[Lori]

That's right, I forgot about that.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, Blind Spot. It was a four track ep and, you know, it was relatively well received.

[Lori]

And they played at the legendary Roundhouse in Camden in London on May 6 of 2016, and May 7, the show sold out.

[Scott Free]

Well, that actually created enough inertia, at least for Mickey and Emma to restart their creative process and worked on their own individual projects. Mickey goes on to front a band called Baroshka and then the MB3, the Mickey Bareni Trio. Emma formed her own new band, Sing Sing. And, you know, their music careers go on again with day jobs, with families. They remain active artists.

[Lori]

Mickey went into publishing, I believe. Hey, I'm gonna double check that. She did okay. And then Emma Anderson also had a solo album out in 2023 called Pearlies.

[Scott Free]

Right on.

[Lori]

Now. The Mickey Bareni Trio did a brief North American tour last fall, but they announced that that was going to be her final North American tour because it's so expensive touring overseas.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, we heard the same out of Garbage when you and I went and saw them.

[Lori]

Yep.

[Scott Free]

Shirley Manson said this. We're done touring in America.

[Lori]

Yeah, the music industry is changing and I don't know if it's necessarily for the better I'll agree. Yeah. So, Scott.

[Scott Free]

Yes.

[Lori]

What are we doing for our next episode? Sir?

[Scott Free]

We are going to kick it into a little bit higher gear with the debut album from a new project from an artist who already had a long career in the alternosphere. That debut album from Sugar was Copper Blue. Yeah. Bob Mold, Husker do and then his own solo career, Copper Blue was him going a little harder, but also poppier. Yeah, it's power pop, but it's power pop with some guts to it, man.

[Lori]

Yeah. If I can't change your mind, then no one will. I remember that one. That was.

[Scott Free]

That is a single from this album.

[Lori]

And that was another one I heard at the store at the mall. That's how I found all my new music in 92. Well, so we're going to try to be back in two weeks. I'm saying try because I don't want to jinx things any further. And whoever's got the Scott voodoo doll.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Knock it off, man.

[Lori]

Please remove the pin from the eye.

[Scott Free]

So easy.

[Lori]

It's a goodbye from me, Lori.

[Scott Free]

And from me, Scott Free.

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