The 10 Best Lush Songs

Meeting a fellow Lush fan feels like exchanging a secret handshake with another member of some covert club. That’s not to say Lush aren’t well-known – their sonic fingertips are all over the dream pop and shoegaze inspired bands of today, like Kiwi jangle rockers The Beths or Ireland’s reverb-soaked upstarts NewDad. However, they don’t always have the same immediate recognition as their forerunners Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine. To overlook them is to miss out in one of the best groups of their time, and they have the avid fan base to go with it. Rarely are fan sites as lovingly curated as theirs; it’s a testament to the cult-like devotion Lush inspire.

Guitarists and singers Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson’s voices are so well suited to one another that their union feels fated. The pair met in secondary school when they were just 14, and after several different iterations of teenage bands, Lush formed in 1987 with drummer Chris Aclund and bassist Steve Rippon. Meriel Barham, later of Pale Saints, was briefly part of the lineup, and Phil King took over Rippon’s bass duties in 1992. Lush ended in 1996 following Aclund’s suicide, though they reformed briefly two decades later. 

Get ready for some reverb and bittersweet shoegaze lullabies—here’s our list of the best Lush songs:

10. “Ciao!” (1996)

This arch little weirdo of a song centers around a barbed duet between Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Berenyi. Aclund had jokingly asked Berenyi to write a track for him to sing on, but decided not to commit to the bit—a shame, especially considering his passing soon afterwards, but Cocker’s no slouch to be sure. Pulp had opened for Lush in 1991, years before they broke out as part of the Britpop wave. Cocker and Berenyi play a pair of exes slinging mud at each other over galloping guitar and melodica, eager to one-up their former paramour. “Oh I must’ve been crazy to have stayed with you,” Cocker intones in his signature sing-sung drawl, but Berenyi gives as good as she gets: “Don’t say another word, ’cause sweetheart, you’re history.” Their sarcastic retorts perfectly capture the nature of a caustic breakup. During the bridge, Berenyi taunts Cocker, “Bet you wish that you still had me,” while he claims that she’s playing the victim, “Sitting in the kitchen eating meager meals with the curtains closed.” It’s cheeky, it’s enticing, it’s Britpop, Lush-style.   

9. “Leaves Me Cold” (1990)

Lush is a band of contrasts, and never is that more apparent than on “Leaves Me Cold,” which originally appeared on their Mad Love EP before being released as part of their compilation album Gala. Produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie, “Leaves Me Cold” rolls in on a thundercloud of shoegaze-y guitar, before Berenyi comes in with a choral grace. Her exquisite voice brightens even the darkest corners, yet remains drenched in unmistakable melancholy. The lyrics are rife with sensory detail and the poetic satisfaction of repeated vowel sounds and alliteration: “Dreams deep heat teasing my mind / Sleep peels sweet stealing my sighs.” Just as Berenyi strives to be heard above the deluge of shredded guitar, the narrator wrestles with their own inner demons: “Inside me there’s a separate girl / She’s winning and I’m losing control.” In under three minutes, Lush tell their own eerie horror story that lingers with you long after the final note. 

8. “Superblast!” (1992) 

“Superblast!” was written by Anderson for the band’s debut record Spooky (also produced by Robin Guthrie), and it stands apart for managing to be so many things at once. At first it’s a fun, danceable punk number, then flanged guitar transform the song into something spacious and cinematic for a moment. You’re never quite sure which side will win out, even through the very end—and that’s the appeal of Lush, that seamless marriage of hard and soft. Anderson and Berenyi’s harmonies are unparalleled here, and they’re so wispy and ethereal that only furiously smashed drums and pummeling guitars can keep them tethered to earth. 

7. “Nothing Natural” (1992)

Lush go full Cocteau Twins on “Nothing Natural,” with effects-drenched guitars swirling around to whip up their own moody maelstrom of sound. Penned by Anderson, “Nothing Natural” documents a lost love with sparse yet effective lyrics that cut to the bone: “The knife inside of me, it turns just like a key.” Berenyi and Anderson are lovelorn yet lackadaisical in their delivery, juxtaposed against the insistence of the occasional crunchy guitar riff. Lush opt for a more is more approach here, with the layers of sound satisfyingly enveloping the listener like a weighted blanket. Plus, this song gets extra bonus points since the music video (which Berenyi called an “effing nightmare” in an interview with VPME) is how Kurt Cobain became a Lush fan. 

6. “When I Die” (1994) 

“When I Die” is one hell of an album closer. In an interview, Berenyi revealed that she still cries every time she hears this song, and it’s easy to understand why when listening to Anderson’s gut-wrenching lyrics. “Healthy in my dreams / Is what you are, is what it seems,” she sings, a line that will resonate with anyone who’s lost a loved one. Anderson’s voice has a stunning clarity and emotional impact akin here to Dolores O’Riordan’s. Meditations on grief are rarely as beautiful as this one.  

5. “Ladykillers” (1996)

Lush took no prisoners when they opened their album Lovelife with the razor-sharp “Ladykillers,” a winning combination of the riot grrrl spirit and playful New Wave sounds. Berenyi’s normally angelic voice is dripping with attitude here, ready to scorch the next egomaniacal man eager to use her for his own validation. One line is even apparently about Weezer bassist Matt Sharp: “Blondie was with me for a summer / He flirted like a maniac but I wouldn’t bite.” Berenyi cuts her subject down to size with ease as she remarks, “I’m a five-foot mirror for adoring himself.” 

4. “Desire Lines” (1994)

“A fragile, downbeat, introverted album was about as out of step as you could get in 1994, when the vibe was all about being big and brash and having it large,” Berenyi said of their sophomore effort Split in a 2021 interview. We’re so incredibly lucky that Lush stuck to their guns here, marinating in the prismatic, mesmerizing gloom of shoegaze and dream pop, otherwise we wouldn’t have the languorous gem that is “Desire Lines.” The track kicks off with a patiently ticking clock before Aclund picks up the beat, and you can just imagine the narrator whiling away the hours as Berenyi dolefully observes, “I don’t know no one here / I don’t want to be here.” At over seven and a half minutes, this is a song made for listening to while staring wistfully out rain-streaked windows. “Desire Lines” has the same sad radiance as twilight: nighttime looms, but the glowing horizon still holds a distant hope. 

3. “Sweetness and Light” (1990)

You thought this would be number one, didn’t you? “Sweetness and Light” is undoubtedly Lush’s best known song, and it certainly lives up to its title. The guitars are fervent yet airy, with a quicksilver quality that I always associate with my favorite ‘90s music, and the track’s Madchester style percussion gets the toes tapping. This is dream pop at its best, fizzing with evocative lyrics and plenty of yearning to go around: “You are the juice I need for life / You are the sweetness in my eyes.”  

2. “Etheriel” (1989)

Maybe it’s cheesy to choose a track called “Etheriel” as the second best song by band known for their ethereal sound, but its jangly shimmer is simply undeniable. Funnily enough, Berenyi and Anderson actually came up with the title by combining the names of former bandmate Mariel Barham and her boyfriend, Ethan, who always seemed to get in the way of Barham being more involved in the group. Sunny guitar is punctuated by the occasional buzzing riff; there’s a gorgeous push and pull here between the crunchier instrumental moments and the utter bliss that is Berenyi and Anderson’s heavenly harmonies. The track is so wistful that it tips over into haunting territory. The summery iridescence of “Etheriel” masks the deep melancholy of a broken friendship: “And so you made your choice / When I needed most to hear your voice.”

1. “Thoughtforms” (1989)

Originally released on Scar, “Thoughtforms” was re-recorded and released on Gala. Glistening guitar soars alongside Berenyi and Anderson’s hypnotic voices. Anderson’s lyricism is as simple and elegant as ever, and bursting with color: from the insistence that “I need purple views and scenic greens” at the start, to the finale when “I just rose up from blackest seas.” “Thoughtforms” is a masterpiece from a band that can cross into distant realms with their otherworldly, dreamy art.

Clare Martin is a cemetery enthusiast and Paste’s associate music editor. Go harass her on Twitter @theclaremartin.