Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Adrianne Lenker's run of mesmerising wyrd folk work continues apace with her latest album on 4AD. There's always been a fragile, old-world quality to the American singer-songwriter's work, whether solo or in Big Thief, but the process is foregrounded on bright future thanks to the emphasis the label put on the album's all-analogue recording and production process. It's an approach which absolutely chimes with the charming delicacy of the songs contained within, guided by Lenker's distinctive countrified twang. What makes Lenker's music novel in the long and winding tradition of country and folk is the subtle surrealism you can hear scattered amongst the tradition - just listen to the guitar treatment on 'Fool' for all the proof you need.

Review: In many ways, Lovelife represented a commercial high for British dream pop deities turned indie pogo set Lush. Reaching number eight in the UK album charts upon release, only the band's second album (technically their first full-length LP, with one compilation of singles and a mini-long player preceding it) managed to place higher, and while it was very much caught in a specific musical moment - shoegaze - it still felt rather experimental. Or maybe that's just true of the style overall. Regardless, leap four years into the future and things sound a lot different. Britpop's stranglehold on the charts was at max tought, and with their final album Lush jumped straight in with two feet. Clearly influenced by the high energy, big attitude ethic of the day, signs of which were evident on third album, Split, on Lovelife they managed to create one of the scene's defining albums, with anthems such as 'Ladykillers' and 'Ciao!' (featuring Jarvis Cocker, no less) among the highlights.

Review: Taking delirious pop melody and filtering it though a prism of ethereal effects-pedal abandon, Lush were a band who the shoegaze cliches of 'kaleidoscopic harmonies' and 'cathedrals of sound' were originally spawned to describe. Yet beyond the production values and the photogenic allure, both these infectious ditties and the band's steely approach have more than stood the test of time, and their recent reunion only helps to display their standing as more than a mere '90s museum piece. From the Robin Guthrie-abetted swirl of 'Nothing Natural' and 'De-Luxe' to the more stripped-down pop suss of 'Ladykillers', this compilation is testimony to a band who transcended cliche to straddle both dreamtime rapture and boozy abandon.

Review: Originally released in 1992, Lush's second studio album really stuck a flag in the ground for the band. Having bestowed the 'mini LP' Scar on listeners three years earlier, at which point they became one of the first outfits to have the term shoegazing applied to their sound, it would take a full length offering to truly establish a framework for the outfit's approach to the (sub)genre. Spooky did just that, opening on the beautiful, grinding greatness of 'Stray', in many ways the record only builds intensity and grandeur from thereon in, providing a home for some of the most incredible moments of opiate indie rock you could ask for. Helped no end by the production of Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, 31 years later it remains a landmark.