“Gala” was the first album I ever owned from 4AD shoegazer band Lush, and though I would go on to love anything and everything the band would subsequently put out(see my blog rantings here), my heart will always hold a special place for that first album.
Because Gala was more a collection of their EPs Mad Love, Scar and Sweetness and Light than an “album” proper, several songs appeared more than once on the tracklisting, among them two versions of Thoughtforms and two of SCARLET.
While the “newer” version of Thoughtforms became (to me) the ‘real” version of said song, Scarlet’s two version both had different things to offer for me. The newer version was more polished and dreamy (and bears a slight resemblace to “Monochrome”) while the ealier one was more “raw” in sound, almost live.It was THIS version that I slowly found myself attatched to, especially during the choruses where Emma’s Guitar chords sound positively sonic follwing the lines “But What’d you Say” and “When nothing’s meant ”, “What’d You Do” and “When all is Spent”.The tone of the guitars have this “british” feel to it and I for some reason, it reminds me of “Instant Party” by The Who on their “My Generation” album.
In fact, the huge, dreamy guitar washes during the lines “No one to fall…in love” and the subsequent spirally guitar picking behind the lines “Faceless, faithless night…vanity’s delight” all have decidedly Townshend-ish flavouring, at least in my opinion, and that’s a major Who fan talking here!
