| Lush | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Mitski |
| Cover: | Lush album cover (Mitski).jpg |
| Alt: | A blurry photo of the artist with her face partially obscured by her hair. |
| Genre: | Chamber pop |
| Label: | Self-released |
| Producer: | Scot Moriarty |
| Next Title: | Retired from Sad, New Career in Business |
| Next Year: | 2013 |
Lush is the debut studio album by American musician Mitski.[1] Mitski self-released the album on January 31, 2012 as her junior year project at SUNY Purchase. It was recorded and mixed by Scot Moriarty.[2]
Mitski described the album as by "someone who simply wrote her feelings and didn't think about how her narrative was being conveyed", describing a version of herself that is "long gone now". Patrick Hyland, producer of all of Mitski's subsequent albums, described the album with the quote: "Lush was in college, like, 'Oh, my gosh, there are studios! There are other instrumentalists!"[3]
The album is primarily chamber pop, with elements of lo-fi and punk rock.[4] Lush has been described as "mournful" by Rolling Stone.[5] It is "her most piano-laden work," characterized by Nylon as "a series of vivid, smooth, and unraveling narratives."[6]
In a career retrospective following her 2018 studio album Be the Cowboy, Jesse Herb of Atwood Magazine said that the album "plays out like a beautiful stream of consciousness" and praised Mitski's poetic lyricism.[7]
In July 2022, the track listing on streaming services was modified to match the current Bandcamp version, with "Real Men" moved to the end of the album.[8] Sometime in late 2012-early 2013, "Real Men" was removed from the Bandcamp tracklist and the tracklist was re-arranged.