Lovelife is the third and final studio album by English rock band Lush. It was released on 5 March 1996 by 4AD. On Lovelife, the band moved away from their earlier dream pop and shoegazing style and embraced a more Britpop-oriented sound. The album was produced by Pete Bartlett and the band at Protocol Studios in London, and engineered by Giles Hall. Three songs were released as singles: "Single Girl", "Ladykillers", and "500 (Shake Baby Shake)", all of which achieved moderate success on the UK Singles Chart, reaching the top 30 positions. On release, Lovelife reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart.
Background
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp dueted with Lush vocalist Miki Berenyi on the song "Ciao!"—Berenyi had written the song as a duet after Lush drummer Chris Acland jokingly asked to sing a song on the new album.[1] Ultimately, Acland declined and Cocker provided guest vocals.
In 2017, Berenyi revealed via Twitter that the lyrics to the track "Heavenly Nobodies" was about her and a friend's star-struck encounter with Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. She also added that the song was not intended as a dig towards her, and that the riff was inspired by the Monkees and the Kinks.[2]
"Single Girl" proved to be one of the band's largest hits, though the band's discomfort with the more commercial sound of the song almost led to its shelving. Berenyi recalled, "Pete [Bartlett] knew 'Single Girl' was a single right off the bat but says: 'You and Emma seemed almost embarrassed by the idea of commercial success and Emma kept trying to dismiss it as a B-side'…"[3] The video for the song also featured actors from Four Weddings and a Funeral.[4]
"500" was written by Anderson about the Fiat 500, since she had just passed her driver's exam during the writing of the album.[5]
