Hush Album

[Carin Mita]

TheHush is the fifth album by Scottish rock band Texas. Released in May 1999 as the follow up to the previous studio album, White on Blonde (1997), the album went onto achieve similar international success than that of its predecessor. It debuted at number one in Scotland and the United Kingdom and spent a total of 43 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.[6] It has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. It performed strongly in a number of continental European albums charts, reaching the top ten in France, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.[7]

Its release marked the first time that outside record producers were not involved in the production process of a Texas album. Instead, bassist Johnny McElhone, performing under the name Johnny Mac, assumed sole responsibly for the albums production.[8] Three singles were taken from the album: "In Our Lifetime", "Summer Son" and "When We Are Together".

During the recording of the album, the band were said to be "in an exploratory mood musically", having "shored up the technical aspects of the recording processes".[12] The band described "In Our Lifetime" as "Siouxsie's "Hong Kong Garden" remixed by Prince".[13] Andy Gill of The Independent wrote that "Day After Day" sounded like Diana Ross meeting Massive Attack and "Saint" as "Chrissie Hynde covering a Van Morrison song".[13]

The album was released internationally on 10 May 1999 via Mercury Records.[14] Released as the lead single of the album, "In Our Lifetime" reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. The other singles, "Summer Son" and "When We Are Together" respectively peaked at number 5 and number 12 in the UK.[15] The Hush has been certified triple platinum by the BPI for UK sales in excess of 900,000 copies. This makes it the band's second most successful studio album after their previous album, White on Blonde (1997), which had been certified 6 Platinum.

The Independent wrote a favourable review, describing the song "Summer Son" as "funk motorik with bells Spectorising majestically away". Reviewer Andy Gill stated; "It's almost as if they've set out to make [...] a post-modern pop that sums up the entire history of this most varied of 20th-century media. The miracle is that they've just about pulled it off".[13] In a 4 out of 5 star review, Q magazine said; "Production is paramount to The Hush [...], but for all the handsome noise, it's Spiteri's -widening vocal palette that gives the songs personality. "Move In" is built upon the muscular funk framework of, say, [ Grace Jones 's] "Pull Up to the Bumper", but elevated by a light, hipswaying vocal. In case anyone thinks "When We Are Together" is standard Motown confection, Texas strip it back to Spiteri and a piano in the middle just to prove how strong it is. For "Day After Day", she's Dusty Springfield." Reviewer Andrew Collins concluded: this is "rare pop music that possesses both a collective personality and accumulated wisdom."[9]

Pitchfork wrote: "Summer Son" bounces along like two-toned buttocks frolicking under a silk skirt, while the title track slowjams erotically like Spiteri rubbing down her body with her eyes closed, lips blooming to reveal marble teeth and a sentient tongue. Well, no. Really, there's more to this "music" than the singer's looks. Really. Stop looking at that. She's out of our league. Give me that back. I want the artwork![19]

The Hush was regarded as a "repeat success" for Texas, as the follow up to their 1997 international successful fourth studio album White on Blonde. The Hush was a major success for the band, debuting atop the albums charts in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.[20][21] In the United Kingdom, it spent twelve weeks within the UK Top 10, and a further twenty-seven weeks within the Top 20, forty-three in the Top 40 and fifty-three within the Top 100 as a whole.[22] It continued a similar pattern in continental European albums charts to that of its predecessor, White on Blonde, debuting at number two on the French Albums Charts, and spent fifty-five weeks on the French charts.[23] In Switzerland, it peaked at number five and spent forty-two weeks on the Swiss Albums Charts, and in Germany, it spent thirty-seven weeks on the German Albums Charts following a peak of number seven. On the Austrian Albums Charts, it peaked at number eleven, spending a further nineteen weeks on the Austrian charts.[24]

In the Netherlands, it peaked at number twenty-nine, and went onto spend a total of twenty-two weeks on the Dutch Albums Charts, and in Belgium, it peaked at three on the Flanders Ultratip Albums Charts, spending forty-two weeks on the Flanders charts, and in the Wallonia region of Belgium, it peaked at number nine and went onto spend a total of forty four weeks on the Wallonia Albums Charts.[25] Elsewhere in Europe, it peaked within the top ten in Sweden, charting at number seven on the Swedish Albums Charts and spending a total of twenty-three weeks on the Swedish charts. In Norway, it reached the same position as it did in Sweden, and spent a total of eighteen weeks on the Norwegian Albums Charts. In Australia, however, it peaked at number seventy-five and in New Zealand, it reached number forty-two, and spent a further six weeks on the albums charts in New Zealand.[26]

By the time of the album's recording, Richard Carpenter's addiction to sleeping pills had begun to affect him professionally, and he blames this for the album being, in his opinion, sub-par.[1] All three excerpted singles became hits. "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", a cover of a 1960s song by Herman's Hermits, broke both the UK Top 30[2] and US Top 20, as well as topping the adult contemporary chart.[3] "I Need to Be in Love" hit number 25 in the US[4] and number 36 in the UK.[2] "Goofus" was only a minor success, stalling at number 56 on the Billboard chart, though it did crack the adult contemporary top 10.[5]

John Bettis called "I Need to Be in Love" the favorite lyrics he ever wrote for Karen Carpenter. "If there was ever anything that came out of my heart straight to Karen's I would say that was it. I was very proud of it for that."[6] Richard Carpenter recalled that the song "became Karen's favorite Carpenters song".[1] The album was also the first not to have Karen playing drums on any tracks, which were performed by Los Angeles session drummer Jim Gordon (except two, "Goofus" and "Sandy," by Cubby O'Brien).

Despite being certified Gold, the album was a relative commercial disappointment in the US, where its chart peak was outside the Top 30.[7] Like its predecessor Horizon, it performed better in the UK, reaching number three in the UK Albums Chart. The CD has been out of print since 2006 except in the Japanese market.

While noting that there are occasional highlights, AllMusic's retrospective review was generally negative, calling the album "pleasant, well-sung, and well-played, but basically bland". They particularly criticized the selection of material and the overt similarity of the album's formula to that of previous Carpenters albums.[8]

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Slow Crush have excelled at creating a unique and entrancing atmosphere and sound on Hush. Building up an ambience that sinks in throughout the album, with each element blending together to create a radiant ball of sound. All of this comes together to create an emotive landscape that beckons to be revisited, and Slow Crush have crafted one that is well worth a visit.

They've never really overhauled their sound, but Asobi Seksu have still managed, with the release of Hush, to subvert my expectations three consecutive times. In 2003, a name that loosely translates to "casual sex" and a J-Pop-inspired album cover certainly didn't add up in my mind to "passable c. 1996 Lush pastiche." Three years hence, after I'd forgotten about them, they go and drop Citrus, either a feat of reinvention or maturation, depending on who you ask, but a minor miracle either way. I still find myself listening to the gauzy, slo-mo bubble-gum of "Thursday" once or twice a week: a John Hughes film-ending, "Kim & Jessie"-style jam, it retains the power to make a simple walk down the street intensely melodramatic (and is by itself better than anything Lush ever did). Now, another three years have passed, Citrus made me look forward to Hush, and here I am again, a bit perplexed. And not just because I can't figure out what those mysterious woodland creatures are surrounding Yuki Chikudate on the cover.

The last two album titles are instructive: Citrus was lively and sharp, while Hush too often refuses to rise above its inside voice. Now whittled down to the duo of Chikudate and James Hanna, Asobi Seksu have moved to the middle of Citrus' broad tonal palette rather than expanding upon its quietly experimental tendencies. "Me and Mary", for some reason buried at the end of the album like it's playing under the closing credits, is the most chipper tune they've ever recorded. It's also the most satisfying track on Hush because it doesn't simply suggest something without delivering; it's all bridge-chorus indulgence, something that the band is good at, and which the music itself suggests might be part of its DNA. Earlier, "In the Sky" and "Meh No Mae"-- essentially low-key rewrites of "Thursday"s gossamer, multiple-crescendo approach-- acquire much of their distinctiveness from being surrounded by opalescent mood pieces. And that's the thing: Hush uses the same tools as Citrus-- treated guitar arpeggios, wobbly organ drones, rumbling drums and Chikudate's piercing high soprano-- but recombines them in ways that don't add up to much that sticks.

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