Word abuse: lush

Music writers, repeat after me: I will not use lush to describe sumptuous abundance. I will not use lush to describe sumptuous abundance. I will not use lush to describe sumptuous abundance. Now continue this mantra until it soaks into the cobwebbed crevices of your brain and your underworked cerebellum rouses from its comatose slumber. Seriously: Unless you're referring to four '90s Brit shoegazers or a stinking drunk B-side player, you need to bury the word "lush" in a time capsule, dig a hole 7 feet under and let this overused adjective hibernate for a good coupla decades. This one-syllable cliche has invariably become the go-to word for lazy scribes to suggest the fullness of a band's sound. I conducted a highly scientific study of modern music magazines published in the United States and found that "lush" makes an appearance in 7 out of 10 album reviews. Ouch. Really - a plethora of alternatives will spice up your writing, and Thesaurus.com conveniently offers innumerable ways to avoid this victim of vocabulary apathy.