Given her long silences, it's been a virtual hurricane of activity
in the Kate Bush world of late. This decade has seen her rework some of
her material into a whole new album (Director's Cut), release another
new one (50 Words For Snow), return to the stage for a limited run of
London shows, and put out a full live album from that. Now comes the big
bonanza, box sets of her entire studio work, vinyl or CD, remastered.
The first set has arrived, covering the early years, and the rest will
show up in a couple of weeks.
On CD, Remastered
Part 1 covers her first seven studio albums, ending with 1993's The Red
Shoes, when she took a 12-year break. This is certainly her most
popular era, which peaked in 1985 with the huge success of Hounds Of
Love. Many of us had already become devotees by then, right from her
first notes heard in 1978, from the remarkable album The Kick Inside.
While those two are her very best I'd venture, every album she's made is
fascinating and worth owning and lingering over. This is a great way to
fill holes in your collection and dive in. It's certainly rekindled my
interest.
The Kick Inside was certainly like
nothing else in 1978, and there really hasn't been anyone similar to
Bush since. Still in her teens, a prodigy brought to light by Dave
Gilmour of Pink Floyd, she was certainly out of time with those punk
years of England, singing about Wuthering Heights and strange phenomena
and imitating a saxophone, with a voice that stretched over a couple of
octaves and pierced the soul. She wasn't a child or an adult, more like a
sprite, feeling very British circa 19th century at times, modern at
others, and above all, sensual in all aspects. Songs such as The Man
With The Child In His Eyes and Them Heavy People remain powerful
favourites.
Follow-up Lionheart came very fast,
that same year, since Bush had plenty of songs stored up. While it
includes gems such as Oh England My Lionheart and Symphony In Blue, it
wasn't quite as commanding as the debut. But it did get a little louder
and less fanciful, with big rockers Hammer Horror and Don't Push Your
Foot On The Heartbreak proving she could dish it out in the volume
department.
A short break (for her) followed,
and in 1980 she was back with a vengeance and a lot of growth. Bush was
now producing herself, and much of the lushness of her early work was
gone. Now she was making big songs and big sounds, and the album Never
For Ever was her first to feature the Fairlight synthesizer, which she
used to great advantage over the next several albums. She continued with
fascinating songwriting, coming up with full narratives in four minutes
for hits such as Breathing, Army Dreamers and Babooshka. A huge hit in
England, it made her the top female artist of her day in that country.
On
a roll, Bush followed up with The Dreaming in 1982, and while a hit, it
was more experimental, especially in its second half. She looked to
other cultures for sounds, bits she could sample and layer on with the
Fairlight. Her voice was lowering as well, giving her a more cinematic
feel, which worked well with her story-songs, such as There Goes A
Tenner, which feel like movies. That would work well on her next album.
The
Hounds Of Love hit at the heyday of MTV, and Bush's visual imagery was
ripe for the medium. Her own hits, The Big Sky, Running Up That Hill and
especially Cloudbusting, as well as her memorable duet with Peter
Gabriel on Don't Give Up, made her a star in North America as well, and
the album was another #1 in England, and on the best-of-the-year lists
for many critics. It was easier to digest after the experimental The
Dreaming, with the first half devoted to those catchy tracks. But side
two saw her going back to conceptualization, as she presented a suite
called The Ninth Wave, about someone floating adrift in the ocean. With
all its parts and voices, it's a fascinating listen.
With
success comes freedom, and for Bush that meant working at her own
leisurely pace. It was a full four years until her next release, The
Sensual World, and now she was emboldened to create a full album in the
vein of The Ninth Wave. She picked up on the James Joyce novel Ulysses
and rich and sensuous language, how it could be hypnotic and exciting.
Sounds became as important as lyrics and melodies, and she incorporated
Irish instruments and dialogue, and in a brilliant move, brought in the
vocals of The Trio Bulgarka from Bulgaria. While none of the tracks were
hits you could hum, this was stuff to take home and study and get lost
in.
A further four years went by before The Red
Shoes, another conceptual piece, also accompanied by a short film, The
Lion, The Cross and The Curve. The album takes its name from the 1948
British film, about a dancer who can't take off her shoes, but the
visuals aren't important to the music. The songs are much more
straightforward and self-contained, especially the single Rubberband
Girl. It's a funky, sensual number obviously indebted to Prince, who
shows up as a collaborator on another track, Why Should I Love You? Eric
Clapton appears as well, and it seemed Bush might be edging back to the
pop world. Nope. She instead disappeared for a full 12 years. But
that's another box set.
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