pt-paratroopa's Full Review: The Sensual World by Kate Bush
As a guy who always gravitated toward the wealth of piano-playing female singer-songwriters who have emerged since the early 1990's, including talented ladies such as Tori Amos, Fiona Apple and (formerly, i.e. before she became a conceited drama queen hell-bent on ruining her own band) Amy Lee, the name Kate Bush was hardly unknown to me. She's collaborated with the likes of David Gilmour and Peter Gabriel. She's influenced the likes of Bjork, PJ Harvey, and many more. Hell, she's even been covered by Pat Benatar, Placebo and Within Temptation! And, of course, it is Tori in particular who is frequently viewed as the 90's version of Bush, due in part to their shared unconventional art/alternative rock albums, narrative/confessional lyrics, and lovely voices. However, despite everything I just wrote in this paragraph, I held this shocking opinion for a long time:
Kate Bush sucked.
I made this assumption based off the first time I listened to her breakthrough hit, "Wuthering Heights" (from 1978's The Kick Inside). When I originally heard the song, I didn't understand the lyrics at all, thought that the production sounded extremely dated, and that Bush's voice, quite frankly, sounded more on-par with the cliched "screeching cat in heat" comparison than any other female singer I had ever heard at that point. However, when "Wow" (from her second album, Lionheart) was inexplicably included on the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, I really liked the dark style of the music, as well as the humor of the lyrics, conveyed by the song, and, though still hesitant about Kate's voice, I decided to keep my mind open until I heard more material.
From there, I slowly heard the singles of Kate's most popular album, 1985's Hounds of Love, one by one. It seemed as if that screechy voice I once detested on "Wuthering Heights" had developed over the years into a deeper, though still quirky, alto, and it was supported by more appealing writing and music. I finally caved and asked for the album for Christmas 2006; as it turns out, I really grew to love the album and haven't regretted my decision for a second. Though my appreciation for Bush was growing at this point, her infamy as a weirdo was always in the back of my mind and prevented me from buying another studio album with my own money. When I made my Christmas list for 2007, I impulsively tossed The Sensual World, the 1989 follow-up to Hounds of Love, which Kate, feeling that she had always made "masculine" music, described as an album getting in touch with her feminine side.
As it turns out, I really grew to love the album haven't regretted my decision for a second.
Song for song, this is easily one of Kate's best (which I can say after checking out more of her work). I suppose the most appropriate place to start would be with the single, and penultimate song on the CD version, "This Woman's Work." Between a cover version by R&B singer Maxwell and placement in the advertisements for the 2007-2008 season premiere of CSI (which was how I first heard the song, for which I am forever grateful, because this song was the reason I asked for this album), this is the most famous song on the record. Despite being "only" a Kate-and-her-piano ballad, the words, combined with the startling emotion in Kate's vocals, combined with the touching video, make this song a stand out. Detailing a husband's thoughts as his wife goes into labor, Kate subtly builds up the song, with her voice and piano gradually getting louder and more forceful. At the climax of the song, Kate, after her tone has become frustrated and nearly hysterical, takes a moment to stop everything, and then practically cries, "Ohhhh, darrrrlinggg, make it goooooo awayyyy, just make it goooo awayyyy nowwww."
Now, you can say what you will about Kate Bush's voice being too high and screechy on some of her earlier songs. But the Kate Bush who I love, the Kate Bush who captivates me, is in the final delivery of that particular lyric. It never fails to make my hairs stand on end. And this is not even my favorite song on this album, just to give you a clue regarding the level of talent on display here.
A song that seems to catch a lot of unwarranted hate, stemming mainly from the lyrics, would be "Heads We're Dancing," in which Bush's character spends the night dancing with a stranger, only to discover the next morning that he is, in fact, Adolf Hitler. Musically, this happens to be one of my favorites; catchy, beat-driven and more masculine than most of the other songs on the album, it has that undeniable "it" factor. But the real reason this song works is that Kate is somewhat playful in her narrative, explaining that Hitler was charming as they spent the night dancing together but, upon realizing his true nature, noting, "They say the devil is a charming man and, just like you, I bet he can dance."
"Deeper Understanding" details the events of a woman who, originally finding her only solace in a computer, eventually becomes so addicted to the machine that she ignores everything else in her life. This song demonstrates Kate's strong understanding of the human personality, as she accurately describes the phenomena of computer/internet addiction years before computers hit the mainstream and such events actually started happening. Bulgarian female vocal group Trio Bulgarka supplies background vocals that gives the song much of its painful tone and heartache.
This is personally the hardest song on this album to listen to because the story hits close to home on multiple levels. On one hand, as a person who was a basically loner in high school, I can relate to some of the events (except not to the extreme extent that the character eventually reaches) but, even more relevantly, my mom exhibited a lot of characteristics of the main character for several years, and I'm still not sure that my family has completely recovered from effects of her internet addiction. For the years of loneliness that my dad and I felt as my mom was glued to her computer, the following lyric sample, which is supposed to symbolize the computer "speaking" to the woman in the song, seems to take on a chilling double meaning:
"Hello, I know that you've been feeling tired...
Hello, I know that you're unhappy.
I bring you love and deeper understanding."
To summarize two long paragraphs and a lyrical sample, this song is brilliant.
Though this album has a couple of weaker moments, no song strikes me as uninteresting or "filler." "Between a Man and a Woman" examines how outside influences can contribute to the tensions in a relationship and, while not groundbreaking musically (as the melody starts out a bit goofy and the song flirts with falling into "80's adult contemporary" territory), is a nice showcase for Bush's ability compose story-driven lyrics: "Oh, I know you mean to help me, and I know you've good intentions, but stay out of this.""Reaching Out" is another ballad, this time about the desire to trust and depend on others, and, while not instantly memorable, is a grower that demonstrates the power and passion behind Bush's voice, as she stretches every word in "Reaching out for that hand" to impressive, yet sincere, lengths. "Walk Straight Down the Middle" is the weakest song here, included as a bonus track for the CD pressings, but it still provides a nice cool-down after the emotional outpouring at the end of "This Woman's Work," and it even manages to sound jazzy and soulful despite Kate trilling her voice like a Latin singer and giving us uncharacteristic ooohs (almost as in ____ baby).
However, just because Kate wants to demonstrate her femininity, it would be wrong to say that she's lost her sense of experimentation from previous albums. "The Fog" was the first song here that grabbed my interest, refusing to let go, and it's still my favorite today. Opening with Kate's father saying, "You're all grown up now," we launch into a reflection on growing up and learning to rely on your parents to get through difficulties. The specific example used is Kate's character swimming for the first time, and it's around that image that song provides an appropriately foggy, highly atmospheric musical background of strings and Irish woodwinds. Equally awe-inspiring is "Rocket's Tail," supposedly dedicated to Kate's cat, which starts out with a totally a capella section as Kate sings over an intricate web of vocals supplied by Trio Bulgarka. After about two minutes, the song shifts moods entirely and blasts into a dusky power ballad, complete with Kate making almost cat-like noises; to be brief, this song probably shouldn't work as well as I think it does.
Elsewhere, Bush experiments with world music with great success. The title track, which sees Kate's voice alternating between her most peaceful and most orgasmic, is given a lovely musical backbone by what sounds like bagpipes, sparse drum beats and additional folk instruments. Moody and relaxing, the song provided the image of Bush singing and dancing throughout a forest, during an autumn evening, even before I saw the video! "Never Be Mine," an achingly beautiful ode to unrequited love, uses much of the same Irish folk instrumentation to appeal to the listener's senses: when Bush speaks of "burning corn fields," you really get an unsettling sense of heat and smokiness during exceptionally cold dusk hours. After the climax of the song (I want you as the dream / Not the reality... happy without me), the Trio Bulgarka provide another magnificent vocal passage to match the tone of the song. Kudos to Kate for finding and recruiting these talented women.
Last, and certainly not least, "Love and Anger" is the most musically accessible song, featuring full instrumentation, a catchy chorus and a guest guitar solo by Bush's friend and mentor, Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd. I suppose it's true when people say that the opening seconds of a song are important in forming a listener's initial impression: when I first heard this song, I wasn't all that excited because it takes about forty-five seconds to reach the chorus and really get going. Once it does hit its stride, however, the strong melody and Kate's performance, full of mmmmms and layered "What would we do without you?"s, before breaking down into a choir-like chorus on the bridge, entertains me so much that I can overlook the somewhat cryptic lyrics. (Apparently the song is about unexpressed love, but I don't really sense that.) It peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock charts for three weeks, becoming Kate's only US chart-topper, for good reason.
When Kate named this album The Sensual World, she knew what she was doing. Building off the balance between experimentation and accessibility that she nailed on Hounds of Love, this album is absolutely wonderful regarding Kate's vocal projection, universal storytelling and atmospheric music. I wish I could say that my five-star rating was because the album is "new" to me or because it was the first Kate album I received after the wonderful Hounds. In my most of my other reviews, I've bumping up my ratings because I liked the artist and didn't want to hand them merely four-stars. Hell, I even like Kate Bush a lot, as a musician and as a human being, and would feel pretty bad about giving her only four stars on something that took four years to create!
But for my money The Sensual World just isn't a four-star album. I must have listened to all of these songs dozens of times now, or even more times than that for songs like "Love and Anger," "Rocket's Tail," "This Woman's Work," and "The Fog," and I can still sit through each and every song on this album with the idea of using the skip button never entering my mind. In fact, I've even grown to love this album even more than Kate's so-called greatest masterpieces (if you want to name names, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love). As much as I adore Hounds of Love, it just doesn't tuck me to sleep on a cold winter's light the way The Sensual World does.
In other words, I'm sorry I ever doubted the lovely and talented Kate Bush.
Recommended for fans of prog/art rock (such as Gabriel), female singer-songwriter pianists (such as Amos) and more.
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