(no subject)
I've been listening a lot to Kate Bush recently. According to my Dad, you had to have been a teenage boy in 1978 to really appreciate her. I'm not sure that's true, but it probably explains the almost religious attitude men of certain age have the her - a devotion that isn't really justified by her output. I have been told, and there is no reason to doubt it, that her first single, Wuthering Heights, for the first time in the spring of 1978 was like a bolt of lightning on a summer's day. It has certainly survived the test of time, and sounds just as fresh and original today. Initially it was thought of as a novelty single, but she quickly showed that she was no one-hit wonder with her debut album The Kick Inside. It is a remarkably polished and accomplished album and rates as one of her best.
The follow up album, Lionheart (178) is also pretty good, though doesn't have an impact song of the quality of Wuthering Heights. Lionheart though did hint to a darker side to her music that would find fruition in her next three albums. Never Forever (1980) is arguably the weakest of her first six albums, but includes the extraordinary Breathing and the brilliant Army Dreamers, which were both released as singles. On Violin it also featured her last performance of the high-pitched vocal gymnastics that made her famous; sadly her addiction to smoking meant that from this point on she had to sing lower and her high notes became shrieks. Songs like Breathing pointed the way to the nightmare vision of her next album The Dreaming (1982), which is my personal favourite. It polarises opinion more than any other of her albums - on Amazon it is usually rated with either five stars or one. Many consider it her best; other's can't stand it. It is a noisy, discordant album (though with moments of beauty) culminating in the pure musical theatre of Get Out Of My House, arguably her finest moment.
Many lamented at the time, "where have all the songs gone?". Well, the answer was on to her next album Hounds Of Love (1985), which brought her her biggest commercial success. Songs such as Running Up That Hill, Hounds Of Love and Cloudbursting gave her a succession of hit singles. The second side of the album though was much darker, consisting of the suite The Ninth Wave about somebody drowning at sea.
Her sixth album, Sensual World (1989) is a decent enough album, and her use of the Balkan singers The Trio Bulgarka gave it a different feel, but it lacked the power and experimentation of its predecessors. After that it all went south very quickly. Her seventh album, 1993's The Red Shoes is shockingly bad, with only one song in my opinion, Lily, which would have be worthy of inclusion on any of her earlier albums. The fact that stickers on the album boasted of "featuring Lenny Henry on background vocals" showed that they were scraping the barrel.
There was a 12-year gap between that and 2005's Aerial, during which time her mystique and legend grew. Sadly though that is also pretty dire, begging the question of why she bothered releasing it at all. She has, allegedly, battled weight problems for most of her career, which is said to be one of the reasons she hasn't played live since the early 1980s. It has to be said though, she was absolutely lovely when she was younger.
Other albums currently at the top of the my CD pile include, Muse - The Resistance, Emilie Autumn - Opheliac, the eponymous début albums by Courtyard Hounds and Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Sigur Ros - We Play Endlessly and Renee Fleming's non-crossover (allegedly) album, Dark Hope (which is excellent).
Finally, I can't think of a better way to end than with a picture of Ms Autumn. Can you?
The follow up album, Lionheart (178) is also pretty good, though doesn't have an impact song of the quality of Wuthering Heights. Lionheart though did hint to a darker side to her music that would find fruition in her next three albums. Never Forever (1980) is arguably the weakest of her first six albums, but includes the extraordinary Breathing and the brilliant Army Dreamers, which were both released as singles. On Violin it also featured her last performance of the high-pitched vocal gymnastics that made her famous; sadly her addiction to smoking meant that from this point on she had to sing lower and her high notes became shrieks. Songs like Breathing pointed the way to the nightmare vision of her next album The Dreaming (1982), which is my personal favourite. It polarises opinion more than any other of her albums - on Amazon it is usually rated with either five stars or one. Many consider it her best; other's can't stand it. It is a noisy, discordant album (though with moments of beauty) culminating in the pure musical theatre of Get Out Of My House, arguably her finest moment.
Many lamented at the time, "where have all the songs gone?". Well, the answer was on to her next album Hounds Of Love (1985), which brought her her biggest commercial success. Songs such as Running Up That Hill, Hounds Of Love and Cloudbursting gave her a succession of hit singles. The second side of the album though was much darker, consisting of the suite The Ninth Wave about somebody drowning at sea.
Her sixth album, Sensual World (1989) is a decent enough album, and her use of the Balkan singers The Trio Bulgarka gave it a different feel, but it lacked the power and experimentation of its predecessors. After that it all went south very quickly. Her seventh album, 1993's The Red Shoes is shockingly bad, with only one song in my opinion, Lily, which would have be worthy of inclusion on any of her earlier albums. The fact that stickers on the album boasted of "featuring Lenny Henry on background vocals" showed that they were scraping the barrel.
There was a 12-year gap between that and 2005's Aerial, during which time her mystique and legend grew. Sadly though that is also pretty dire, begging the question of why she bothered releasing it at all. She has, allegedly, battled weight problems for most of her career, which is said to be one of the reasons she hasn't played live since the early 1980s. It has to be said though, she was absolutely lovely when she was younger.
Other albums currently at the top of the my CD pile include, Muse - The Resistance, Emilie Autumn - Opheliac, the eponymous début albums by Courtyard Hounds and Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Sigur Ros - We Play Endlessly and Renee Fleming's non-crossover (allegedly) album, Dark Hope (which is excellent).
Finally, I can't think of a better way to end than with a picture of Ms Autumn. Can you?