If you had expected the soft thoughtful introduction of previous albums (or future albums, come to that), the first moments of The Dreaming would come as a huge surprise. Big, bad drums wallop out a devastating tribal rhythm, and Kate's voice, deep at first, very quickly rises to an angry shriek. Instinctively one senses her pent up creative frustration, given glorious and immediate release in "Sat In Your Lap", the opening number. The first of her albums to be produced by Kate herself shows that, in every way, she is pushing the boat out. "Hey, I'm gonna take it all!" A note on the CD packaging tells the listener that it was made to be played LOUD! Great advice. I'd better close the windows though, or the neighbours will think I've gone nuts.
"Sat In Your Lap" ends abruptly, with a set of staccato blasts, and "There Goes a Tenner" follows on immediately. It's a slightly more subdued, but still very eccentric, stop-start number about a bank robbery. It alternates comically between abrupt piano, brass and drums, and a completely different, dreamlike chorus.
Meandering rhythms next, coupled ominously with low, sinister and unhinged backing vocals, traffic noises and unearthly shrieks and wails. "Pull Out The Pin". A helicopter, jungle noises and madly escalating chords, wander off into infinity. They do so madly, wildly and effectively. All are woven together
in a chaotic but, somehow, coherent whole: Kate's anti-war stance finds new expression, as she describes the sights and sounds experienced by a frontline soldier.
There is a totally unexpected change. "Pull Out The Pin" fades slowly, slowly into obscurity, and "Suspended in Gaffa" firmly grasps the baton. From the outset, I've instantly formed a picture of a bespectacled schoolmistress sitting, prim and proper, at the piano, banging out a kooky waltz. I laugh out loud, then gasp as the joyous mandolins strike up, ushering in in a booming chorus. We're transported back from the horror and desperation of Vietnam to, perhaps, a quaint little village somewhere with everyone dancing hippy-dippy round the maypole. The theme is of longing and denial, "Can I have it all? We can't have it all. But, here, can I have it all now?" The vibe here is so surreal that it's possible to conjure up almost any mental picture. Kate has been quoted as saying that she loves the listener to form their own impressions, not necessarily to be rigidly tied down to the intention of the artist. Music is pure emotion: it doesn't make sense to say that someone doesn't "get" it.
The mad jollity is replaced by an angry and obstinate-sounding crash. "Leave It Open" introduces warped vocals, flitting disturbingly between a low distorted croak and a high-pitched girlish squeak. "Narrow mind will persecute it..." she chants menacingly. This is the most extreme of all so far, and the point at which, I can imagine, opinion among listeners will become utterly polarised. From, "Oh no, what on Earth has she done!" to "This is the most daring, exciting and groundbreaking she's ever been." I fall definitely into the latter category, though I can understand a reaction of disappointment, or even dismay, from people who feel that the harsh experimentation stamps all over the gentleness and vulnerablity of the past three albums.
Rolf Harris booms out with the didgeridoo, and Kate slips into a cockney drawl. The raw gutsy title track The Dreaming pulls no punches, again taking it to the limit. Bleating sheep, surreal aboriginal chants and ever-present clanking echoes make this is a mental, demanding and unrelenting joy to experience. She captures the very essence of aboriginal anger at past injustice.
The Australian blast continues into the next track, whereupon it is enhanced by the mysterious notes of a gypsy fiddle. What's this, though? A simple piano once more, high tortured vocals soaring, glorious, into the air; then sinking into a soft whisper. All the fiery barriers of anger, frustration and defiance are, for a moment, drawn aside, revealing Kate simplified and childlike, the lovely being whose gentle voice graced "The Kick Inside", "Lionheart" and "Never For Ever". Yet the vision lasts only for brief seconds, as "Night of the Swallow" whips in with its fiddles, Uillean pipes and string bass. I am taken, high, high above the rooftops on a crazy, impossible and marvellous journey. "Though pigs can fly, they'll never find me posing as the night...and I'm home before the morning."
"All the Love" begins quietly, with a sombre baseline and soft secretive percussion. Eerily effective, a choirboy adds his beautiful crystal voice to the chorus. The lyrics are uncomfortable, sinister and chilling. Perhaps this is the darkest song on the album, with its theme of dying and forced departure. The procession of strange telephone voices at the end adds to the creepy drama.
As if to comfort the listener after this icy affair, her voice climbs a half-octave, jettisoning the anger and becoming kind, warm and welcoming. "Houdini" is the nearest we come to "old" Kate, and this time we have more than a glimpse of her soft side. We are at a seance, described poetically and wonderingly. "Not even eternity can hold Houdini". An ethereal flip-flop beat reveals her frustrations and fear once again - this album is "The Dreaming" after all - and her voice once more becomes coarse and distraught.
The devastating finale of the album reveals it in its complete, uncompromising utter madness. The fullness of her anger has returned with a vengeance, with a crash, with shrieking and snarling, with power and drama. "Get Out of My House" she screams, and dreams up every possible way of banishing the intruder. "I will not let you in, I face towards the wind, I change into the mule..." And she does. The bellowingly insane donkey braying at the album's conclusion is the most awesome moment of all.
Like so many works of genius, it's quite possible to misunderstand The Dreaming: in which case the wonder of it could fly right over someone's head. It's also entirely possible - and probable - that those people who hitherto had only experienced her gentler tones and relatively mild musical experiments, could be horrified. Yet this is part of the album's great strength.
Not for the faint-hearted, this daring musical kaleidoscope is nevertheless, for many, the finest musical journey she has ever taken.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Radical, ingenious compositions and arrangements, a motherlode of invention! Disadvantages: Not for everyone; as with Kate's other albums, TIME will reveal the surreal beauty of these works.
zerbine28 15.11.2003 (15.11.2003)
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Review of Dreaming, The - Kate Bush
Advantages: Radical, ingenious compositions and arrangements, a motherlode of invention! Disadvantages: Not for everyone; as with Kate's other albums, TIME will reveal the surreal beauty of these works.
zerbine28 15.11.2003 (15.11.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dreaming, The - Kate Bush
Advantages: Intelligent, adventurous and several of her most impressive singles are featured Disadvantages: Pretentious and typically eccentric at times, if people want to be picky...and Kate Bush is probably an acquired taste
EnglishPatient 08.03.2001 (08.03.2001)
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Review of Hounds Of Love - KateBush
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