Whole Story, The - Kate Bush > Reviews > Wow - the woman with the spirit in her eyes

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Great songs, Great talent
Disadvantages:	Sometimes a bit out there

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Mad, staring, wide open eyes ... manic, sensual, elegant, gorgeous ... from Banshee to Diva ... the Kate Bush magic has touched the world and left it very, very frightened ... a staggering, headstrong beast of a woman and yet at the same time as fragile as a daisy ... talent pours out of every orifice!

Bush is a wonderful phenomenon who has been extremely quiet of late, but for a time between 1978 and 1986 she was one of the most important acts in the entire world, a gorgeous, theatrical, swooning talent who wrote some of the strongest songs of the early 80's.

This album captures the very best of her recorded works (although her duet with Peter Gabriel is sadly absent) and serves to remind you exactly how awesome she was at her peak.

She was born in July 1958 in Kent, the youngest of three children and studied violin and piano at an early age and started writing her own material when she was just 14. Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour heard some of her home recorded demo tapes and in 1975 paid for and supervised a professional recording session at AIR London studios. Two of the three songs, 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes' and 'Saxophone Song', were to appear on her debut album, 'The Kick Inside', in 1978. The session tapes held Kate clinch a deal with the massive EMI Records, but they strangely chose to carefully nurture her amazing talent for three years before any recorded output was forthcoming.

Her first release was the extraordinary 'Wuthering Heights' single, released in January 1978, and a major No 1 hit single, an amazing piece of work which captivated a loyal following yet estranged many more musical fans. One reviewer at the time noted that she sounded like 'a female turkey having its neck wrung'. However, over the next few years she built up a massive following with albums like 'Never For Ever', 'The Dreaming' and 'Hounds Of Love'.

It took her a long time to start performing live but when she finally did so, she produced an amazing theatrical show of some power and wonder and it has always been visually that she has really made sense. This greatest hits album is best enjoyed as a collection of videos - that's not to say that there is anything wrong with the songs - far from it, for this is an amazingly strong body of work - but it's just she is very much a visual artist and conveys such power through the picture.

She has always been a wild and bewitching talent, centring her subject matter on all sorts of highly unusual subjects like rape, abortion and incest, and has dealt in very imaginative ways with such odd material and used highly individual musical backing. 'The Dreaming' featured Rolf Harris on diggeridoo and animal impressionist Percy Edwards - phew, rock and roll!!!!

Many of her albums were patchily infuriating, mixing extraordinarily wonderful material with others which were disappointing and wide of the mark, but this is not a criticism that could be levelled at 'The Whole Story', at last the perfect Kate Bush recording....

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'Wuthering Heights'
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Piercing, majestic, musical homage to Emily Bronte's startling novel of ghostly love on the moors, this was a massive hit single and totally, wonderfully unique, introducing Kate Bush to an unbelieving world. Even today, 23 years later, it's a startling piece of work with that chilling vocal performance and its grandiose intentions. Bush's swooping and soaring vocal went roaming freely all over the place over a track driven mainly by her own piano playing. It builds from an understated and quiet opening into a huge, operatic piece that rattles the shutters and wakes the dead. This represents a unique moment in rock history and if she had never done anything else 'Wuthering Heights' would have still stood as a masterpiece, at the same time romantic and mysterious.
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'Cloudbusting'
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Lifted from 1985's 'Hounds Of Love', this was a minor Top Twenty hit about a rainmaker who is run out of town and works in isolation with his daughter to make the rain come. Not one of Bush's best songs but pleasant enough. It builds from a simple strummed violin opening into an enormous, driving wall of sound and overdubbed vocals as the song progresses to the storm at the end.
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'The Man With The Child In His Eyes'
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This was one of Bush's earliest compositions and is another haunting, sombre piece which shows off her vocal talents to perfection. A No 6 hit. As with many of Bush's songs, it kicks off with just voice and piano before solitary strings start to take up the call, but this track stays rooted as a slow and moody piece, reflective and thoughtful.
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'Breathing'
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A spectacular and very thoughtful song which tells the story of an unborn child who witnesses the dropping of the atom bomb from within a mother's womb. It's uncomfortable stuff and painted into an extraordinary song which is one of Bush's most memorable, with backing being very much overshadowed by story and voice. Chilling atmospheres are built up by piano and strings and far off, almost military drum figures.
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'Wow'
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This song originated in the teasing that Bush faced from the music press because of her innocent off stage persona. She used to trade regularly in old hat clichés like 'groovy', 'amazing' and 'wow' and chose to piece together a song consisting almost entirely of such words in an ironic debunking of cynical hacks.
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'Hounds Of Love'
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Gorgeous pop song, the title track from her 1985 album which was avowedly more commercial than its immediate predecessor, the experimental 'The Dreaming'. It wasn't a major hit, but it should have been. Echoing, far off tom toms drive a great understated rock backing which features fiercely jamming strings over insistent riffing.
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'Running Up That Hill'
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This was the first single released from 'Hounds Of Love' and it stormed up to No 3 in the charts, re-establishing Bush as a major artist in the charts after a lengthy fallow period. It kicks off with wonderful skewy synth lines over insistent and driving drum patterns and builds into a classic Bush single, all about making a deal with God.
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'Army Dreamers'
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Arguably the greatest song that Kate Bush ever recorded, a powerful denunciation of war delivered in a lilting and low key Irish style over camera shutter clicks and almost music box melody. The fragility and understatement of the music and the vocal delivery cannot fully disguise the barbed and burning words.
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'Sat In Your Lap'
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This was an extraordinary piece of work and a startling departure from previous efforts, relying heavily on synths and a powerful, funky backing with a much more strident vocal than ever before. It was a massive, massive sound, gripping and intense and almost overpowering in its thump.
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'Experiment IV'
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A very, very slight and unremarkable song about not a great deal... it sounds quite mysterious but it is not really very diverting.
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'The Dreaming'
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This song was an amazing atmospheric piece, pleading the case of the Australian Aborigine and creating an almost claustrophobic little world of its own. Mean, moody and magnificent. It's a tribal sound with an eerie and plainly weird vocal which just sounds incredible. I remember the video, all dark shades and shadows as being particularly gripping.
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'Babooshka'
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The story of a woman trying to reawaken the love of her husband with all sorts of erotic intrigues. It's gorgeous, strident, massive pop with Bush as a kind of Boadicea.