Er, what more can I say other than I have an incurable and irrational addiction to 80's things...
Er, what more can I say other than I have an incurable and irrational addiction to 80's things...
Member since:24.08.2001
Reviews:95
Members who trust:27
Recently, viewers of VH1 had the opportunity to vote for who they thought were the best female singers ever. In typical contemporary list-compiling style, modern artists like Anastacia and Nelly Furtado were deemed to be better than the likes of Billie Holliday and Dionne Warwick, whilst 21 year old Britney Spears was riding high in the Top 10, mixing it with Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner.
The only British artists to accompany Britney et al in the crème de la crème was Kate Bush, a somewhat surprising appearance for an artist notorious in keeping a low profile, and who hasn't released a song in 8 years.
Born in 1958, she burst onto the scene as a teenager in the late 70's and has made seven studio albums. The highlights from the five can be found on this compilation, 'The Whole Story', which was first released in 1986.
The opener to the collection is 'Wuthering Heights', her five minute masterpiece that sounds unlike anything that was made before or after it. Appearing here in a slightly altered format to the single version which reached Number One in 1978, it is a showpiece for her almost operatic voice and is capable of sending a chill down the spine every time you hear it with its sweeping orchestral atmospherics. Reaching octaves higher than you can imagine, Bush's interpretation
of the love story in the book of the same name is one of the most passionate and colourful songs I've ever heard, although it is loved and hated by people in equal measures.
Next up is 'Cloudbusting', which is a slightly more laid-back affair that became even more well-known following the release of the Utah Saints' dance anthem 'Something Good', which heavily sampled it. Pleasant if not spectacular, it leads into the short and sweet 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes'. Another track she recorded whilst a teenager, it is a bare and simple song who's tinkling piano and fragile childlike vocals give the feel of a music-box.
Another dramatic, stagy track comes in the form of 'Breathing', an eerie affair that you can almost picture her acting out before your eyes. Like most of her other tracks, it is underproduced and sparse, but instead of feeling half-finished, the track emphasises the unique quality of her glass-shattering voice.
'Wow' sounds a little more polished, and sounds like a number from a musical. Whilst the chorus of 'wow, wow, wow, wow, unbelievable!' appears to make 'No Limit' by 2 Unlimited as the epitome of creative songwriting, it still sounds unlike any artist who was around at the time.
'Hounds of Love' marked a more mature and adult sound that seemed to be a bit less rough around the edges compared to some of her other songs. Featuring what sounds like dog noises, it is a bit more poppy and commercial than her earlier work too. Taken from the album of the same name, it is a song all about craving protection, and was one of her bigger hits of the 1980's.
'Running Up That Hill' was her comeback song in 1985, and became her biggest hit since 'Wuthering Heights'. Like 'Hounds Of Love' and other tracks off that album, the song felt more accessible than the stripped down sound of her previous recordings. One of her best singles, it has a driving rhythm that makes sound dynamic and shows that her vocal style compliments many different styles of arrangement.
Being typically unorthodox and not compiling this anthology in chronological order, we go back to 1980 for the seventh track, 'Army Dreamers', a song all about premature death due to War. With some cutting lyrics reflecting on the regrets of a mother of a dead soldier about how he could have led his life differently, it displays once again the music-box, ethereal quality seen on many of her other earlier works.
The opening track to her 'The Dreaming' album, 'Sat In Your Lap' is a frantically paced track about wanting to gain knowledge quickly without the learning. Originally, the single featured Bush wearing a dunce's cap on the front cover, and although it reached #11 in the charts, it is an eclectic and bizarre track that seemed a bit out of step with many of her contemporaries at the time.
The most modern song on the album, 'Experiment IV' is one of the few tracks to feature a guitar. Its lyrics featuring music and war are a bit confusing, and it's possibly the weakest track on offer here. Arguably a bolder experiment was her use of Aboriginal music in 'The Dreaming', which opens with the classic line 'Bang goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van'. Sounding like a novelty, although this was probably not her intention, it does have curiosity value purely for the obscure occasional outbursts and diverse array of instruments contained within in that makes it sound like a jamming session at Ularu...
The album is rounded up by the seminal 'Babooshka', a cleverly crafted tale of a woman who masquerades as a younger woman to test her husband's fidelity. Whilst the art of storytelling in a song seemed to end at Richard Marx's river-killing ballad 'Hazard' (did he kill her in the end, or was he innocent, leaving her by the river safe and sound? Anyway, I digress...), it demostrates that Bush performs best in songs where she plays a character rather than in the more experimental and ambient pieces. It also features that underused sample of breaking glass too...
The album is a great introduction to an artist who is very much an acquired taste, but surprisingly popular in the mainstream considering her hermit lifestyle and dislike of the press. Whilst there are a few songs that maybe aren't quite up to the standard of her classic singles like 'Wuthering Heights', there are no major omissions except for maybe 'Don't Give Up', although this was probably left out on the grounds that most of the vocals were Peter Gabriel's...
One of those albums that you can probably pick up quite cheaply on Ebay or in a High-Street sale, it comes highly recommended to anyone wanting to investigate Bush's sound more thoroughly, or if they fancy something a little bit different...
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'Out on the wiley windy moors...'...what a classic. I remember this album from the late 80's but would be great to have on CD. Would be even better if it had Don't Give Up on it though!
Maglette 17.01.2003 08:30
Fantastic op! Maggie x
ickkate 13.01.2003 14:41
You know, I don't recall ever having listened too much Bush - great one Stoffy!
Advantages: Lyrics and orchestration are absolutely fantastic. They are also open to individual interpretation. Disadvantages: It would be nice if it was a little longer
Jan 12th, 2003
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