Kate Bush

[Xenu]

So I realized, a little while back, that I have basically no music from female artists in my collection. As I kinda like Tori Amos, therefore, I decided to do something proper and investigate the Sexed Up British Schoolmarm herself, Kate Bush.

Having downloaded a few albums, I'm actually fairly pleased; sure, her production is pure eighties most of the times (as are her videos), and many of her synth samples sound like they were used in a few SNES games, but I do like her approach and many of her songs are fairly strong.

Thus, then, I shall BUY SOME ALBUMS.

But.

The domestic CDs are pretty bare-bones, and while they sound *OK*, I have to wonder whether those imports with bonus tracks sound better. That said, '97 vintage EMI remasters immediately make me suspicious. Can anybody shed some light on this situation? Do I attempt to track down the domestic Dreaming/Never For Ever/Hounds for cheap, or get the UK imports?

[Patrick M]

I've tried to get into Kate Bush (figuratively, not literally) a couple of times, to no avail. I have quite a few Tori albums, but I don't listen to them much, for some reason.

I do really dig Kate's backing vocals on "Don't Give Up," though.

[Xenu]

It might be a very, very acquired thing...FWIW, I had three of her albums sitting on my harddrive for ages before I suddenly started liking a few songs.

She's certainly too much at times, and as I mentioned her "SNES-synth" (tho I like that sort of thing sometimes) can be a bit, uh, dated, but still...

And heck, shrieking out the Wuthering Heights refrain at inopportune moments can be all sorts of fun.

[JJ3810]

AS you might have already guessed, the imports really do sound MUCH better than the domestics and are certainly worth the extra $$$$.

[Rspaight]

From the "better late than never" department, I asked a Kate Bush fan friend of mine who owned both the original domestic CDs and the "old" imports (by way of the cool This Woman's Work box), and he said there was no significant difference. That's totally useless for your question, of course, since the box predates the UK remasters, but if you want relevant answers, you're gonna have to pay better.

Ryan

[Xenu]

Ehh. I'm just gonna go with the domestics (which tend to be available used for ~$3 anyway).

Japan just released a "Dreaming/Lionheart" twofer, but it's copy-controlled. What a brilliant idea.

[TSmithPage]

Start with Hounds of Love and go from there. If you've already determined you like her, just skip to the box set, which gives you her best work, like the first 6 or so CDs plus a CD of rarities that can't be bought elsewhere. I wouldv'e gone that route but already had them all and couldn't justify the expense for just the rarities record. Kate is definitely an acquired taste but she's one of my all-time favorite female vocalists. She only puts out a new record about every 10 years so her catalogue is easy to acquire. Other than Hounds of Love, I liked her first two records best. Oddly enough, a discovery of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

[Xenu]

David Gilmour has done some interesting things.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, I've determined that while Hounds is OK, I like the first few albums better (Hounds is a bit...unforgivably eighties).

I was wondering about the quality of the import versions versus the domestic--as Bruce Eder seems to love the imports--but barring remixes, I can't imagine these albums sounding much different than they already do.

Which is, uh, eighties.

[krabapple]

So I realized, a little while back, that I have basically no music from female artists in my collection. As I kinda like Tori Amos, therefore, I decided to do something proper and investigate the Sexed Up British Schoolmarm herself, Kate Bush.

Having downloaded a few albums, I'm actually fairly pleased; sure, her production is pure eighties most of the times (as are her videos), and many of her synth samples sound like they were used in a few SNES games, but I do like her approach and many of her songs are fairly strong.

Thus, then, I shall BUY SOME ALBUMS.

But.

The domestic CDs are pretty bare-bones, and while they sound *OK*, I have to wonder whether those imports with bonus tracks sound better. That said, '97 vintage EMI remasters immediately make me suspicious. Can anybody shed some light on this situation? Do I attempt to track down the domestic Dreaming/Never For Ever/Hounds for cheap, or get the UK imports?

<shrug> I have the late-90s EMI remastered Hounds of Love , with the bonus tracks, in the slipcase. Bought it in Tokyo circa '97 . Sounds OK to me. I sold the original a long time ago, so can't really compare, though I recollect the remaster is louder. Everything else of hers I have -- which only means Dreaming & Sensual World -- is standard issue (wait, strike that, Dreaming is a British import I found used in the early 90s -- if someone flacs me a track from the standard US issue, I'llbe happy to compare them). The tiitle track of SW is one of my all time favorites, btw..what a sexy song. I think Christgau wrote that it would give Henry James a woodie. And Kate herself back in the day...quelle fox. But I can tolerate only about three songs of Kate at any given time. After that her mannerisms just grate on me . Ditto Tori, though I can only stomach two of her tunes in a row...and never bought anyof her albums.

[Xenu]

I actually have both UK and US copies on CD of The Dreaming, as well (got both for under $4. The UK has a nicer booklet). They're digitally identical. Bruce Eder is just full of shit, I think; it seems as if every CD copy of the pre-Hounds catalogue is identical.

Regarding the actual quality of her work: I'm torn between really, really liking her songwriting and general approach to music, and generally feeling lukewarm about its actual presentation. Take "The Kick Inside." I generally like the album. It's a solid debut. But I will freely admit to preferring her "earlier" vocal style (the one on "Saxophone Song" and "The Man with the Child in His Eyes") to the histrionic excess of "Wuthering Heights." Additionally, the performances on TKI/Lionheart are just so, *so* 70s-studio-musician MOR, and only occasionally rise above that standard ("Oh! To Be In Love" and "Hammer Horror," f'ristance).

"Never Forever" begins to get more interesting, production-wise. While I don't particularly care for many of the songs on Side 1 ("Blow Away (For Bill)") I think the second side is exquisite.

And then we get to The Dreaming. My favorite Kate product by *far*. She suddenly realizes how to produce great, atmospheric work with production that isn't MOR shlock. True, some of the arrangements are a bit much, and Kate's production here is amateurish (the entire thing could do with a thorough remix, I wager), but it isn't oppressively eighties, so that's OK. Even the B-side from this era (a fucking DONOVAN COVER) is fantastic.

"Hounds of Love". Everyone else on earth loves it. I don't care for it at all, really, save "Mother Stands for Comfort," "Cloudbursting" and "Under Ice." I see "Sensual World" as being a largely-successful attempt at regaining a modicrum of artistic respectability after the Hounds semi-sellout to Eighties hell. The production is less insipid, there's some actual variety in the song styles, and "Never Be Mine" kicks ass. Not to mention that half of the samples on "Sensual" sound like SNES patches.

"Red Shoes." Ehh.

[krabapple]

The Dreaming was "Kate listens to Peter Gabriel's 'Security' album' -- that Synclaiver stuff sounds *quite* 80's to me. But still her weirdest one, for sure.

As for Hounds, the only tracks I *don't* like are 'Hello Earth' (the name alone should have anyone with even a nanosmidgen of sense skip it) 'And Dream of Sheep' (too twee for words) and 'Cloudbursting' (just doesn't do much for me).

Sensual World, alas, has maybe two killer tracks -- and was rather disappointing after HoL (I distinctly remember the shop-employee blurb for it , taped to the promo posterfor SW in the window of one of AnnArbor's shop windows at the time. 'Here's Kate! She's GREAT! The new album is..OK!' My thoughts exactly) I'm fond of the unabashedly OTT 'Reaching Out' -- the rest is just borderline listenable, not terribly interesting, and occasioanlly, like 'Rockets Tail' are just fucking *un*listenable. I can't hear how you find 'Hounds' to have too little variety, compared to SW, to be honest. 'The Big Sky' vs 'Waking the Wtich' vs 'Watching You Without Me' vs. 'Under Ice' vs 'The Morning Fog'? I'd wager that most critics who give enough of a shit to care about her, consider 'Hounds' to be at *least* as artistically 'respectable' as SW.

Red Shoes? Ehhh. I hope ten years of hiatus have given her some new ideas.

[take5]

My first Kate Bush purchase was the CD comp "The Whole Story," which samples her work up to Hounds of Love. I adored it, enough to collect all the albums. But I couldn't swallow most of the what I was hearing. Kind of cool, in a way, and I respect the experimenation and all, but hard on my ears.

So I recently sold them all and bought- that's right- the same CD comp I started with. I have also kept Sensual World but I haven't listened to it in ages.