The problem with starting mid-career with an artist is that you kind of assume what they sound like in their maturity or prime is how they’ve always sounded. I started with The Dreaming, a record that knocked me out. It was pretty damn unlikely that Bush’s debut would stand up to it. And I certainly can’t say I like this as much.

But I try to think about what it would be like to have heard this for the first time in 1978 – this woman (barely a woman) with a unique voice and a fully formed sound. (It’s worth noting that the heavy Peter Gabriel influenced I detect in her later work seems to be absent here, which is refreshing but surprising.) I mean, who else was making music like this at the time?

Bush’s voice in general, but particularly at this stage, is hard to get used to if you’ve never heard it before. But her songs are so compelling and so mature-sounding that, if that voice ever bothered you, it soon doesn’t. She reminds me of Fiona Apple a little bit in how she seems to have been some kind of songwriting prodigy. (Really, Apple is like Bush, but I came to them in reverse chronological order.) You listen to Bush and you wonder how could someone so young come up with this stuff.

I do prefer her music when its riskier but it’s hard to deny that this is the launch of a major new talent.

8/10

All tracks written by Kate Bush.

1. “Moving” 3:01
2. “The Saxophone Song” 3:51
3. “Strange Phenomena” 2:57
4. “Kite” 2:56
5. “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” 2:39
6. “Wuthering Heights” 4:28
7. “James and the Cold Gun” 3:34
8. “Feel It” 3:02
9. “Oh to Be in Love” 3:18
10. “L’Amour Looks Something Like You” 2:27
11. “Them Heavy People” 3:04
12. “Room for the Life” 4:03
13. “The Kick Inside” 3:30

• Kate Bush – songwriter, composer, piano, keyboards, vocals, background vocals
• Ian Bairnson – guitar (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12), background vocals (9), beer bottles (12)
• Paul Keogh – guitar (2)
• Alan Parker – guitar (2)
• Paddy Bush – mandolin (9), vocals (11)
• Duncan Mackay – organ (4, 6, 7), synthesizer (3), electric piano (1, 10), clavinet (4)
• Andrew Powell – synthesizer (9), keyboards (2), bass (6), electric piano (3), celesta (6), beer bottles (12), producer
• Alan Skidmore – saxophone (2)
• David Paton – bass (1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12), acoustic guitar (6, 9), background vocals (9)
• Bruce Lynch – bass (2)
• Barry DeSouza – drums (2)
• Stuart Elliott – drums (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12), percussion (9, 12)
• Morris Pert – percussion (3, 4, 6), boobam (12)
• David Katz – orchestra contractor