The first time I listened to it I just couldn’t get over the productive, which sounds so ’80s like any number of early ’90s albums, made by artists or producers who hadn’t yet seen the writing on the wall – that the era of gated drums synthesizers approximating any instrument you could think of was over.
But Kate Bush has been interested in new and emerging technology in music since basically when her career began. And at least she uses technology in relatively interesting ways. This record may sound like it was made in 1988 or 1989, but at least it’s aggressively weird with how the instruments are deployed and how everything is put together.
The good news for anyone put off by the production (like me!) is that this is still Kate Bush; she has still written a set of compelling songs from her unique perspective, even if those songs are often buried under ’80s production cliches or, more often, moments of ’80s cliche juxtaposed by compelling musical moments.
And of course there is Bush singing her own songs, performing them idiosyncratically as always, doing things few other female pop singers would ever have contemplated before she came along. (Take, for instance, the coda to “Rubberband Girl,” which showcases a vocal freedom that I think few women of her generation – and especially previous ones – would have felt allowed to play with.)
I really dislike the production but I think there’s enough here in the songs and in her performances that I’m mostly over it.
7/10 but I reserve the right to drop it down one due to the production.
All songs written by Kate Bush
- “Rubberband Girl” 4:42
- “And So Is Love” 4:16
- “Eat the Music” 5:08
- “Moments of Pleasure” 5:16
- “The Song of Solomon” 4:27
- “Lily” 3:51
- “The Red Shoes” 4:00
- “Top of the City” 4:14
- “Constellation of the Heart” 4:46
- “Big Stripey Lie” 3:32
- “Why Should I Love You?” 5:00
- “You’re the One” 5:52
- Kate Bush – vocals, keyboards (exc. 4), piano (4, 5, 8, 9), Fender Rhodes (5, 8, 12), bass guitar and guitar (10), co-arranger (11)
- Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangements
- Del Palmer – Fairlight programming, electronic drums
- Stuart Elliott – drums (1–3, 6–9, 11, 12), percussion (1, 3, 5, 7)
- John Giblin – bass guitar (1–3, 6, 8, 9, 12)
- Danny McIntosh – guitar (1, 5–9)
- Horn section (1, 3, 9, 11):
- Nigel Hitchcock – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone (1)
- Steve Sidwell – trumpet, flugelhorn (11)
- Paul Spong – trumpet
- Neil Sidwell – trombone
- Gary Brooker – Hammond organ (2, 9, 12)
- Eric Clapton – guitar (2)
- Paddy Bush – vocals (3, 7, 9), valiha, singing bowls and fujara (6), musical bow, whistle and mandola (7)
- Justin Vali – valiha (3, 7), kabosy and vocals (3)
- Trio Bulgarka – vocals (5, 11, 12)
- Dimitar Penev – vocal arrangements for Trio Bulgarka
- Charlie Morgan – percussion (5)
- Lily Cornford – narrator (6)
- Colin Lloyd Tucker – vocals (7, 9)
- Gaumont d’Olivera – bass guitar (7), drums, percussion and sound effects (10)
- Nigel Kennedy – violin (8, 10), viola (8)
- Prince – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, vocals and co-arranger (11)
- Lenny Henry – vocals (11)
- Jeff Beck – guitar (12)