THE RED SHOES  -  KATE BUSH

YEAR:  1993
LABEL:  Columbia
TRACK LISTING:  Rubberband Girl,  And So Is Love,  Eat the Music,  Moments of Pleasure,  The Song of Solomon,  Lily,  The Red Shoes,  Top of the City,  Constellation of the Heart,  Big Stripey Lie,  Why Should I Love You?,  You're the One
IMPRESSIONS:  Kate Bush's "Santana Supernatural" album almost a decade before Santana.  What I mean by that is "THE RED SHOES" features a ton of rock star cameos which was quite unusual for a Kate Bush record.  That may explain why it's somewhat of a mishmash.  Still a great record (a so-so Kate Bush album still outdoes 95% of everyone else's albums), Kate herself knew, I think, which were the best songs because those are the ones she chose to include in her film "THE LINE, THE CROSS AND THE CURVE" which she wrote and directed and is basically a retelling of "THE RED SHOES" fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen starring herself, Miranda Richardson and Lindsey Kemp.  The album itself I don't think can really be called a "concept album" based on the tale because listening to it without having seen the film one would be hard-pressed to see the connection between the songs.  In fact, Bush at the time was contemplating actually going on a live concert tour again (which she hadn't done since 1979) so she conceived the album as more "live band" friendly than her previous albums.  Sadly, the tour never happened (and Bush has still never toured except for that one and only time).  The time period around the making of this album was also a very traumatic one for the singer as her mother Hannah died very soon after the album was released, her long-time guitarist Alan Murphy died, director Michael Powell (whose 1948 film "THE RED SHOES" co-directed with Emeric Pressburger was also an inspiration for the album and with whom she had discussed working with) had recently died in 1990 and her long-time relationship with bassist Del Palmer had also come to an end.  Things must've been very raw because she would not make another album again for 12 years.  While about half the album is rather forgettable (relatively speaking), the other half contains plenty of gold.  The album actually did surprisingly well in the U.S. for a change mostly due to the surprise hit "Eat the Music" which got substantial MTV airplay.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Rubberband Girl,  And So Is Love,  Eat the Music,  Moments of Pleasure,  Lily,  The Red Shoes,  Why Should I Love You?,  You're the One
GUEST ARTISTS:  Jeff Beck (guitar on "You're the One"),  Gary Brooker of Procol Harum (Hammond organ on "Constellation of the Heart", "And So Is Love" and "You're the One"),  Eric Clapton (guitar on "And So Is Love"),  Lenny Henry (vocals on "Why Should I Love You?"),  Michael Kamen (orchestration on "Moments of Pleasure"),  Nigel Kennedy (violin on "Big Stripey Lie", violin and viola on "Top of the City"),  Lily (narration on "Lily"),  Prince (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals and arranger on "Why Should I Love You?"),  Trio Bulgarka (vocals)
FACT SHEET:  THE RED SHOES is Kate Bush's seventh album.  The album concept was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale and the 1949 Powell & Pressburger film.  The album went platinum in the U.K.  Bush re-recorded several songs from this album on her 2011 album "DIRECTOR'S CUT" stating she had not been happy with the production sound on the originals.        

LIONHEART  -  KATE BUSH

YEAR:  1978
LABEL:  EMI
TRACK LISTING:  Symphony In Blue,  In Search of Peter Pan,  Wow,  Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake,  Oh England My Lionheart,  Fullhouse,  In the Warm Room,  Kashka From Baghdad,  Coffee Homeground,  Hammer Horror
IMPRESSIONS:  Usually knocked as Kate Bush's worst album . . . and it is.  However, that doesn't make it a bad album.  Kate Bush's worst of all her albums is still better than a great deal of artists' best albums.  Yes, LIONHEART was rushed out by the studio to capitalise on the great success of Kate's first album THE KICK INSIDE.  Yes, Kate's singing is probably more mannered here than it ever was and yes the songwriting is rather weak in places.  Yet, this album still has some gold nuggets amongst the naff.  The single "Wow" may seem ridiculous at first hearing (and indeed it was mercilessly parodied on NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS) but the song is actually quite good; it's only the rather (deliberately, I suspect) silly chorus of "Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow unbelievable" that raises a snicker from those not listening closely enough.  There are great Kate Bush moments on this album -- the superb "Hammer Horror" for one.  Kate's tribute to "The Studio That Dripped Blood" stands amongst the best of her early work.  Then there's Kate's love letter to her home "Oh England, My Lionheart"; granted the album version is not as good as the live performance found on her one and only concert film "LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH ODEON" but it's still a wonderful song.  Finally, the deliriously spiralling "Coffee Homeground" stands as a cracked murder ballad either emanating from the Folies Bergere or the Grand Guignol.  And its very hard to dislike an album which features a cover shot of Kate wearing a fuzzy lion costume in her attic studio.  Even the least of Kate Bush's albums offers quite a lot.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Symphony In Blue,  Wow,  Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake,  Oh England My Lionheart,  Coffee Homeground,  Hammer Horror
GUEST ARTISTS:  David Paton (bass)
FACT SHEET:  LIONHEART is Kate Bush's second album.  The album was recorded in Nice making it her only album recorded outside of the U.K.  It was produced by Andrew Powell (with Kate's assistance).  LIONHEART peaked at #6 on the UK charts; making it her only album not to enter the top five.  LIONHEART is the first album to feature long-time band member Del Palmer on bass; he has played on all of her albums since up to 2011's Penguin Award-winning 50 WORDS FOR SNOW. 

SO - Peter Gabriel

YEAR: 1986

LABEL: Geffen

TRACK LISTING: Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Don't Give Up, That Voice Again, In Your Eyes, Mercy Street, Big Time, We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37), This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)

IMPRESSIONS: Here is another album I associate strongly with college as it is one I listened to constantly on my long commute to and from Glassboro State College. It is also an album which marks the exact moment of the end of the chapter of my life at Rustler which closed in May 1986. I remember the first time I listened to the album was during my morning drive to college and I hadn't even looked at the album notes. When "Don't Give Up" came on and I suddenly heard a voice that sounded like my idol Kate Bush I nearly drove off the road in surprise! The songs "Mercy Street" and "Red Rain" also hit a very strong chord with me; I don't really know why. I recall one summer night while I was waiting to go out, I strolled around my yard in the dark with "Mercy Street" playing on my headphones in my cassette Sony Walkman. It's a very peaceful and soothing song which is almost hypnotic and it stills affects me that way.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Don't Give Up, That Voice Again, In Your Eyes, Mercy Street, This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)

GUEST ARTISTS: Stewart Copeland (hi-hat on "Red Rain", drums on "Big Time"), Kate Bush (vocals on "Don't Give Up"), Youssou N'Dour (vocals on "In Your Eyes"), Jim Kerr (backing vocals on "In Your Eyes"), Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (backing vocals on "In Your Eyes"), Laurie Anderson (co-writer/vocals on "This Is the Picture [Excellent Birds]), Nile Rodgers (guitar on "This Is the Picture [Excellent Birds])

FACT SHEET: SO is Peter Gabriel's fifth album and his most commercially successful at quintuple platinum status. The album was produced by Daniel Lanois who worked on ambient recordings with Brian Eno as well as producing successful U2 albums. "Red Rain" was inspired by a recurring dream Gabriel had of swimming in red water; the song uses a lot of dream imagery and is a part of the "Story of Mozo": several songs which include the wandering character Mozo. "Red Rain" is one of Gabriel's favourites of his own songs. "Sledgehammer" is Gabriel's most successful single which also won an MTV Video Award for best video. The song features world music and Motown influences as well as use of the shakuhachi. "Don't Give Up" deals with economic hardship with Kate Bush dueting on encouraging and supportive counter-lyrics. "In Your Eyes" became a monster hit in 1989 after it was used in the film "SAY ANYTHING...". "Mercy Street" is dedicated to poet Anne Sexton and takes its title from her 1969 play. SO is the first Peter Gabriel album to have a title. Legend has it that the record label complained that Gabriel had to come up with a name for the album because all his others had none; Gabriel reportedly answered "So." However, Gabriel has said in interviews that the title actually means nothing; he simply liked the shape and form of the two letters. When SO was remastered to cd in 2002, "In Your Eyes" was moved to the final song on the album as Peter Gabriel originally intended; the limitations of vinyl had caused the song to be originally placed as the first song on side two. I will admit that this explanation makes no sense since the length of side two is not altered whether the song appears first or last on side two. I prefer the original track order. SO was awarded a retroactive Penguin Award for 1986 album of the year in 2010.

50 WORDS FOR SNOW - Kate Bush

YEAR: 2011

LABEL: Fish People

TRACK LISTING: Snowflake, Lake Tahoe, Misty, Wild Man, Snowed In At Wheeler Street, 50 Words For Snow, Among Angels

IMPRESSIONS: I really connected to this album immediately upon the first listen in a way which I never seemed to do with her last album of new material "AERIAL" in 2005. The sparseness of the instrumentation and the patience and confidence with which Kate unfolds each song (a couple of them top 10 minutes) give the album a definite winter feel (which, of course, is deliberate -- even down to the sounds of wind-blown snow between some of the tracks); however, I also found this to be one of Kate's warmest albums ever and one I found myself riveted to from the first note. Kate's sure piano playing is perfectly accompanied by the sympathetic drumming of Steve Gadd; I really can't say enough about the beautiful touch Gadd shows on the drums throughout the album. Cries of nepotism at the inclusion of Bertie on vocals for the opening track are frankly immediately silenced in my mind because the boy shockingly proves worthy of the spotlight here. I admit I wasn't convinced on this year's remake of "DEEPER UNDERSTANDING" but here Bertie's soaring "boys choir" vocal is actually impressive; he manages to sing with feeling as well and naturally demonstrates many of his mother's singing style which he comes by honestly. Kate's voice has now mellowed from her younger days; the high-pitched silver-throated songbird now sings at a lower register and she deliberately wanted to explore the sound of high male voices in contrast with her vocals. Bertie fulfills the boys choir male voice admirably and then the adult male tenor of Stefan Roberts soars throughout the ghostly "Lake Tahoe". Experiment successful, Kate. The potentially silly concept of a woman sleeping with a snowman in "MISTY" actually is imbued with a potent erotic charge and takes the listener by surprise with it's impact. Even the playful title track which features Stephen Fry intoning 50 different words for snow manages to go from trivial to a sort of winter mantra by the song's midpoint. After the highly-praised but, I found, remote "DIRECTOR'S CUT" album released earlier this year, I was slightly apprehensive about the release of "50 WORDS" but it certainly snuck up on me. I found it actually to be her most "involving" and "strong" album since . . . well, let me see . . . I suppose since HOUNDS OF LOVE itself. And you know my opinion of THAT album. 2011's "DIRECTOR'S CUT" was really just an academic exercise and the excellent but sprawling double album "AERIAL" (even though it was nominated for an album of the year Penguin Award) sort of staggered about for me. Before that, "THE RED SHOES" concept album (while still excellent) was a kinda Santana-style round robin album packed with guest stars 8 years before Santana's "SUPERNATURAL" album and 1989's "HOUNDS OF LOVE" follow-up "THE SENSUAL WORLD" (while also still excellent) had something of an unfocused and detached quality. So yeah, I guess as a complete album, "50 WORDS FOR SNOW" is Kate Bush's most successful project since 1985's classic "HOUNDS OF LOVE". And no one could be more surprised to hear me say that than me!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Snowflake, Lake Tahoe, Misty, Snowed In At Wheeler Street, 50 Words For Snow, Among Angels

GUEST ARTISTS: Steve Gadd (drums), Danny Thompson (bass), Albert McIntosh (vocals on "Snowflake"), Stefan Roberts (vocals on "Lake Tahoe"), Andy Fairweather Low (vocals on "Wild Man"), Elton John (vocals on "Snowed In At Wheeler Street"), Stephen Fry ("rap" on "50 Words For Snow")

FACT SHEET: 50 WORDS FOR SNOW is Kate Bush's tenth album and the second released on her own "Fish People" label. It is a concept album of seven songs "set against a backdrop of falling snow". The earlier songs on the album feature songs which find Kate exploring the contrast of higher male voices alongside her now-lower vocals. The album showcases Bush's imaginative, off-kilter subject matters for songs which for which she's specialized her entire career. The album opener "Snowflake" features her son Bertie on what amounts to the lead vocal in the role of a snowflake falling to earth amid the noise of a world which hopefully will be muffled by a covering of snow. "Lake Tahoe" is the story of a Victorian ghost who is searching for her lost dog named "Snowflake". "Misty" is the tale of a woman who sleeps with a snowman; he later melts after a night of passion. "Wild Man" finds a small group of travelers encountering the Yeti in the Himalayas who cover up his footprints in the snow so no one will find him. "Snowed In At Wheeler Street" finds two lovers who are constantly reincarnated only to have their love thwarted time and again. Kate wrote the title track after musing on the old idea that Eskimos have 50 different words in their Inuit language for snow; the track features Stephen Fry reciting them including some invented by Kate herself which should come into the lexicon immediately: "anechoic", "blown from Polar fur" and "spangladasha" among them. The album concludes with a "Among Angels"; a love song to an undemonstrative lover.

HOUNDS OF LOVE - Kate Bush

YEAR: 1985

LABEL: EMI

TRACK LISTING: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Hounds of Love, The Big Sky, Mother Stands For Comfort, Cloudbusting, And Dream of Sheep, Under Ice, Waking the Witch, Watching You Without Me, Jig of Life, Hello Earth, The Morning Fog

BONUS TRACKS: The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix), Running Up That Hill (12" Mix), Be Kind To My Mistakes, Under the Ivy, Burning Bridge, My Lagan Love

IMPRESSIONS: This is my favourite album of all time, just so you know. HOUNDS OF LOVE is Kate Bush's fifth album. It won the honorary retroactive Penguin Award for Album of the Year 1985 (because Penguin Awards were not established until 1990). Side One (from the LP days) consists of separate songs (most of which were hit singles). Side Two contains the song cycle entitled "The Ninth Wave" which tells the impressionistic tale of a survivor of some disaster floating in the ocean hoping for rescue. Delirium sets in accounting for the wild hallucinatory images conjured by Kate and her fairlight.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Literally every single one of them!

GUEST ARTISTS: John Williams plays acoustic guitar on "The Morning Fog"

FACT SHEET: This is Kate Bush's 5th album. HOUNDS OF LOVE entered the UK album chart at #1 (her 2nd album to reach #1) knocking Madonna's LIKE A VIRGIN off the top of the charts. The song "Cloudbusting" is based on Peter Reich's "Book of Dreams" concerning his relationship with his father Wilhelm Reich who claimed to be a rainmaker. The famous video starred Donald Sutherland as the father with Kate in drag as the son. The helicopter heard in "The Ninth Wave" song cycle is taken from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album. The spoken words "It's in the trees! It's coming!" at the beginning of "Hounds of Love" is a clip from the 1957 classic British horror film NIGHT OF THE DEMON spoken by actor Maurice Denham. The choral music heard during "Hello Earth" is by the Richard Hickox Singers performing a Georgian traditional song entitled "Tsintskaro". The bonus track "Be Kind To My Mistakes" is from the 1986 film CASTAWAY directed by Nicholas Roeg.