I recently got Hounds of Love and think its amazing...where do I go from here ? Is ‘The Dreaming’ as weird as it’s made out to be ? Your Bush expertise will be much appreciated.
oh god
wait till the main board goes back up, and then search ‘kate bush’, there’s about 2000 posts’ worth of crazed fanboy wisdom in there
I just realised the connotations of the last sentence.....lets veer away from that area for now.
I’m a lazy and impatient man unfinished business, so just tell me what I want to hear....
Well, I had it all typed out until I read that.
I vote for Kick Inside and Sensual World, which can both probably be had for cheap. I only say this because they’re the only ones I kept (plus Hounds) in my great cd purge a few years ago.
The Kick Inside = classic early, prodigal material
Lionheart = early, unhappy contractual obligation Kate by no means a write off but not her most sparkling moment. Feels like a recycling of the debut.
Never For Ever/The Dreaming/Hounds Of Love = the ‘mature’ Kate Bush sound. All three are GOLD.
The Sensual World = Dusky, rich & gorgeous but can’t quite live up to that middle run, some inconsistent material. Still very very good.
The Red Shoes = amazing giddy ‘mainstream’ pop album everyone hates, actually very defensible imo if thematically very incoherent and production/collaboration choices frequently v.iffy.
Aerial = OMG. BACK! my favourite album of 2005, probably top 10 of 00’s. Absolutely floored me on the third listen (but doesn’t quite pip TD/HOL)
also, get the bonus CDs from the box set for some choice b-sides
The Dreaming is a little odd at first, needs a few listens but it’s not super harshly inaccessible or anything. She’s above that sh!t frankly.
Sweet, thanks for the tips da mystery.
I suggest these as your next purchases:
The Dreaming
Aerial
Never For Ever
fandango very much otm
“Ken”, obv.
I think the best thing she ever did was The Cathy Demos aka The Phoenix Recordings. Cause I think she’s usually overproduced. You can download ’em here:
The Dreaming should definitely be your next purchase. Then I would say get The Kick Inside and Aerial, like at the same time. That should last you a while. Then get Never for Ever.
JUST GET EVERYTHING. PROBLEM SOLVED.
Yeah... The stuff I typed out waws much more complex, but that sums it up.
But I agree with the general assessment of whoever da mystery of da sandboxin is.
The Dreaming and The Kick Inside are the two essential Kate Bush albums. Unless you have ears of cloth you will love them.
Also, a person could spend all day on this site:
to think, she’s only a girl at a keyboard
just like me. xcept i’m not a girl. and my keyboard isn’t like that (but it is silver). and i haven’t released the dreaming, or hounds of love.
but i’m allowed to dream!
oh my god that outfit.
and btw it must be said that The Dreaming and The Kick Inside are not really the 2 essential kate bush albums. the 2 essential kate bush albums are without a doubt The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. that’s more a fact than an opinion, in my opinion.
not that Piano Fire is even paying attention to this thread anymore.
I would Second RSLaRue’s picks. Those are the best besides “Hounds Of Love”. They are all worth getting though. Even “The Red Shoes”
The youthful romanticism — besotted with books, Victorian esoterica, and English folk — makes The Kick Inside and Never for Ever rather hard listening for me, even though the Fairlights and Kate’s increasing studio prowess on the latter mitigate it.
that is beautiful.
i’m listening to Night of the Swallow now. wow.
I’d rather think that most of us would find that photo revolting if it was on the cover of a Paolo Coehlo “novel.”
After Hounds Of Love go directly to Never For Ever and The Dreaming. Then maybe CD2 of Aerial up to the part in “Sunset” when the flamenco tapas-bar wigout happens. Up until then it’s all really great.
(xpost) No, Alfred. Dolphin or no dolphin Kate B. is ROWWR.
she was in very good shape
the dreaming is now my favorite.
I love Hounds of Love but have never gotten remotely close to getting into another Kate Bush record.
If I were you, Piano Fire, I would move on to full-length concept records by other artists.
I love Hounds of Love but have never gotten remotely close to getting into another Kate Bush record.
Try harder.
really.
i was always a little puzzled by the near unanimous love for HOUNDS, it has some good songs fer shure, but i find never4ever & the dreaming more interesting. red shoes is easy to skip.
Side 2 of “Hounds Of Love” is the key to that album. Sure, all the hits were on side 1. But side 2 is still the best side by far.
i agree
side 2 is the more like is this really happening, genius side, surely. but the nonchalance at the surface of side 1 is misleading—it’s much harder to do that than she makes it sound.
Hounds of Love has the metaphorical complexity and unity of great literature or a good Sopranos episode. I wanted The Dreaming to work for me the same way, but it didn’t.
There is a lot of good stuff in the songs on side 1 too, but those programmed drums become a bit annoying in the long run.
someone else insists on that too... alfred maybe? i look at it like, if it weren’t for the drums, the songs couldn’t have come out the way they did, good and bad. for me it’s just contrast. i also feel like The Sensual World couldn’t have turned out This Woman’s Work without also coming up with Love and Anger (which I don’t really get). But the HoL drums aren’t nearly as errant as something like Love and Anger.
i guess it’s true that in order to really enjoy HoL side 1, i do have to kind of kitschify the drums.