Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!DAS.LLNL.GOV!ed From: ed@DAS.LLNL.GOV (Edward Suranyi) Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa Subject: MisK Message-ID: <8912040414.AA07441@das.llnl.gov> Date: 4 Dec 89 04:14:37 GMT Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root) Organization: The Internet Lines: 114 Approved: love-hounds@eddie.mit.edu 1) For Bay Area Love-Hounds: I was just at Reckless Records (Haight @ Masonic in S.F.) today, and they have the new UK single ("This Woman's Work") in all of the following formats: 7", 12", CD, 12" limited edition with a fold-out poster, and 7" picture disk. Well, they may not have any more of the picture disks; I think I got the last one! This same store still has some subway posters for "The Sensual World" single. 2) I just saw the November 27 playlist for KITS. "The Sensual World" is up to number two, and "Love And Anger" has been added at number 29 (the highest add of the week). Just think: two Kate songs in the top 30 simultaneously! I never thought I'd see the day. 3) A review of the album from the December _Request_, the in-store magazine of Musicland and Sam Goody. The review is generally favorable, but it ends on a sour note that I must comment upon. KATE BUSH SENSUAL WORLD (COLUMBIA) Back when the rest of Britainnia writhed in the throes of punk, a precocious 16-year-old Kate Bush was harboring images of a mythic Victorian England in which arcane literature was savored in the privacy of carefully tended gardens. Visions of midnight moors and star-crossed lovers danced in her head as she recorded her 1978 debut, "Wuthering Heights," a breathless single that promptly went to No. 1 on the English pop charts. Afraid of flying and reluctant to tour, she outfitted her charmed world with a home studio, a musical sanctuary where her increasingly elaborate recordings could take shape without outside interference. Surprisingly, Bush's relative seclusion over the years has coincided with an expanding musical vision, much as a cloistered child might explore exotic worlds armed only with some musty tomes and an overactive imagination. Albums like _The Dreaming_ and _Hounds of Love_ layered rhythms and electronic samples over epic song structures, parelleling similar inclinations in the work of her friend and occasional collaborator, Peter Gabriel. _The Sensual World_, Bush's first album in four years, tempers those experimental inclinations with the more straightforward pop sensibilities of her first three albums. Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Bulgaria's Trio Bulgarka lend helping hands on several cuts, the most impressive of which is "Rocket's Tail." The track starts out as an _a capella_ number and expands into a full-blown rocker, as the throaty quavering Eastern European voices release Bush from her Victorian inhibitions into a state of expressionist frenzy. _The Sensual World_ also includes the suitably Celtic title cut (inspired, as it was, by Joyce's _Ulysses_), the exhilarating "Walk Straight Down The Middle" (on CD and cassette), and the contemplative "Never Be Mine." Together, they showcase Bush's intricate melodies, imaginative keyboards (a lot more piano this time around), and sweet mock-operatic vocal stylings. Occasionally a cloyingly pretentious cut like "The Fog" effectively breaks the spell cast by most of _The Sensual World_. It's the kind of self-indulgence that suggests our heroine may be spending a bit too much time in the garden with her precious books. -- Bill Forman Well, if Mr. Drukman can call "Reaching Out" "horrible", then I guess Mr. Forman can call "The Fog" "cloyingly pretentious". Please forgive me if I politely disagree with both of you. And also, Jon, I like "I'm Still Waiting" a lot; I like it more than "Walk Straight Down The Middle", for example (though I like that song, too). Oh yes, I think the "Single Mix" of "This Woman's Work" pushes the orchestra forward. The cellos seem to be much more prominent than on the album version. I wonder if anybody else thinks so. 4) Reviews of the new single from the British press: The following reviews of "This Woman's Work" all appeared in the November 25 issues of these magazines. From _New Musical Express_: The whole story of this song should guarantee sentimental naffness. Is it possible through pop to truly represent the emotions of a young man stranded in the waiting room while his lover's life is threatened by the birth of their baby? I think not. Unless you're Kate Bush. Oh, how I want her to have my children! -- Len Brown From _Melody Maker_: A luscious, spiritually elevating, showstopper/ballad from the artnymph of the aureoles, who's surely never done a day's work in her life. How does anyone get that much cool air into a voice? Sort of "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" as interpreted by Leonara Carrington [who?]. Ecstatic with wintry tragedy. So undeniably beauteous that for me to sell it further would be heresy. Quietly, one does wish she'd released "Rocket's Tail", but maybe that's next. Heaven's Kate. -- Chris Roberts From _Sounds_: Hardly a commercial sound, although it's already seen daylight on the soundtrack for _She's Having A Baby_. It's a bit profound for a John Hughes flick -- the line "Oh darling just make it go away" is a heartbreaker coming from a young woman experiencing motherhood for the first time -- and orchestrated to buggery by the fussy Michael Kamen. On the B-side, with "thanks to Nicolas Roeg", is 'Be Kind To My Mistakes', a song from _Castaway_. This is even less commercial, a sort of jungle melodrama with hints at tension. These two sides smack of complete disregard for the Top 40. Good on her. -- David Cavanagh Ed (Edward Suranyi) | Caption: "Kate Bush goes from cult fave to Dept. of Applied Science | chart rave." -- _Billboard_ UC Davis/Livermore | (In "Was It A Hit Or A Miss" in the 1985 ed@das.llnl.gov | year-end special issue.)