No Subject

[Steve Tynor <gatech!gitpyr!tynor>]

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Post-first impressions of Hounds Of Love:

   Disclaimer of personal bias:

I've  seen  a lot of discussion on interpretation of HoL songs. While I 
find this interesting (and certainly educational), it fails to pinpoint 
the  aspect  of Kate's music that intrigues me most. For me, lyrics are 
much less important than 'music' content. While I can and do  sometimes 
appreciate  a  song  primarily based on its lyrics, it's the rythym and 
melody, the arrangement, texture, the dynamic range,  strange  uses  of 
effects  gear  (strange uses of Kate's vocal chords...) etc. that hooks 
me. The emotional impact of Kate's music is not derived from considered 
study  of the lyric sheet, but from emotional response to the sonics of 
the performance.

The Ninth Wave is certainly the type of thing I was expecting after The 
Dreaming. Except for the last cut (The Morning  Fog),  it's  excellent. 
But, why is The Morning Fog included on this side? It's style/tone/mood 
is much more consistant with that of Side 1 (HoL). I wish she'd swapped 
it with Mother Stands for Comfort. Also, after the emotionally draining 
Hello Earth, it's annoying to be bombarded with heavy drum beats...  It 
probably should have been the last song on the side. (BTW, Hey Jude (on 
the Hey Jude album) suffers the same  problem...  After  7  minutes  of 
fade, I'm NOT ready for another tune...)

Remember, I'm not taking lyrical content into consideration when I make 
these complaints. It may well be (and I'll be interested to hear)  that 
the  'meaning'  of  these  songs necessatates their being programmed in 
this manner, but aurally they just don't seem to fit.

Side  1  (HoL)  is  a different story. I'm really dissappointed in this 
side. Why the heavy drumbeat on RUTH, HoL, and Big Sky? (and  not  even 
interesting  ones.  I  really  like  what  Peter Gabriel does with drum 
machines, african polyrhythms, etc. ) The stuff on  this  side  is  too 
d*&% repetative! Now don't get me wrong. I like every song, but I can't 
consider this the 'second best rock album'  ever  recorded  (to  loosly 
paraphase Doug). 

Big Sky is especially annoying. No amount of neato backup vocals (which 
really *are* neat!) can cover up  the  fact  that  this  is  a  boring, 
repetative, fairly unimaginative song.

Mother  Stands  for Comfort is quite good. Much closer to the spirit of 
The Ninth Wave. Del Parmer's bass playing is very interesting  (reminds 
me of E. Weber's bass on Houdini from The Dreaming).

I  like  Cloudbusting  too.  (or  at  least  until  she  falls into the 
repetition trap again...) The cellos remind me of  early  ELO  and  Mid 
period  Beatles.  Speaking  of  Beatles,  don't  the last lines in RUTH 
remind you of Beatles? I could swear I've heard the same technique (the 
inflection  in  the  last 'could') on a Beatles tune, but I can't place 
it... Actually, a lot of Kate's music seems Beatles inspired.

Well, that's enough for today. I'm expecting plenty of flames, so flame 
on.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Illigitamati non carborundum.
                     
    Steve Tynor
    Georgia Instutute of Technology

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