The Whole Story reviewed in Digital Audio

[Nancy Everson <everson@spca.bbn.com>]

I was just going through my music collection, trying to decide what I want
to put on a "party" tape (good for listening in Walk-person type things),
when the mailman came.  He brought, among other things, the May issue of
Digital Audio and Compact Disc Review, despite the fact my subscription
expired in February and I didn't renew it.  I started flipping through the
magazine, and I opened it right to a page with KT staring out from the
cover of "The Whole Story" - with a review.  I thought I would share this
with my fellow love-hounds.  This is copied here without permission, and
written by a set of initials, BJM - Brian J. Murphy.  The cd gets a 10 (out
of 10) for performance, and an 8 for sound quality.

    Pop singers don't come any more original than Kate Bush, the highlights
    of whose career appear on this disc.

    Kate Bush has been at the top of British pop  charts  since  1978  -  a
    tribute  to the British audience's ability to understand and appreciate
    the original and unusual.  Americans are still  relatively  unaware  of
    her, but Kate Bush is rapidly gaining a following here.  In its various
    formats "The Whole Story" has cracked the top-50 album charts  as  this
    review  goes  to  press.   It deserves to do very well.  So what IS the
    whole story.

    It's really quite simple: Kate Bush is unlike anything anyone has heard
    in  pop before.  She is so original she almost defies description.  Her
    songwriting and her performances fit into none of the  cozy  pop  music
    categories which writers like to use to describe artists.

    Who  else  but  Kate Bush could record a song like "Wuthering Heights"?
    [Does anyone volunteer to send him  a  note  that  Pat  Benatar  did  a
    version  of  it??]  This  strong  opening  track is sung with a kind of
    hysterical passion at the upper reaches of her vocal range for a highly
    charged  performance.   Then there is "Breathing," a no-nukes song with
    an erotic sub-text woven skillfully through it.  Bush's performance  is
    stunning - and she makes her point.

    "The  Man  With  The  Child  In  His Eyes" is just as stunning, a show-
    stopper worth repeated listening.  The song blends a  romantic,  erotic
    component  with  a  performance  of  such  breathless innocence that it
    totally disarms the listener.  Last year she  had  her  first  American
    hit, "Hounds of Love," - have baying hounds ever sounded more fetching?

    This  compendium  also contains "Babooshka," with it's [their typo, not
    mine] ironic sense of fun, an acid comment on  the  male  ego  entitled
    "Wow,"  and  the unusual "Cloudbursting." [again, their mistake] On the
    latter she caresses every note with a breathily sweet vocal  while,  in
    the  background, what began as a beat played softly on strings takes on
    a strident, military flavor.  To begin a song as a ballad and end it as
    a march is the sort of unusual trick you learn to expect when listening
    to Kate Bush.

    She is served well by the technical quality of  this  CD,  though  some
    tracks  sound  somewhat  compressed  -  but  that's to be expected of a
    compendium spanning eight years of recordings.  Despite a rather  sharp
    edge  to  some  selections,  the  sound  overall  is pleasing and room-
    filling, as are Ms. Bush's talents.

Incidently, for those of you who remember the great debate going on about
Kate and Elvis Costello, bangos and violins, that took place in December
when I forwarded some letters for a friend (Kevin) of mine - there are also
two Elvis reviews in this issue of Digital Audio.  He got a 6 for "Trust",
and an 8 for "Blood and Chocolate" in the performance rating.

- nancy "still no quote" everson

    (everson@spca.bbn.com)
    bbn software products corporation, cambridge mass