Disclaimsers and _The Sensual World_

[gatech.edu!mit-eddie!eddie.mit.edu!henrik@cs.utexas.edu (Larry DeLuca)]

I don't agree with Joe (but then again I almost never do).  I think
the new album is fabulous.

Kate Bush has certainly grown up a lot on this one - the arrangements
are beautiful, and she's credited with more of them than on any 
previous album (usually the best strings and things were done by
Max Middleton, Andrew Powell, or Geoff Downes (CMI Trumpet Section 
on "Sat In Your Lap")).  It's much more musically complex than her
previous albums, and in a much more horizontal sense.  She's avoided
the trap of the dreaded "Vertical Composers" - those people who compose
entirely to the drone of "The Rhythm Box".  I call them "Vertical" 
because their music is *incredibly* interesting in the interplay
between the various elements in a given pattern (since they stacked
it all on top of the rhythm box's beat) but is often sorely lacking
in the "horizontal" direction - phrases are often short, overused,
and pasted together rather unartfully, the concept of melodic lines
and such lost in making those four or eight beats of drum pattern
as busy as possible.

The new album is incredibly lush without being overproduced - any
Andrew Powell fans will eat it right up (bear in mind I loved _Lionheart_
despite its foibles, and still think _Never For Ever_ may very well
have been Kate Bush's best album).  It's a nifty kink in the progression.
After the finely crafted, rich work of _Never For Ever_ to go to the
busybox of _The Dreaming_ (which I do truly love, but listen to it less
often than her other albums because it's so full of *stuff* that I
find it overstimulating), to the more controlled, sparse, _Hounds of
Love_, to the confident grasp on much larger and complex elements and
interplay in _The Sensual World_.  I must say, I wondered a bit after
hearing "This Woman's Work" for the first time just how far she was
going to take the minimalism bit - if the 6th album would be just
her, a piano, and a few backing vocals (I'd love to hear her give
a crack at that format - maybe _The KaTe Demos_ will be KB7?).

I think one has to give oneself over totally to the new album.  So 
many complaints I've heard are comparisons with it over previous 
works.  It's different, all right.  It's certainly a bit more controlled,
and it's a bit more in tune with what's happening right now (as in
tune as Kate Bush can be and still be Kate Bush).  But it has a charm
and spell all its own, and no other album of hers can touch it for
sheer seductive allure.  Turn out most of the lights, lay back, put
it on at a nice, comfortable, ear-ripping volume, and give yourself
over to it.  Completely.  Unreservedly.  Unabashedly.  Let it take
you where it will.  Over goosebumps, hills, and valleys of flesh.
Around the curves of a mountain.  Through the fog.  Into the night,
out of the page, and, mmmh, yes, into _The Sensual World_.

And then tell me it's not as good as _Hounds of Love_ or _The Dreaming_.

					larry...