News and MisK.

[ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi)]

First of all, I found a couple more really great reviews of the album.

Here's the review from the Oct. 25 _Number One_ (a British teeny-bopper 
magazine which has something about Kylie Minogue on every other page).
The first sentence of this one is definitely one for the ages.

KATE BUSH
The Sensual World (EMI)
***** [The highest rating]

     The trouble with Kate Bush is once you've listened to her music it 
makes the rest of your record collection redundant -- everything else
pales into insignificance against the fabulously original, mystical,
magical music she makes.  And, oh joy, 'The Sensual World' is yet another
magnificent offering from the elfinlike one, well worth every minute of
the four year wait since 'Hounds Of Love'.  The title track has to be the
most sensual, sexual thing ever written while you'll weep at 'This
Woman's Work' (from the film _She's Having A Baby_).  It'll take several
listens to get used to a Kate Bush who's a little less, um, *complicated*
than on superlative albums like 'The Dreaming', though even seemingly
straightforward songs like the disco-ish 'Heads We're Dancing' and the
thumping 'Love And Anger' soon draw you into their mesmerising beats.
Kate's love affair with Irish music shines through the 10 tracks and
she's also employed the vocal skills of the warbling Bulgarian
songstresses The Trio Bulgarka to brilliant effect on songs like
'Rocket's Tail' when they manage to sound like fireworks!
     Kate's music is always so *different* and never appears to follow
trends which is just as well, because as she points out, her albums
take so long to make they'd be out of date by the time they're released.
And who else could still get away with lyrics like, in 'Rocket's Tail',
"I put on my cloudiest suit/Size 5 lightning boots too/Cos I am a
rocket".  Ho yes, Kate's back with a vengeance -- one artist who makes
records worth buying.
			   -- Kate "Bush" Davies


Next, from the Nov. 2 issue of _Hot Press_ (Irish), we have the following
review:

SENSURROUND!
KATE BUSH: "The Sensual World"
(EMI)
[Rating:] 10 [out of 12]

     Kate Bush rests uneasily in the comfortably given world of pop.
Unlike Joni Mitchell, or Joan Armatrading, or Tracy Chapman, or Maria
McKee, she is no troubadour.  Her music and textures and literacy and
theatricality are too dense and complex for the current back-to-the-strum
movement.
     She seems ever the troubled, overly-gifted youngster who finds
shelter in her room, in her gifts, in her imagination, *in the space
within*, rather than running away and hanging out with the misfits and
desperadoes on Pebble Beach.  An internalised, rather than an
externalised, loner -- but a loner nevertheless.
     There are many things to like and respect about Kate Bush, and this
is one of them.  She is not a part of any mainstream (she isn't even
part of the loner mainstream!).
     Clearly she has strength of character to follow her own instincts,
her own values -- and her own way of working; with a small, close, almost
familiar group of collaborators, she has maintained a remarkable degree
of independence from the uglier side of the music business, and a tight
control over her own output.  Which is fine with EMI, I dare say, since
Kate Bush is also remarkably successsful.
     Another factor which isolates her from the mainstream is the 
particular Englishness of her muse.  This album could never be American:
the textual focus of "The Sensual World" is distinctly European, with
Davy Spillane, the Trio Bulgarka and Alan Stivell contributing to the
eclectic brew.  What's involved however is not the adoption of strange
ethnic instruments and tones and key changes for the sake of sounding
unusual and exotic.  They are there for atmosphere and perspective.  One
might describe it as a cinematic approach.
     The results are never less than interesting -- and sometimes they
are rivetting.  Most of the song "Rocket's Tail" has Kate singing 
against the voices of the Trio Bulgarka, without any other
instrumentation; the effect is like a bright beam of winter sunlight
falling on an old eastern rug, in which you suddenly see all the detail and
the wild ornamentation come to life.
     She could have used a synth, or a string quartet, but the Bulgarian
voices take the whole song two or three notches further out.  A brilliant
sound.
     Again, as a songwriter, Kate Bush is as independent as in other 
areas -- her music is full of surprising melodic moves.  They are not
always comfortable, nor necessarily pleasing, but they are almost always
arresting.  Take nothing for granted -- you don't know from where she'll
come at you next.
     Nowhere is this more true however than in the subjects she writes
about.  The title track is self-explanatory, but elsewhere we find her
exploring (in considerable depth), such dark and risky areas as
parent-child love, and anger -- "the pull and push of it all", as she
puts it.
     Moreover, these issues are confronted with clarity and honesty.
Love and anger are the very stuff of songwriting, but who calls them
by their name?  In "Love And Anger" and "Never Be Mine" La Bush explores
the illusions under which we labour n the search for what we call 
"happiness".
     "The Fog", "Reaching Out" and "This Woman's Work" delve into
parent-child relations, and how they echo and re-echo through our
lives.  Not a comfortable subject, and these are not comfortable
songs.  "The Fog", in particular, with wistful whistles by Davy
Spillane, touches on change, on growth and decay, and how we all
inevitably come to moments where we have to let go -- and how
frighteningly alone we can feel.
     That one is for papa, but "Reaching Out" is for mama.  "See how
man reaches out instinctively/For what he cannot have."  It has one
bizarre line -- "reaching out for the hand that smacked."  Yes indeed!
     But the core of this song, as with others, is to do with that
longing for the unattainable safety of the womb, and the warmth and
inviolability associated with certain formative experiences.
     And in "This Woman's Work":  "I should be hoping but I can't
stop thinking/Of all the things we should've said/That were never
said. . . All the things that you needed from me/All the things that
you wanted for me/All the things that I should've given/But I didn't..."
     But the track to savour most is the title track.  Brimming
with the dark scorpio satisfactions of the senses, it mmm, yesss,
mmmms through a successsion of images -- "Then I'd taken the kiss
of seedcake back from his mouth"  -- right inside your head.
     "You don't need words," she sings, "just one kiss, then another..."
     Mmmmm, yesssss.
				       -- Dermot Stokes

This issue of _Hot Press_ also has a contest, the prize of which is
_The Sensual World_.  No Love_Hound worthy of the name should have any
trouble with the questions.  Here it is:

"Twenty copies of Kate Bush's superb new album to be won.

Simply answer the following questions:

1. What was the title of Kate Bush's first hit single?
2. Complete the title of the song 'Running Up The ...'
[They didn't even get that much right!]
3. Name another artist on whose record Kate Bush has featured."

Then it gives the address to send answers to.

In the Oct. issue of _The Music Independent_, a magazine about
independent releases, there's a review of Jane Siberry's new 
album, _Bound By The Beauty_.  It's a very favorable review, but
I just want to quote the last paragraph:

     "Many of the so-called "artsy" records seem to lack a strong
melodic sense to me.  However, this is not the case on this fine
record.  It is a well-produced album which should bring her out of
the shadows (of Kate Bush?) and into the light of wider accptance."

Next, in local news.  I've just seen the Nov. 4 playlist for KITS.
"The Sensual World" went through #7 last week (which I missed), and 
is now at #4.  It is *still* one of the five most requested songs, and
in fact none of the three songs above it are.  So it could move still
higher.

The only bad news I have to report is that the album has slipped some
all around the Bay, although it's still in the top ten most places.


Ed (Edward Suranyi)        | "Singer/songwriter Kate Bush:  The one singer
Dept. of Applied Science   |  on two continents who most deserves a wider
UC Davis/Livermore         |      audience"    -- _Saturday Review_
ed@das.llnl.gov            | (in special "Underrated/Overrated" issue)