Another KT review (Siberry, too!)

[Julian Cowley <julian@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>]

I was surprised to find the following article in Ka Leo O Hawaii
(The Voice of Hawaii), our school's newspaper -- I didn't think
that Hawaii had many KT fans, but they seem to be creeping out of
the woodwork since the current album's release.
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BUSH, SIBERRY RELEASE NEW ALBUMS

by Richard Akiyama
Ka Leo reporter

Jan Siberry
Bound by the Beauty
Reprise Records

Kate Bush
The Sensual World
Columbia Records

As two of the leading contemporary female musicians of their
respective homelands, Canada's Jane Siberry and England's Kate
Bush bear more than a passing similarity.  Often compared to one
another, both Siberry and Bush are reknown for their deeply
personal and often quirky approaches to songwriting, their agile
singing voices that are able to scale the highest notes, and
their tendencies toward what some might label attention-getting
effects.

Still, as a pair of diverse personalities, each has her own
distinct world vision.  Bush has always been the mysteriously
introspective type, who concerns herself with the recurring
subjects of male/female and parent/child relationships.

Siberry on the other hand is more the amused observer, who takes
in the whole world with a glint in her eye and an eternally
upbeat disposition.

Bush strives for a "deeper understanding," and Siberry is a
down-to-earth hopeless romantic who is both victim and
beneficiary of her unreserved sensitivity.

On her last (and arguably most compelling) album _The_Walking_,
Siberry laid bare her emotions on a record that dealt primarily
with the pain of lost love.  _Bound_by_the_Beauty_ doesn't have
such a heavy atmosphere hanging over it.  It's a varied work that
may well be Siberry's most accessible record to date.

Certainly Siberry favors a tighter and more compact song
structure than on her previous albums, where virtually every song
ran into the six-minute range.  A less self-indulgent tone is
evident on the album's opening two tracks, a pair of
country-flavored tunes that have a ready-for-radio sound as
anything Siberry has previously written.

Although a more spare use of sound effects, quirky melodies and
vocal inflections makes _Beauty_ a less unique work than
_Walking_, Siberry's singing and songwriting is still as
emotionally vibrant as ever.  If nothing else, her new album
captures her at her most versatile as she works her way through
folkish observations ("Hockey"), humorous streams of thought
("Everything Reminds Me of My Dog"), and a dire warning ("Half
Angel, Half Eagle"), which may be the most ominous song Siberry
has ever written.

Although Siberry bears frequent comparison to Suzanne Vega and
fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, she has long surpassed both as a
creative force.  _Beauty_ is hardly groundbreaking, but as a
follow-up to a personal and soul-searching masterwork, the album
successfully showcases what may be Canada's most entertaining
musical export this side of Paul Schaffer.

Like Siberry, Kate Bush (no relation to George) is also saddled
with the task of topping an imposing piece of work.  Bush's 1985
album _Hounds_of_love_ was a mesmerizing record that cleverly
divided up its two sides between the facets of Bush's artistic
inclinations[:] i.e.[,] the accessible pop stylist and the
enigmatic conceptualist.

As her first album in four years, _The_Sensual_World_ doesn't
quite reach the creative highs of its predecessor, but it's still
a highly significant work that no doubt will be praised as being
Bush's most mature work to date.

Bush's detractors have often criticized her as being prone
toward self-indulgent and eccentric excesses, but like Siberry's
latest album, _The_Sensual_World_ is relatively free of the kind
of unusual sound and vocal effects that have characterized Bush's
previous five albums.

Indeed, the album's two most conspicuous effects are the
effective backing vocals of the Trio Bulgarka and David (Pink
Floyd) Gilmour's signature guitar work, which pops up on two
tracks.

Which is not to say that Bush has abandoned her musical metier.
_World_ is drenched in her usual thematic concerns, which
frequently revolve around adult desires colliding with childhood
memories.

Meanwhile Bush's unique talent for slipping into the
consciousness of her imaginary characters yield two of the
album's best songs -- "Deeper Understanding," in which an
alienated hacker finds solace in a friendly computer program, and
the delicate "A Woman's Work" (which Bush wrote for John Hughes'
film "She's Having a Baby"), wherein Bush reveals the anxieties
of a soon-to-be father waiting outside the delivery room.

The album's title promises sensuality and Bush delivers on it,
particularly on the seductive title track in which Bush sets
forth the album's general mood of passionate interaction with the
world around her.

Whether this consistently involving record will garner Bush a
long deserved success in the United States is another question
altogether.  Although a major figure in Britain and Europe, Bush
has yet to achieve anything more than a strong cult following in
America (being that she's never toured the United States, this is
apparently not a major concern of hers).  It would be a shame for
such an innovative artist to go unnoticed.
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julian@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
julian@uhccux.bitnet