Is Kate really losing it?

[dcerrato@ATHENA.MIT.EDU]

Hey folks.  I'm new to this newsgroup and tuned in just as the "Is Kate really
losing it?" controversy was getting under way.  Just a few thoughts...

It's really remarkable reading all the different points of view on Kate's
music (especially TSW) and realizing just how personal a thing this is.  In one
of the recent posts, someone (I don't know who, sorry) commented on the lame
drumming on TSW.  Now, this is something I NEVER would have noticed, much less
gotten worried about as a Kate's-Losing-It warning sign.  The fact is, drum
work doesn't interest me much.  However, vocals do.  One reason I happen to
*love* "Reaching Out" is because Kate really wrings herself out vocally and
emotionally in that song.  On TSW, she experiments a lot vocally, uttering
sounds I've never heard before and presumably searching for new ways to express
new feelings (mmmmyes sounds like rodent chatter, but it's interesting).

The point here is, as multifaceted as Kate's music is, it's unlikely that any
one of us is tuning in fully to every aspect of it, and that we tend only to
notice shortcomings in our own personal favorite areas.  It seems that TSW has
left some people feeling cheated while others don't understand what people are
complaining about.  I tend to agree with those who maintain that Kate is simply
evolving (something she's been doing all along) into another phase of her life
with different things to say and different ways of saying them.  Inevitably,
some of her fans will be left behind and new ones will replace them--but this
does NOT mean that Kate is "losing" it.

I personally love TSW less than Kate's previous two albums, and I too fear that
she may be becoming one of those talented artists whom I can appreciate but
really have no use for.  HOWEVER, I feel like I've invested a great deal in my
love of Kate and her music, and I'm not giving her up without first trying
REAL HARD (if it comes to that) to love her new stuff.

Prediction:  Having gracefully weathered mental and emotional growing pains,
Kate will produce an album that is fantastically new, different, and
challenging.  In the light of this new work, TSW will be seen as a transitional
album reflecting features of both the old and the new.

-Dean Cerrato
 dcerrato@athena.mit.edu