The Sensual Suspension in Gaffa

[bsbbs!nrc@bluemoon.rn.com (N. Richard Caldwell)]

As one who has long believed that _The Sensual World_ was a decidedly
sub-par effort for Kate, I can't help but be a bit amused at the
reactions of the believers as more heretics step forward to declare
that this particular relic is perhaps not quite as divine as the others.

Those who are uncomfortable with well founded criticism of _The Sensual
World_ may find some solace in Jorn's recent treatise on the nature of
that work.  Unfortunately, many of them have been incapable of
responding to such criticism beyond inserting a finger firmly into each
ear and humming loudly.  

The contention that _The Sensual World_ is the beginning of some sort
of "new" suddenly mature Kate who we might be so presumptuous as to 
rename "Catherine" is absurd.  _The Sensual World_ is much less a 
product of growth and development than it is of stagnation.  The 
contention that this stagnation is somehow a reflection of "maturity" 
is, in my view, nonsense.  The shortcomings of _The Sensual World_ have 
more to do with Kate avoiding life's little discomforts than dealing 
with them and maturing.  Things like learning new equipment, applying 
some discipline to her work and dealing with her own insecurities as a 
performer have all been neatly avoided for a long time now.

Jon Drukman is spot on when he talks about Kate's greatest songs being
*about* something: a story, an idea, a feeling - whatever.  More 
importantly, they view their subjects from a new or interesting 
perspective and convey them at a very basic level.  Kate's music may be
intelligent but it hits you in the guts.  Somewhere between _HoL_ and
_TSW_ Kate's ability to find that perspective and touch that basic
level seems to have gotten buried under the burden of her own 
aspirations.

_Head's We're Dancing_ is good example.  The concept is sound.  The
idea of discovering that you've had, or even enjoyed and been charmed 
by, a meeting with an absolute monster is fascinating.  Unfortunately, 
instead of relying on her ability to build characters and portray 
feelings to create this frightening image, Kate takes an almost
absurdly cheap shortcut by making Hitler, that ready-made icon of
ultimate evil, the antagonist in the story.  The irony is that she was
doing just fine at conjuring that feeling without such an overt
reference.  It's almost as though she wasn't comfortable that she was
getting the point across so she wrote it out in big capital letters. 
Thus, Kate managed to turn an interesting idea slightly goofy.

In the end, it doesn't matter whether the idea came from a book, a
movie or an unusually shaped ball of lint that she found lodged in the
dryer vent, as long as it's interesting or viewed from an interesting
perspective.  As Kate has pushed the capabilities of her current
methods up to and perhaps beyond their capability Kate's knack for
producing these ideas and perspectives seems to have suffered.  I see
_TSW_ as less a product of maturity than a product of four years of
frustration.  _The Sensual World_ is Kate Bush with no real direction,
no mission.  It is Kate Bush suspended in gaffa.

I agree with Jorn that she's been dancing on the edge, never knowing
where the next song would come from.  But I also think that as Kate has
obsessed more and more over her work, she has made it harder and harder
on herself.  Did Kate make it so difficult to realize her ambitions for
her best ideas that her lesser ideas were pressed into service?  Or was
she simply so uninspired and bored that she was unable to come up with
any ideas better than _Reaching Out_?

And it's not just most of the lyrics that lack Kate's usual inspiration, 
much of the music is the same way.  Kate has fallen behind the 
capabilities of her equipment so we're forced to make do in a lot of 
instances with canned sounds where original samples, or even live 
instruments would have been much better.  _HWD_ again serves as an 
example.  The backwards swishing drum sounds work well at first but 
eventually the just end up sounding entirely too canned and sequenced.  
Compare that to the drum sounds in virtually anything from _The Dreaming_ 
and you'll see the difference.

Part of Kate's genius has always been her ability to add incredible
detail and texture through her arrangements.  Normally Kate has established
a basic foundation, a sound framework of rythmn or melody, on which to hang
these details.  On _TSW_ Kate seems to be building massive facades of
detail and texture with very little of the basic foundation that should
be supporting them.

I'm not about to let Del Palmer off the hook for his contribution to
the problems with _TSW_, either.  We don't know whether it was Del's
ambition to engineer this project or if Kate pressed him into service,
perhaps  to avoid the more regimented work schedule that using an 
outside engineer would entail.  Whatever the reason, Del was clearly 
in over his head on this project.  The flaws in his engineering work 
should be obvious to anyone who doesn't have their amp wired up to a 
pair of three foot tall chocolate eclairs.  All you have to do is listen.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if Kate had settled for letting Del
muck up the engineering.  Unfortunately, she let him lose on some of
the other equipment as well and we'll never know just how much of blame
for some of the lame drum and synth programming lies with Del.

Rationalize all you like, folks.  _The Sensual World_ was, if anything,
the _end_ of an era, not the beginning.  How do we know?  Kate told us
herself.  Sniff your boxed set and smell the answer.  No, wait.  Look
in your boxed set and see the answer.  There it is: the beginning,
middle and _end_ of an era according to Kate, herself.

Read the interviews.  During her promotional interviews for _TSW_ Kate
repeatedly expressed the idea that art should be fundamentally simple
and seemed to realize that she had gotten away from that idea.  This
fundamental simplicity is the foundation that I spoke of earlier. In
HMV/Q interview Kate says that the boxed set represents the end of an
era.  She couldn't say how, but she felt that her work would be
different from then on.  

At the convention Kate said that she was going back to composing on the
piano and that she hoped that she could come up with something a little
simpler and that she could regain her sense of mission.  

If there is to be some kind of "new" Kate, it is the Kate who, at some
point during or after the production of _TSW_, realized that she had
lost the fundamental simplicity of her art and resolved to recapture
it.  If there is to be a "new" Kate, it is the Kate who has realized the
importance of coming to terms with herself as a performer and
establishing some kind of discipline in her work.  _That_ is the Kate
that I am looking forward to hearing from on the next album.  

This "Catherine" that some are trying to conjure up to dismiss the 
faults of _TSW_ is a fantasy.  Kate understands that something went
awry with _TSW_ and seems determined not to let that happen on the 
next album. "Catherine" would still be wondering whether she should 
have put down another layer of BVs for _Deeper Understanding_.

Hasta la vista, Catherine.  Yeah, right, IMHO.


    "It's really sad that pressures are put on some musicians. It's
  essential for them to be human beings, because that's where all
  the creativity comes from, and if it's taken away from them and
  everybody starts kneeling and kissing their feet and that, they're
  gonna grow in the wrong areas."
				-- Kate Bush

"Don't drive too slowly."         Richard Caldwell
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