Re: First Kate Experience, Sundays, Indigo Girls

[peace@camelot.bradley.edu (Laura Wasko)]

In <MRUBIN.92Nov12200810@ra.cs.umb.edu> mrubin@cs.umb.EDU (Mark Rubin) writes:

>I'm sad to admit that I haven't picked up any more of her albums. But 
>have heard some songs from them so am not totally lost. I guess I get
>depressed every now and then when I find out that I could have been listening
>to these songs long ago, but failed to get them since I did not know who
>she was. So i'm off tomorrow to get a few of them. Probably, Kick Inside,
>Hounds of Love, Lioneheart?, The Dreaming?. Which do you recommend that I
>start with... is the prev. order OK do you think, in progression?

I think you may want to start with _Hounds of Love_ if your first full
album experienced was _The Sensual World_.  I, too, first got interested in
Kate's music when I bought TSW, which is still probably my favorite--maybe
for sentimental reasons, maybe because I actually prefer her voice in its
softer, more melodic tones, as it appears on TSW and HoL.  The second Kate
album I bought was _Lionheart_, which was a bit of a rude awakening after
TSW because she's very much inclined towards high, slightly "girlish"
soprano on that album, as she tends to be on earlier stuff.  I did grow to
like it quite a bit after a while, but it hardly seemed like the same
artist.  As someone else here already suggested, you may need to slip into
Kate's "screech-owl" sound more gradually.  _The Dreaming_, IMHO, doesn't
use as much of that, although it's much harder musically (percussion, etc.)
than the earlier albums.  She's angry in her sound here, but not warbly.

>Do a lot
>of you people also like "The Sundays" and "Indigo Girls" along with Kate? 

Yep.  I especially like the Indigo Girls' first and latest albums.  (The
middle two just don't move me as much--not sure why.)  I enjoyed The
Sundays' first album quite a bit--just bought the second one and I think I
like it even better.  It's softer and more ambient, which I really enjoy.

>What other kind of music, like the previous, do you think i'd like? I enjoy
>Tori Amos and the 10000 Maniacs, but I just can't get into them like Kate,
>The Sundays... and The Indigo Girls. Minus a few of the Indigo Girls songs
>which just got a little to religiously oriented for me.

Hmm. . . someone on this group recently brought up the Innocence Mission,
who I just love.  They have two albums out, a self-titled debut album and
_Umbrella_.  The lyrics praise simplicity, are interested in the elderly
and mother-child relationships, and occasionally verge into Christianity
(especially on one song on _Umbrella_, "Every Hour Here")--I'm not into
Christian music but I really do like the way they look at religion, even if
you mention you aren't into religious songs either.   Karen Peris, the lead
singer, often is difficult to understand unless you know the lyrics or get
familiar with her method of phrasing, so the religious content may be
veiled by the sound anyway.  :)

You also might enjoy Sarah McLachlan, who has also been compared to Kate.
She has a lovely soprano voice--uses it more on her first album, _Touch_,
than on her second, _Solace_.  I personally think _Touch_ is stronger
lyrically and musically than _Solace_, although both are lovely--_Solace_
does try to go back to barer acoustic stuff than _Touch_.  Sarah herself
said that when she recorded _Touch_ at age nineteen she was trying to show
off a lot of stuff she'd been taught and just how far her voice could
go--personally I think it worked.  :)

Finally, you could try later Cocteau Twins' albums, such as _Blue Bell
Knoll_ or _Heaven or Las Vegas_.  The earlier ones tend to use too much
drum-box and be a little cacophonous for my tastes.

Laura


                   Laura Wasko      peace@camelot.bradley.edu
"Beauty is still free/ Beauty is not exclusive/ Beauty is ours to touch and
to know, touch and to know/ Don't you think there's more?/ I really have to
know/ Don't you think there's more in life?"        --The Innocence Mission