Details Review + EtM Success

[King o' Pain <labspm@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu>]

Since everyone else is typing in Kate reviews/articles, I thought I would
do the same.  So, here's the review of The Red Shoes from the Nov. issue
of _Details_ (Nirvana's on the cover): 
                                                                          
With her last two albums, 1985's _The Hounds of Love_ and 1989's _The
Sensual World_, Kate Bush gradually cast off her established image. 
Remember that dippy English ingenue who said "wow" too often and who
launched her career in her teens by rewriting _Wuthering Heights_ as an
overblown three-minute pop operetta?  She went on to create her own serene
pop dimension, where subtle melodies and sure rhythms stabilize the
personal obsessions and psychodramas.  Much of _TRS_ is an unexpected
return to Earth.  There are terrestrial guests galore (including Prince,
Eric Clapton, and classical violinist Nigel Kennedy), but their
contributions tend to be unobtrusive.  More importantly, Bush avoids
setting an overall tone for _TRS_:  Instead, she skips freely through
musical idioms.  "Rubberband Girl" is playful funk; "Eat the Music" is
frothy calypso; "Constellation of the Heart" feeds off a pure 1979 Chic
Organization groove.  And for those who think Kate is at her best when
sounding as though she's sorting through secrets in a dusty attic, there
is the moving private scrapbook "Moments of Pleasure" and the elegiac
"You're the One."   All this weaving to and fro leaves her frisky:  "Eat
the Music" is also an extended sexual metaphor.  "Split the banana/ Crush
the sultana," she unsympathetically concludes.  Then on "The Song of
Solomon" she announces:  "Don't want your bullshit, yeah/ Just want your
sexuality."  Perhaps.  But anyone who has followed Kate Bush's exquisite,
precious conceits for the last fifteen years may find it hard to believe
that she wouldn't like a little bit of lovingly crafted bullshit thrown
in-just for good measure.  Chris Heath                                    
             
   
Also, while I was leafing through the paper this morning, I saw the Top 10
College Albums according to Radio & Records.  They have "Eat the Music" as
number 10.  I guess they count CD singles as "albums."  And, when I was at
the record store last night, I picked up the playlist for 99X.  99X is an
"alternative" station here in Atlanta.  Although the music is
"alternative," it is the largest and most popular station in Atlanta. 
They have "EtM" listed in medium rotation.  Not bad...  Even though "EtM"
is not one of my favorite Kate songs, it's still nice to hear her on the
radio and see her having at least a little success in the US.  Now if
only MTV would play "Rubberband Girl."    
   
   
Stuart

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Stuart Myerburg                    "I need more things. I need more money.
Emory Univ. Law School              Don't want to work. Want things for free."
labspm@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu                                   -Jane Siberry
                              _o_
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