The Red Shoes YAR (Yet Another Review)

[josh@phoenix.lehman.com (Josh Whitehouse)]

Alot has been said of TRS as a whole and of each of the songs.
I feel compelled to share some of my observations about the 
album, and hopefully clear up some of the flak about "Kate sucks"
or "this song sucks" and hopefully give the album and songs 
a balanced place in the Kate universe.

Firstly, like every Kate album, a single listen is not enough!  A dozen
listens is not enough!  You have to FEEL the album, and that takes time!
I had mixed feelings for the album at first, especially certain songs
and where Kate was directing her music, but the underlying themes and
musical groundwork is pulling together for me.  Certainly she has grown,
and in doing so, made appreciating her album more work!

General Observations about the production:

More of an attempt to musically connect vocals and the instruments is done,
especially vocal solos with guitar solos and use of the Trio as a vocal
instrument rather than backup vocals.  A more "rock" flavor is introduced
into the music, which makes it seem to me like Kate is trying to "blend"
the earlier sound of the KB band with the newer works with modern and 
classical folk instruments.  The results are a leaner sound again for Kate,
with the studio wizardy shifted from affecting the later "denser" layered
music to a subtler blending of instrument and vocal effects.  Again, I feel
this reflects the growth of the artist focusing on refinement of style,
rather than the up front, more apparent sound of an artist pushing a style
breakthough (The Dreaming is the breakthough album, w/o question).

Vocally, Kate has again matured.  Though her voice is rougher (smoking does that),
and she no longer sings in that unholy key ( E, an octave above middle C, I think)
her voice remains capable of an incredible range of style and emotion that 
few have matched.  She has also matured in the same sense vocally as musically,
that is the vocal dramatics are better blended into the song and not as
apparent and in your face.

All in all, I am glad for the album.  Artists that recycle the same sound over
and over grow stale, and Kate is definitely NOT that.  Sometimes that may
define art (growth, I mean), and lyrically, the songs have gotten more personal
and intimate.


Rubberband Girl-
	Bouncy like the title.  Pretty much a pop song with some Kate touches.
	Her muzzein like ululating vocals tie directly into the guitar solo. 
	To me she is trying to link how they touch the same feelings in 
	different cultures.  I find some definite Prince "Minneapolis rock"
	touches in this song too (the keyboards when she does the "vocal stretch")
	so I laugh when people like this song but poo-poo WSILO.

And So Is Love-
	Kate Sings the Blues?  Really, the song is Kate singing, and Eric Clapton
	answering her on guitar.  She included her keyboard "flute like" sound
	to add more of an mellower tone to the song, and the percussion moves
	interestingly from channel to channel.  She sings with some real emotion
	in this song but with more of a traditional blues style!

Eat The Music-
	This controversial number is hard to define.  It has to be taken as a whole,
	and no focus placed on any piece.  First of all, it is not traditional Kate
	(whatever the hell that means).  I think attention should be paid to the
	recording mix of the instruments and the background vocals, and the attention
	paid to the dynamics of the two.  I like the lyrics, and the atmosphere
	projected by the song, but will say it can seem weak next to Kate songs
	that are so more emotionally charged.  But I dislike people saying it sucks
	because it doesn't carry the emotional punch of other songs.  Get a life,
	fellas, not every song by Kate has to be a cathartic experience.

Moments of Pleasure -
	And listening to this is one!  I like when Kate hands the orchestration
	to someone else (like This Womens Work) and focuses of vocally showing
	what she's got under the bonnet (hood, for Americans)!  Her phrasing is
	so exquisite and the soaring vocals make the lyrics even more powerful.
	'Nuff said about this, Kate shows none can match her vocally, though that
	is only a slice of This Womans Talent.

Song of Solomon-
	In a similar vein to Between a Man and a Woman.  Enough bullshit about
	the bullshit in the lyrics, she writes what she wants.  I like the 
	smooth, clean percussion, light keyboards, backup vocals that are like
	strings, that gradually progress to the Trio joining while Kates voice
	sounds more urgent, then the whole thing winds down smoothly again.  A
	well crafted song, that like many of Kates breaks the traditional rules
	of how a song should start stop and end.

Lily-
	What is going on at the beginning while Lily chants?  It works for me,
	alien and going right to the core of me with those vague noises.  Some-
	times, Kate can do things to sounds that scare me.  Hard, hitting, 
	magical, primitively pagan, this song is a Kate strong point, something
	no artist ever does.  Her vocals during the chorus are unbelievable,
	with the her voice breaking into each note with a hard urgent squealing
	quality (how did they engineer that?), and miscellaneous Kate shrieks popping
	in at a low level on the far right channel.

The Red Shoes-
	This combined with Lily, constitute what I believe is the core of the album.
	Almost a jig, this song has keyboards throwing whipping, vibrating sounds all
	over the percussion, with Kate's vocals and the whistle layered over this.
	Kate's recording wizardy is to produce a 3-D space that is remarkably vast
	(listen to the birds fly away in The Dreaming) and this song really uses
	that vast space to it's best ability.

Top of the City-
	This song is good, though somewhat troubling for me.  I found the chorus
	repetitive, and the shift from the refrains to the chorus too abrupt.
	But the backup vocals with the bass line, and the percussion is exquiste,
	and the Kates vocals are HOT.  The siren noises in the background show
	her attention to detail, and I understand what she wanted to do.  She
	reversed a song taking the usually exciting and hook-laden chorus and
	dimishing it, while pumping it up while she sang the refrains.  Interesting
	thought to experiment with, and perhaps with some more refinement it could
	become more interestingly powerful.

Constellation of the Heart-
	Clever lyrics!  "We take all the telescopes/And we turn them inside out/
	And we point the away from the big sky".  A personal statement about
	her work, perhaps?  This song, structually is the most straighforward
	pop, but Kate peps it up with some emphatic vocalizations at then end.
	The chorus is the more interesting part, with backup singers echoing
	Kate, but the singers doing the refrain sound muddled.  The funk guitar
	is an interesting touch.  Again, I find Kate playing with song structure,
	by not taking the front seat on lyrics she is doing some new work and like
	Top of the City, a more refined version of this style will be out and 
	more impressive the the listening audience.

Big Stripey Lie-
	What a song!  First thing, the BALLS Kate has.  Here she has two of the 
	world's more well known legends of the guitar, playing on her album, 
	Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, and without any reservations debuts her 
	first guitar solo right along both of them on her album!  It's a searing,
	minimal Kate style, with a dirty guitar and bass, some heavy bass and 
	strings, and murky, tight lyrics.  It has alot of power to me, and I 
	almost don't like to listen to it.  But no question, it's a powerful song, 
	(I think the most powerful) on the album, and quite a breakthrough for her 
	in terms of style.  I can't describe what makes the song so brilliant
	(perhaps just the open rawness), but it certainly is.  It is disturbing in
	the way Get Out of My House is, without the dramatics.

Why Should I Love You-
	This song, again a flak magnet, does work on different levels then the 
	obvious ones.  Prince is a musical genius in his own right (and
	misunderstood as well), and Kate just doesn't do the Minneapolis sound,
	she adds the Trio in a church choir style.  Like the difficult Rocketman,
	where she made reggae with Kate styles an unusual blend, she does likewise
	here.  Purists argue that this isn't Kate, but in reality only Kate has the
	right to say what is and isn't her!  Technically, all of the elements of
	the song, the Trio, the Prince keyboards and guitar, Kate and the backup
	musicians blend flawlessly, while Kates vocals are technically challenged
	by the tricky chorus (just try and sing it, I DARE you!).  I wonder about
	those viewing her choice to be a versatile artist by incorporating 
	contemporary conventional pop music as being negative.

You're The One-
	Again, Kate applies her profound knowledge of music to a conventional
	song.  Of interest to me was again the emphasis of the vocals against
	the guitar, most apparent here with the Trio and Jeff Beck (who can 
	ever effectively blend two elements like this? Only KATE) as they
	swirl in and out together, while Kate sings of the particular pain
	of breaking up with someon you love.  Interestingly I notice the vocals
	and guitars most here and in Rubberband Girl, the first and last songs
	on the album.  Details like that are what Kate is.

So, in closing, don't take the album at face value.  Kate has expanded beyond
crafting songs, but now as a _musician_ is growing steadily.  I consider The
Kick Inside and Lionheart as one chapter, and Never For Ever, The Dreaming, and
Hounds of Love as another chapter.  The Sensual World opens a new one, with a 
new focus and direction, and The Red Shoes a forward step from there.  I look
forward already impatiently to see what Kate has learned from the process of
these last two albums and where she will take them.  We are listening to one
of the most important musical artists ever, and one hundred years from now maybe
everyone will appreciate the real scope of what This Woman's Work means.


Rubberband Girl:
	I like the attempt to