late great kate rate

["Brian J Dillard" <dillardb@student.msu.edu>]

just caught up on 15 digests in a row. here are my rankings:

1)the dreaming. houdini and there goes a tenner and night of the swallow--all
fantastic, all incredibly different from one another and from most other songs
i've ever heard, and somehow kate makes them all work together on an album that
is a consistent whole because it refuses to stay in the same place from track
to track. however, i ALWAYS program out _sat in your lap_, perhaps the worst
kate song ever.

2)lionheart. often trashed but to me, it's incredible. the lyrics far surpass
those on TKI, and lyrics are a big part of kate's appeal to me. IMHO, the
"thighs are soft as marshmallos" line is perfectly in synch with the character
she is presenting in the song. OEML is early kate at her most precious (in the
good sense of the word). and i LOVE fullhouse, sonically and lyrically.

3/4) TIE--The Red Shoes and The Sensual World. I never liked the latter until
the last few months. But, having run out of unexplored kate material after TRS
singles and the boxed set had been devoured, i turned to it. it is her most
consistent album sonically--the inverse of the dreaming. but that is why i like
it. other than lionheart, it is the easiest album to listen to as a unit. the
fog gives me the chills. i, for one, like heads we're dancing. the kinetic
percussion and instrumentation get me moving, and the lyrics are fairly
interesting. TWW and TSW are incredible (as are the videos--but then again they
are the only kate videos i have ever seen), and the only song that leaves me
totally cold is L&A (altho kate's dancing in the video is just a hoot!).

The red shoes, as we have all said, is inconsistent. it is a collection of
songs w/o a common theme or mood, but it does not hold together like TD does.
Eat the Music is even worst than sat in your lap. the whole song just grates on
my nerves and makes me kind of embarrassed for the old gal. but the high points
-- MoP, ASIL, COTH, SoS, Lily, WSILY (far more interesting than the other kate
duet out there--don't give up--and a lot more fun) -- more than make up for it.
if you packaged 6 of the songs as an ep (mop, asil, coth, trs, sos, lily) you
would have an ep that far outstrips almost any other artist's full-length
album. MoP still makes me want to cry on the "every old sock" line.

5)HoL. mother stands for comfort is kate at her most minimal and creepy. the
singles are good but poppy; i far prefer the alternative hounds of love. but
TNW is the only thing that comes close to matching the complexity of the
dreaming. if you separated the two sides, TNW would go to no. 1.5, right before
lionheart

6)never for ever. half of it is take it or leave it, but the wedding list and
breathing and army dreamers and babooshka (I LOVE THIS SONG--IT MADE ME A
FAN!!!) are just superb. i like individual songs, but not
enough to listen to the album all the way through. the low points outweight the
high ones.

7)TKI. only wuthering heights captures my imagination. the lyrics just aren't
that great, and the production is too laid back. it is too easy listening. i
only really like these songs when i am watching the hammersmith concert. as
just a listening experinece, they leave me cold.


top 5 non-album tracks:
1)lord of the reedy river
2)ne t'en fui pas
3)warm and soothing
4)you want alchemy (for the lyrics)
5)experiment IV 12"--i love the isolated strings at the begining

TMIL may bump one of these in the long run, but i try not to rank really new
stuff because the novelty impairs my judgement