Review of TRS

[gt7851a@prism.gatech.edu (Billy Kutulas)]

I have been lurking on this group for a few months, but never posted before.  
Recently, I came across a review of THE RED SHOES that I haven't seen on 
Gaffaweb or anywhere else.  I think it's an interesting (and pretty fair) one, 
so I thought I'd post it.  It appeared December 5, 1993.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MUSIC REVIEWS

Ratings
Excellent: *****
Good: ****
Above average: ***
Fair: **
Poor: *

By Chuck Campbell
Scripps-Howard News Service


> "The Red Shoes," Kate Bush

>  Columbia   ****


  A good album by most standards, Kate Bush's "The Red Shoes" is perhaps the 
year's biggest disappointment.  

  The British performer is an artist without equal:  She is profoundly gifted as
a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer.  Her extraordinary career 
has been punctuated by an unbroken string of superb albums dating back to her 
1978 debut (when she was a teen-ager).

  Now this.

  Of the dozen tracks on "The Red Shoes," half are excellent as usual for Ms. 
Bush, and a few others are at least strong.  But the album also includes the 
worst material Ms. Bush has released.

  After 15 years of cult status but only lukewarm mainstream success (in 
America, at least), perhaps Ms. Bush decided to make a run at the masses.

  That would explain the improbable guest contributions of Eric Clapton, Prince 
and Jeff Beck, the straightforward lyrics and the more generic rhythms and song 
structures.  Also, Ms. Bush often reins in her four-octave vocal here.  

  "The Red Shoes" is no common pop album, however.  (Ms. Bush is so endowed with
imagination she could never be mundane.)  So if fans can get over the heartbreak
of her somewhat compromised integrity, they can feast on fine typically atypical
tracks.

  "Eat the Music" is an uplifting song, ripe with seductive metaphors of fruit, 
love and life.  "Rubberband Girl" is likewise upbeat, a full-throttle, humorous 
celebration of coping.

  Those tracks notwithstanding, the album is dark and reflective, and Ms. Bush 
is excellent at conveying such moods.

  On "Big Stripey Lie," for instance, she infuses an air of outrage into a 
rumbling mix.  "Top of the City" and "Moments of Pleasure" are grandstands of 
disquieting emotion.  Meanwhile, mournful, mysterious declarations on the smoky 
"And So Is Love" are framed nicely by the restless shuffle of rhythm and 
Clapton's flavorful guitar licks.

  As for the Prince collaboration:  The two are geniuses, but their styles are 
incompatible, so "Why Should I Love You?" seems unfinished and lost between 
their respective styles.

  Worse are the half-baked "The Song of Solomon" (unenhanced by Ms. Bush's 
repeated use of mild profanity) and the eminently uninteresting "Lily."

  "Constellation of the Heart" is the worst of all--a pointedly mainstream song 
with a ridiculous group vocal and a hideously bland groove.

  "The Red Shoes" is Ms. Bush's worst album, but it's still pretty good.  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Billy Kutulas
gt7851a@prism.gatech.edu