jarno_m_l's Full Review: The Whole Story by Kate Bush
Lately, my cd-player has grown very fond of Kate Bush. The infatuation has revealed itself in the fact that "The Whole Story" cd can be found in the company of my cd-player more often than might be considered appropriate for a refined lady. Still, I won't complain, as I too am quite fond of Kate's music, and this particular album receives high applause from me.
How would I describe Kate Bush to someone who had never heard her music?
I could say that she is a brave artist not afraid to balance on the edges of pop, rock and alternative, always remaining creative, fresh and original. I could also say that she's got a knack for the occasional very catchy tune, has a versatile voice and a quirky way of using it. Finally, I could say that she's a pioneer of sorts, a fore-runner who plowed inroads into the ears and minds of the mainstream-audiences to make room for a new, scary, enticing revelation. The revelation that all music does not always have to fit the conventional patterns you're used to in order to make memorable, entertaining listening material. That pioneer work has later undoubtedly contributed to the popular acceptance of such artists as Tori Amos, Alannis Morisette, just to name a few.
Fortunately I hardly need to describe her music to an audience completely ignorant of her - despite being original, and even experimental at times, Kate Bush has had enough success and day-time radio hits to have left an imprint in most people's minds.
The 1986 album "The Whole Story" is a compilation of songs from her five previous albums, and though it does not exactly tell the whole story of her music, it does contain some of her best work, spanning (time wise) from her first single, the 1978 hit song "Wuthering Heights" all the way to the 1986 release "Experiment IV".
The album starts with Wuthering Heights, a version with new vocals. It's a melodic, catchy song. Apparently Kate felt that the original sounded a bit dated, and her voice on it a bit like a little girl singing… It is her voice that people usually remember her by, the high tones, and the "girlish" impression she sometimes gives off. Despite maturing, that quality still often pops up in her voice, which, if you ask me, is not a bad thing at all - it makes her quite unique, and gives her music a characteristic playfulness. With a piano starting the song off, and Kate joining in with her more mature, but still quirky, exploring voice, this is a worthy opener.
Cloudbusting is made notable by it's strings, which play along with the drums to produce a beat-like tune. Add on top of that the melodic singing of Kate, and you've got a hit song. The music on the background grows towards the end, with its string dominated beat starting to form an image of a steam train in your imagination... well, to be perfectly honest, you won't probably get the train-image before you hear the whistle of a train at the end. But then it's a real "ah, now I see it!" feeling...
As we move on to The Man With The Child In His Eyes we get a glimpse of what Kate meant by the girlish tone in her voice in the early recordings - this song was released only months after Wuthering Heights, but apparently passed Kate's scorching self-criticism, and made it to the album without a remake. It is a beautiful piano dominated song, with a flute, strings and horns providing support.
Breathing is a brilliant track that I would describe as theatrical - no overused love stories, no simple rubber-stamp lyrics here, this is a song about the threat of nuclear war. Kate synchronises our breathing to the beat of the song: Breathing... in, out, in, out... and the synth on the background continues invoking those words in our minds as Kate moves on to other lyrics. There is a quiet spell with only minimal instrumental sounds framing the "distant" sounding news flash about the formation of a mushrooms cloud. The song ends with male voices engaging Kate in a dialogue - we hear Kate's increasingly anguished and desperate replies to the questions and proclamations from those voices:
What are we going to do without...?
Oh, please!
What are we going to do without...?
Oh, let me breathe!
What are we going to do without...?
Oh, breathe in deep!
We are all going to die!
Oh, leave me something to breathe!
.......
All I can say to that is Wow! A comment that also works as a pathetically limping transition into the description of the next track, titled…. you guessed it: Wow.
This is a ballad-like song with complex, creative vocals outside the memorable, simple chorus. It's a very beautiful piece of great musical merit. Many people I've spoken to about the album consider this one of the best tracks - unfortunately I'm not many people, and am thus free to declare my inferior musical taste - I like the song, but not like-like. If that makes sense…
Hounds Of Love starts with a sample from an old sci-fi horror movie: "It's in the trees! It's coming!", and moves on to Kate singing on top of curious percussion, with her vocal styling forming part of the background occasionally. The strings on the background remind me of the way Apocalyptica uses the cellos to create a "heavy" background beat.
Running Up That Hill has Kate singing the main theme, as well as some supporting vocals - this is, I think, one of the first songs who's video I remember seeing on MTV when I was younger. (Though as a hormone-driven teenager I really was much too focused on her looks to have paid attention to her music.) The synthesizer and vocal driven song is supported by a steady beat that carries on throughout - interesting and memorable. But nothing like….
Army Dreamers, one of my personal favourites. Kate sings with a playful, toned-down voice on top of a waltz-like background. You can hear her smiling. Male voices play along, engaging her in a dialogue at times, and providing curious shout-effects at points. The music is acoustic, guitar driven, wonderfully atmospheric and quirky. This is a song that should be listening to through headphones, lest you risk loosing the quieter nuances of this beautiful, original song. Brilliant, say I!
And the brilliance continues with Sat In Your Lap - now if you don't find this track worth frothing at the mouth like I do, don't worry, weird things appeal to me. I really like this hectic song, and regret only that it's so difficult to describe in words - it's jerky, it's… agressive, with the background vocalists almost angrily spitting out their lines. You could say that every instrument, even the human voices in this song act like the percussion. The chorus part is sung by Kate with an angry beat to her voice. This is the loudest song on the album, and (did I say this already) I really, really like it!
Experiment IV is a song about a military authorised experiment - it is a song about the misuse of science for unsavory purposes. Talk about unconventional subject matter!
We were working secretly,
for the military,
our experiment in sound,
was nearly ready to begin….
The tune starts out perhaps a bit too complex, but the chorus pulls it together into a catchy interesting end product - the chorus elaborates the purpose of the "experiment":
They told us what they wanted,
was a sound that could kill some one,
from a distance... so we go ahead,
and the meters are over in the red
It's a mistake in the making.
An excellent track.
The next song, Dreaming goes right up there with the best this album has to offer - it is a song about the Aborigines, but with the curious singing style of Kate in this one, the lyrics are almost unintelligible. That doesn't really matter though, as the song really beautifully utilises vocals as instruments, even things like rhythmic breathing to form the bulk of the music. Notably, there is a didjeridu playing in the background (you know, the Aboriginal instrument - essentially a long tube which produces deep buzzing sounds). I suspect that this is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of a song, and you already know which camp I belong to...
The album ends with Babooshka, a song about a married man in a mid-life crisis finding a younger lover. But never mind the lyrics, that's not what'll stick to your mind. This song is one of the catchiest Kate Bush tunes around - when I first got the album, I had Babooshka playing in my head relentlessly for days, driving me to insomnia... I've never seen the video that goes along with the song, but I've heard that it provided some real eye-candy to the male teenage population of it's time. I wouldn't know though, as I was only five years old when the song was released in 1980. I was probably still in the I-don't-want-to-sit-next-to-that-girl stage... silly little tot.
Final Recommendation
Um...Buy it?
---------------------------------
This review, to a large degree, owes it's existence to Teresa (tlimjoco). She inspired me to write it by persistently showering me in compliments until I caved…. Besides, how could I refuse my favourite music reviewer? Her reviews are of exceptional quality, a fact which you would do well to discover for yourself - a good place to start would be her recent review on this very same album, which you'll find at http://www.epinions.com/content_16133230212
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