The Album Review Club - Week #120 - (page 1413) - The Lexicon of Love - ABC

[Saddleworth2]

Before The Dawn – Kate Bush - 2014

I have a feeling this review may get me crossed off Saddleworth2’s Christmas list, but this only works if we are all honest, right? Contrasting his passionate review and introduction to this album with my feelings whilst listening to it serves to underline that we all hear things differently and all look for different things in our music. Just like our food or films or TV programmes, I suppose.

For clarification purposes, I’m listening to the Spotify playlist, which contains the original album versions.

The Before The Dawn playlist, and I’m guessing a lot of Kate Bush’s work, includes a lot of elements that I don’t like in music, and too few of the elements that I do like. I like to hear the different instruments in the mix – that ring of an acoustic guitar chord, the wheeze of the accordion or the chords on the piano. There is some of that scattered amongst these songs, but the overriding feeling is of “bitty” snatches of instruments that get lost in the soundscape.

I also like singers who sound more relaxed and are not reaching and overextending notes. And this is where most of the problems lie for me. Take “Jig of Life” – it starts with a great fiddle, which appears throughout the track. But as soon as Kate Bush starts singing, it feels less important, and I find her voice too atonal. “Joanni” is not a bad track for the most part, but it is completely ruined by the backing vocals that come in about a minute from the end – it sounds like Fozzie Bear has suddenly joined the band!

A lot of this sounds like the soundtrack to some musical, which is fine, but not for me. Again, I apologise for not feeling the enthusiasm for the music, but I really do struggle with her voice, which is by far the main focus of so many of these songs. And what is all that vocal nonsense and voices in “Waking The Witch”? I just don’t like that in a piece of music - although one of my favourite albums has a minute or so of that at the end of one of the tracks, that’s an isolated case that I can deal with, but it happens far too often here.

So, how to score this album? I was interested to read that the sound snippet at the start of “Hounds of Love” was from one of my favourite old horror movies, Night of the Demon, so I’ll give her a bonus point for having good taste in old movies. But this in itself should show you how much I struggled with this. Across these two threads, I’ve scored every album between 3 and 8, but even I accept that it’s not as bad as that Madonna debacle (although I prefer Madonna’s voice to Kate Bush’s). The best I can do is 5/10. I did try and I listened to the whole lot, but I just didn’t like it.

Mate, you need to get on my Christmas card list to get crossed off ;-)
Thanks for listening. I guess her music is not for everyone. If you don't like her voice then thats not a good position to recover from. The 'vocal nonsense' you refer to is part of a 'dream sequence' brought on by hypothermia where she hears snatches of dialogue. Not that a cursory listen would tell you that. We should just celebrate the threads diversity and range.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Well, I'll start by saying I love every single I've heard by Kate Bush but for some reason I've not really listened to her albums. I do remember my Dad playing the "Hounds of Love" album LOADS of times in the 80s though and when I heard some of the tracks, it took me back in time to hearing it again!

I am a big fan of Bjork and you can tell how much Bjork was influenced by Kate Bush. I think it's fair to say that Bjork "pushes it" more than Kate Bush though. I always like to hear the artists who have influenced the ones I like.

So onto the album. I don't know if I've listened to the full album as I can only go from my Spotify, but overall I enjoyed it. I don't think all the songs are on my Spotify playlist though. I do think it adds to the charm though that if you want to listen to the full album, you have to buy it.

Again, a common theme, it's an album I'd never have found without these threads. What I liked about the songs is that there was a bit of everything in there - Hounds of Love, Cloudbusting, Running up that Hill are just brilliant pop songs. I really like her newer songs too like Joanni and Top of the City. You can tell she is a superb songwriter and I can't honestly think of anyone she sounds like! If someone asked me who her influences are, I'd genuinely have no idea and I like to think I've a reasonable knowledge of music.

One thing which really struck me is just how well produced this album is. It sounds superb - balanced. The quiet songs sound like you're sat next to her, but the "bigger" sounds are great too. Listening to the songs, I also found it hard to know when a song was made - Joanni could've been recorded this year, or even in 1985. Her voice doesn't give any clues at all which is pretty remarkable. I love Joni Mitchell, but you can hear with every passing year how her voice changes.

So, how to score this? It's a hard one as I think I need - and will - listen to this a few times to really get into it. So, I'll do what I did with Spirit of Eden and mark it now and as if I've listened to it 10 times!

8/10 - and thanks for suggesting it!

Nice review mate. Glad you liked the album. You were absolutely spot on your reference to Bjork.
She has influenced a diverse range of artists including Tori Amos, Adele, Boy George, Suede, Bat for Lashes, St Vincent and collaborated with such as Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Prince and Elton John.

 

[Marklr]

Just been found recently. Filmed at the MCR Apollo in 1979. Never been seen before.

 

[RobMCFC]

Mate, you need to get on my Christmas card list to get crossed off ;-)
Thanks for listening. I guess her music is not for everyone. If you don't like her voice then thats not a good position to recover from. The 'vocal nonsense' you refer to is part of a 'dream sequence' brought on by hypothermia where she hears snatches of dialogue. Not that a cursory listen would tell you that. We should just celebrate the threads diversity and range.

I did get the feeling that a lot of the music felt like the script to some film or musical that I wasn’t seeing. With this in mind, I can see why it made such an interesting show ...... for fans of her voice.

I’m not sure that I would have got much extra out of listening to the live album because - possibly another controversial view - I don’t think they ever capture the magic of a live show at home. I have Bruce’s 75-85 live box set but this is an exception. Almost exclusively, I’d rather listen to a studio album.

Interesting that both you and Mr Goater like Björk because she’s another voice that grinds my gears!

Anyway, thanks for taking it with good grace. These threads are all about explaining why we like what we like and why we don’t like what we don’t, and all music discussion is healthy.

 

[Saddleworth2]

And what is all that vocal nonsense and voices in “Waking The Witch”? I just don’t like that in a piece of music - although one of my favourite albums has a minute or so of that at the end of one of the tracks, that’s an isolated case that I can deal with, but it happens far too often here.

You see I haven't quite given up on you yet Rob.
This is an extract from an article in the 'New Yorker' which covers the 'vocal nonsense and voices' far more capably than I ever could. Hopefully it will also be of interest to those yet to review.

I don’t think that I ever listened to the second side, the song cycle “The Ninth Wave,” and maybe that’s just as well, for, as gorgeous as it is, it’s also about the saddest set of songs that I have ever heard.
“The Ninth Wave” is about a woman lost at sea after a shipwreck and awaiting rescue. As she floats in icy waters, she fights but intermittently succumbs to fitful sleep, longing for the ordinary human pleasures, wishing she had a radio (“I’d tune in to some friendly voices, talking ’bout stupid things”), and hearing the murmurings of her family, coaxing her back from the brink of death. The songs make poignant and musically ambitious use of spoken word and helicopter sounds, church bells and chopped-up vocals, Uilleann pipes and fiddles, and of a single whistle note at the end of “And Dream of Sheep.” The Irish folk musician Dónal Lunny said later that Bush had him play it over and over for three hours until it acquired the right “bend.”
On just a listen or two, the lyrics from “The Ninth Wave” worm their way deep. Take these, in which the woman, alone in the cold, dark water, imagines sheep in a meadow: “Oh their breath is warm / and they smell like sleep / They take me deeper and deeper / like poppies, heavy with seed.” Everything about those lines is right, down to the poppies, with all their layers of association: the field of sleep-inducing flowers in “The Wizard of Oz”; poppies as the source of opiates, and as symbols of remembrance for the dead, adopted after the First World War in Britain; poppies, which, because they have such wide, blowsy heads atop such tall, slender stalks, can look like they’re nodding off as they sway in a summer breeze. A staging of “The Ninth Wave” comprised a big chunk of Bush’s live show, in 2014, and for it she made a film in which she floated in a tank of water at Pinewood Studios in London singing “And Dream of Sheep,” tipped backward in a life preserver and sounding genuinely chilled and forlorn. She was in there for six hours and came out with a mild case of hypothermia—a very Kate Bush anecdote, in which what might be read as feminine kookiness and fragility could also be seen as artistic determination and stamina.

 

[Saddleworth2]

For anyone that is interested. This is a very detailed explanation of the song cycle the 9th Wave which forms Act 2 of the album. It covers the meaning of the songs and lyrics extremely well.

"The Ninth Wave" by Kate Bush

Kate Bush, The Ninth Wave, The Hounds of Love, music, amazing, beautiful, cosmic, important, profound, story, suite, video, review, CD review

ohbythewayblog.blogspot.com

 

[hammocity]

So, you like her then?

I’ll give it a miss, got to pick my gerbil up from the vets.

 

[RobMCFC]

You see I haven't quite given up on you yet Rob.
This is an extract from an article in the 'New Yorker' which covers the 'vocal nonsense and voices' far more capably than I ever could. Hopefully it will also be of interest to those yet to review.

I don’t think that I ever listened to the second side, the song cycle “The Ninth Wave,” and maybe that’s just as well, for, as gorgeous as it is, it’s also about the saddest set of songs that I have ever heard.
“The Ninth Wave” is about a woman lost at sea after a shipwreck and awaiting rescue. As she floats in icy waters, she fights but intermittently succumbs to fitful sleep, longing for the ordinary human pleasures, wishing she had a radio (“I’d tune in to some friendly voices, talking ’bout stupid things”), and hearing the murmurings of her family, coaxing her back from the brink of death. The songs make poignant and musically ambitious use of spoken word and helicopter sounds, church bells and chopped-up vocals, Uilleann pipes and fiddles, and of a single whistle note at the end of “And Dream of Sheep.” The Irish folk musician Dónal Lunny said later that Bush had him play it over and over for three hours until it acquired the right “bend.”
On just a listen or two, the lyrics from “The Ninth Wave” worm their way deep. Take these, in which the woman, alone in the cold, dark water, imagines sheep in a meadow: “Oh their breath is warm / and they smell like sleep / They take me deeper and deeper / like poppies, heavy with seed.” Everything about those lines is right, down to the poppies, with all their layers of association: the field of sleep-inducing flowers in “The Wizard of Oz”; poppies as the source of opiates, and as symbols of remembrance for the dead, adopted after the First World War in Britain; poppies, which, because they have such wide, blowsy heads atop such tall, slender stalks, can look like they’re nodding off as they sway in a summer breeze. A staging of “The Ninth Wave” comprised a big chunk of Bush’s live show, in 2014, and for it she made a film in which she floated in a tank of water at Pinewood Studios in London singing “And Dream of Sheep,” tipped backward in a life preserver and sounding genuinely chilled and forlorn. She was in there for six hours and came out with a mild case of hypothermia—a very Kate Bush anecdote, in which what might be read as feminine kookiness and fragility could also be seen as artistic determination and stamina.

Thanks for that. I am genuinely interested in the ideas behind songs and as you said, there is no way I could have known all that by just listening to the song. However, all that stuff about filming in a tank for six hours and coming out with hypothermia underlines the point that it's more about a stage show than the music. To be honest, I'm interested in the music of an artist, where an album was recorded, the story of how the album was made etc., but I'm less interested in artists who have a load of other stuff going on on-stage. However, the info you've posted does serve as a useful background and maybe it will give others a deeper appreciation of what they are listening to.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Thanks for that. I am genuinely interested in the ideas behind songs and as you said, there is no way I could have known all that by just listening to the song. However, all that stuff about filming in a tank for six hours and coming out with hypothermia underlines the point that it's more about a stage show than the music. To be honest, I'm interested in the music of an artist, where an album was recorded, the story of how the album was made etc., but I'm less interested in artists who have a load of other stuff going on on-stage. However, the info you've posted does serve as a useful background and maybe it will give others a deeper appreciation of what they are listening to.

well mate, given she has only toured twice in her career I doubt 'it's more about a stage show than the music'. Best leave it there though.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

well mate, given she has only toured twice in her career I doubt 'it's more about a stage show than the music'. Best leave it there though.

She is and always has been theatrical though @Saddleworth2 which is fine by me, but wouldn’t suit everyone.
I love the theatrics of a Roger Waters concert too, but the content and music appeals to me much more without it, than would seem the case, with Kate Bush.

I like her music but was disappointed that the playlist doesn’t have a couple of my favourites.
If it was a best of, which my Mrs. would appreciate more than this, I would love it to have This Sensual World and This woman’s Work on it.
I haven’t had a chance yet to play this all the way through as it is long and I reckon from your passionate review that the order is critical.

There is a touch of the Mike Oldfield about her back story of stage fright/anxiety and achieving genius status from some arty quarters, too young to cope with.
Mike got over it with maturity and I’ve seen him here in Dublin.

There is also an element that I and perhaps others are not comfortable with. That is the distancing of the artist from her audience. I personally wouldn’t jump through hoops to get a ticket for anyone. I know we use the phrase, ‘they were like gold dust’ so often, but getting to hear or see her should not have so many barriers in my opinion. I understand artist rights and anti piracy and all that, but sometimes appeal to the public can be damaged in being over zealous in these matters.

Anyway. It might be a while before I get around to scoring this.
I feel this is not an album I am going to sit down and study. I’ve long since given that up. It’ll be something on in the background maybe on Saturday afternoon.