Review Summary: Less Ambitious Experiments, More Gorgeously Produced Sketches of Life
Imagine you are a musician, what do you do after you release one of your most successful (commercial and/or critical wise) albums to date? Capitalize the success by making another album, or take a break and perfect your songcraft and musicianship? For Kate Bush, she chose the latter. After all, when she delivered her chart-topping debut “Wuthering Heights” at the age of 19, the musical executives of her label tried the former by pushing her to use her back catalog for the majority of
Lionheart. Result? A typical sophomore slump. (Despite she had no say for when to release the album then) This time, after she released the instant classic
Hounds of Love, released a greatest hits album and a duet with
Peter Gabriel, she decided to take her time to produce the follow-up,
The Sensual World.
And boy, what a follow-up to a masterpiece it is. Began with chiming church bells, the opening title track is a stream-of-consciousness journey of Molly Bloom from James Joyce’s
Ulysses. Accompanied by atmospheric synths and rubbery rhythm sections, Miss Bush uses her breathy whispers describing how Molly Bloom’s mind of falling in love with her distant husband, often in gratuitous forms(“
To where the water and earth caress And the down of a peach say, ‘Mmm Yes’”), while she often whispers the sensuous “Mmm, yes”. It is the chorus, however, that is the most enchanting part, where Bloom’s mind “stepping out of the page” and emerge into the colorful, sensual world, all the while driven by the swirling melody of the uilleann pipes. Although it is disappointing that the Joyce estate does not allow her to sing the original Bloom’s speech, the song is an “in your face” opener without being overbearingly explosive. If that does not convince you enough, the following track “Love and Anger” will: the rock-oriented number is perhaps Bush’s self-meditation of spirituality, as she struggles to talk about an old trauma (“
It could take me all of my life/But It would only take a moment to tell you what I’m feeling, but I don’t know if I’m ready yet”). However, she eventually let go of these poisonous feelings of love and anger “like a bell to a southerly wind” and not to live “in the gap between past and future”, while reminding herself to “reach out and touch the past and the future”. Towards the end of the song, you can hear squalling guitars by David Gilmour, which brings the seemingly joyous song into ecstatic heights, and Bush muttered the “Mmm, yeah”, hinting that she is finally liberated from the trauma. With these two tracks, Bush proved that she had not lost her magical touch even after four years of delivering a classic album, while continues to fascinate listeners with more stylistic changes.
In the album, though, Bush delivers less grandiose numbers than nuanced sketches which explore the minor surprise and secrets of life. The piano-driven “Heads We’re Dancing” finds her dancing with a charming stranger all night, only to find in the next morning that man is…someone who you don’t really want to dance with; backed by indiscernible chants, “Rocket’s Tail” find her taking in the perspective of a rocket, witnessing an imaginative boy hoping to stay on that rocket ship, with an electric guitar burst in to symbolize the launch of the rocket; the prophetic “Deeper Understanding” has a person become dependent towards a computer program under strong isolation, hoping for it can be their new friend to bring them “love and deeper understanding”, with a ghostly choir plays their role as the program, delivering a warm yet eerie chorus which shows its comforting role. However, the dependence is so strong that the character forgot to eat and sleep until their family intervened, yet it still brings them right back to the program (“
But I was lonely, I was lost without my little black box”), as they ultimately muttered to it in the end, “I hate to leave you”. While Kate Bush did not present the usual melodrama and overarching concept in her previous work, she proves that she can churn enchanting songs without them.
Despite the lack of sonic theatrics and fantastical dramas, you can still find the exploration of love which appears in classic tracks such as “Wuthering Heights”, “Babooshka” and “Running Up That Hill”, except they are dealt with a more mature approach. Including the aforementioned title track, songs such as “Between a Man and a Woman” and “Never Be Mine” are examples of tackling ruminating relationships. The former track is perhaps a less-spoken sister piece of “Running Up That Hill”, where the narrator attempts to keep a god-like figure away from interfering them, and “let the pendulum swing” between them, hoping that figure would not make matters worse, notwithstanding their kindness; the latter, on the other hand, is a tortured longing for a crush, yet she eventually realizes that those feelings are nothing but a pipe dream(“
But looking back over my shoulder/At you happy without me”), and she sighed, “But I know that this will never be mine”. Unlike the heart-breaking soaps such as “Running Up That Hill” and “Wuthering Heights”, Bush had whipped the topic to a more mature spin, reflecting her as a grown-up artist.
But Kate Bush also shows her more vulnerable and perhaps relatable side as well: Began as a whistle-driven folk song, “The Fog” is a reflection of her dependence towards her father, as she may fear he will “slip into the fog” and hoped their love is big enough to let her be independent just like the day he taught her to swim, all the while transitioned into an orchestral bombast; “Reaching Out” is a sketch of parenthood, observing their child’s curiosity and naivety, whether are they feeling “how fire will feel” or “reaching out for the star that explodes” or just looking for his mother; the closing track “This Woman’s Work”, a piano ballad written for the movie
She’s Having a Baby, tells a story of a soon-to-be father confronts both the new reality of being a father (“
Now his part is over/Now starts the craft of the father”)and his partner’s dangerous labor, as he both hoped she can survive the childbirth(“
I know you have a little life in you yet/I know you have a lot of strength yet”) and feared she may not, while regretting about words and things they had not spoke and done and reminiscing their good times together (“
Give me these moments back, give them back to me”). These songs show that Bush is no longer the storyteller of unspoken fairy tales she was in previous albums, but instead, a songwriter that delivers tunes that we can resonate with.
While it is one of Kate Bush’s album that is heavier on studio tinkering,
The Sensual World proves that sometimes you do not need ambitious concepts like in the second half of
Hounds of Love or the weird sonic experiments like in
The Dreaming to create a memorable work. The theme of entering maturity can be rather tricky for artists, as lesser musicians may inadvertently turn it into a corny listening. But for Kate Bush, she turns the introspective themes into ten beautifully constructed vignettes without being mawkish. Yes, it does not has the twisting theatrical sound that makes
The Dreaming and
Hounds of Love classics in Kate Bush’s discography, and some of the songs can be similar to each other sonically, but it also shows how Kate Bush was capable of crafting a unique record without it. If
The Dreaming is the weird art film that you eventually grow to understand and love,
Hounds of Love is its blockbuster sequel, then
The Sensual World is just a feel-good film that renders many’s hearts, with its qualities and uniqueness are no lesser than its predecessors.
Actual rating: 4.6/5
Recommended Tracks:
The Sensual World
Love and Anger
The Fog
Deeper Understanding
This Women’s Work
