And it’s one of her most deeply moving albums, containing such irresistible moments as the sweeping chorus of “Reaching Out” and the gorgeous fluttering high notes of “This Woman’s Work,” first released a year earlier on the She’s Having A Baby soundtrack. The Sensual World is both forward-thinking and steeped in a variety of folk music traditions, with Celtic undertones on the title track and Balkan harmonies from Trio Bulgarka on three others. But that’s the first verse of Bush’s 1989 track “Deeper Understanding.” “As the people here grow colder / I turn to my computer / And spend my evenings with it, like a friend.” It’s a little hard to believe that those words opened a song by a major artist back in the 1980s, long before the Internet changed the world and became part of the lingua franca of pop music. It’s an occasionally revelatory album, but it feels like it’s for Bush and her most hardcore fans only. And the emotional impact of the mournful “Moments of Pleasure” is blunted by a wordless chorus in its new incarnation. “Lily” has a fiery new vocal performance, but songs like “This Woman’s Work” lose something when sung in a lower register by an older Bush with a more limited range. One song is transformed dramatically: “The Sensual World” becomes “Flower of the Mountain,” featuring words from James Joyce’s Ulysses that she didn’t get permission from Joyce’s estate to use the first time around.īut other revisions are more subtle, if not altogether unnecessary. Director’s Cut is comprised entirely of songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes, sometimes re-recorded entirely and sometimes merely replacing the old vocals and percussion.
When Kate Bush founded her own label, Fish People, its first release was a passion project to bring a couple old albums closer to how she’d originally envisioned them. Given the renewed interest in all things Kate Bush, let’s take a look back at her wildly original discography, ranking all 10 studio albums. 4 on the Hot 100, and Hounds of Love to No. And the repeated presence of “Running Up That Hill” in the new episodes took the song to unexpected new heights in America, pushing Bush’s biggest hit to a new peak of No.
When Stranger Things returned in June for its fourth season, the wildly popular Netflix series was once again full of familiar songs from the 1980s, when the show takes place. But she doesn’t always get her proper respect: This year, she was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the third time, but when the Class of 2022 was announced, Bush once again missed the cut. She’s been an esteemed collaborator of artists like Prince and Peter Gabriel, and covers of her songs have been hits for Maxwell and Meg Myers. In America, she’s closer to a cult artist who reached her peak of mainstream popularity with 1985’s gold-selling Hounds of Love, which spawned her only Top 40 single, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).”īush, who’s influenced a couple generations of indie rockers and art pop subversives, is beloved by everyone from Solange to Outkast’s Big Boi. In the U.K., Kate Bush has been a major star since her chart-topping debut single, 1978’s “Wuthering Heights,” and has grown into a beloved national institution over the last few decades.