Kate Bush - Disc of the day

Kate Bush
The Dreaming

(EMI, 1982)

Compelling rite of passage for the Kate Bush aficionado.

Interviewed in Q magazine, Kate Bush once described The Dreaming as “my ‘she's-gone-mad’ album”. Self produced by the then 24-year-old, this was experimental stuff: filled with abstract rhythms, Fairlight sampler (the vogue studio toy of the era) and Bush wailing like a Bedlam inmate. A commercial disappointment at the time, The Dreaming has become the fan's fan's Kate Bush album, but it rewards the brave listener. The non-hit singles Sat In Your Lap and Suspended In Gaffa are strafed with melody but almost comically out of step with the early-'80s innocence of Thursday night Top Of The Pops. Both are matched, though, by the likes of Houdini, All The Love and Night Of The Swallow: songs rich in spooked atmospheres and lyrics about poltergeists, escapologists, Aborigines... Heard now, The Dreaming marks the end of airy, fairy, tree-hugging Kate Bush and the beginning of her next phase, as the studio alchemist behind the chart-topping The Hounds Of Love. Unlike anything else in 1982 or, indeed, any year before or since. Utterly unique.

Mark Blake

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2008

Further Listening

Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel III (Charisma/Virgin, 1980)

Cocteau Twins – Treasure (4AD, 1984)

Kate Bush – Aerial (EMI, 2006)

SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!

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Good choice, truly is the best Kate Bush album! (apart from Hounds of Love)

Posted by Mat at 2:45 AM GMT 04/06/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Mat
Agreed a thousand times

Posted by bes du_cille at 12:39 PM GMT 11/07/2008 Report Abuse

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