Customer Reviews

Kick Inside

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My exploration into the crazy world of Kate Bush began in December 2004 when I bought "Hounds Of Love." After quickly realising that it was one of the best albums I've ever heard, I set about buying more of her albums. However, I must have become distracted and it wasn't until August this year that I bought four of her albums in one go. One of these albums was her debut, 1978's "The Kick Inside." To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this album because I always assumed Kate Bush would be the kind of artist who got better with age. While this is still true, her debut album is absolutely flawless. A ground-breaking, melodic and joyous set that sounded like nothing else at the time it was released.

The album charted at No.3 when it was released and was a big hit for the then-19 year old pop star. The album was produced by David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd legend, who also discovered and financed Kate and got her a record deal after discovering her unique talent. Kate Bush had a relatively easy start to her phenomenal career, which inspired jealousy in many. However, the talent was there and despite your opinions on her, Kate Bush is one woman who cannot be ignored.

The album opens with "Moving." A whale song opens this song gently, which is quite haunting and indeed moving. A piano then plays and Kate sweeps in with her soaring vocals. This song is very beautiful and features such gorgeous lyrics as "You crush the lilly in my soul." The drums are awesome on this song, and build a real sense of atmosphere. "The Saxophone Song" opens with the whale song again, wailing through the deep ocean. This song is perhaps even stronger than the opener, and has a brilliant - if dated - saxophone solo in the chorus after Kate sings, "Tuning in on your saxophone." The next song, "Strange Phenomena," is one of my personal favourites. The piano intro is very eerie with Kate's vocals contrasting it perfectly. The switch between something more sinister to something soft and delicate is very appealing, the best part of the song being where Kate sings, "You pick up a paper, you read a name. You go out, it turns up again and again..."

I didn't like "Kite" when I first heard it but since then I've gone on to absolutely adore it! This song is really incredible and soars just like a kite. Kate's vocals are totally loopy and all over the place to represent a kite in the sky, light and free. I love it when Kate sings, "Come up and be a kite!" as her voice soars. "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" is the album's biggest ballad and was a huge hit for Kate in England. This song was written and composed entirely by Kate back when she was just 17 years old. The lyrics are very mature, being from such a young mind. The song shifts moods beautiful and the chorus is like a soft light coming through a dark room. "Wuthering Heights" is, and always will be, Kate's biggest and most famous song. This is one of the best-selling songs of all time and is a unique, classy, operatic and timeless piece of unclassifiable music. Her cinematic and literary influences were most obvious in this song. The song wasn't initially inspired by Emily Bronte's novel, but by a film or tv adaptation (Kate has never specifically identified which version it was) of the book, although she did read the novel later to, in her own words, 'get the research right'.

"James And The Cold Gun" is another great song but one of my least favourites on the album. The lyrics are a bit boring to me, but the music is quite interesting, especially the guitar. "Feel It" is a very sexual and passionate song in which Kate sings about making love to her lover. The male musicians on this song later admitted to being quite embarrassed during the recording of this song, which I find rather adorable because it was only 1978. "Oh To Be In Love" is another fantastic song, yet probably one of the strangest on the album. The verses are very light and airy with Kate's breathy vocals weaving in and out of the piano riff. The chorus, however, completely subverts this and brings in male vocals to deepen the sound. There is a bouncy quality to the vocals that is very appealing. "L'Amour Looks Something Like You" is rather short at two and a half minutes long, but it's still another great song. This is actually a very erotic song in which Kate flaunts her feminine sexuality, especially in the second verse. There is an uncorrupted innocence in her vocal delivery, though, because it's just so pure and unique.

"Them Heavy People" is another one of my favourite songs on this album, because it's just too catchy to express in words! I love how Kate sings "Rolling the ball, rolling the ball, rolling the ball to me!" in such a crazy yet adorable way. The chorus is very bouncy and catchy, and the song plays out with Kate unforgettably crying, "Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling!" It's so catchy! "Room For The Life" is a bit below par in comparison to most of the album, but it's still a great song. The album closes with the title track, "The Kick Inside." This song is based on the ballad of Lizzie Wan, the story of a girl who kills herself after being made pregnant by her brother. It's quite a sad song and ends emotionally. Very poignant.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

Kate Bush has inspired many, many artists over the past 30 years, including some of my own personal favourites, Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan inparticular. She is truly the original who inspired the rest, and it's a crying shame that she never made it big in America. This album is one of Kate's best and is a debut that stands alongside some of the all-time great albums. She has finally broken her 12-year long silence, with the release of "Aerial," her first album since 1993's "The Red Shoes." This new album is a two-disc set released on November 8th and will be absolutely huge in England because the hype is so big. I'm hoping Kate mania will sweep the nation over the next few months and cause a revival in her work, because she deserves nothing less. The woman is a genius, and this album is a testament to it.

Released while still in her teens, this debut by Kate Bush is deceptively simple. One would not expect tons of musical sophistication in the structures of her songs. And, if the truth be told, the emotional palette of the album is fairly limited as well--that is to say, compared to her later work, there is a romantic dreaminess suffusing Bush's vocals throughout that is of unparalleled beauty, and even naivete.

Behind the simplicity of the verse-chorus song structures is a ferocious imagination. The vocal line of the opening song, "Moving" is more than enough to sound like some kind of complete reinvention of all singing. It is one of the most beautiful (and moving) things that Bush has ever recorded. And, as throughout all of her career, the musicians she has playing for her are genuine masters of tact, taste and musicianship. The bass player, in particular, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for his playing.

There is no doubt that this is a first album by a first-rate artist. One song, one of the disc's stand-outs, "The Man with a Child in his Eyes" was apparently recorded when she was sixteen. Again, compared to her later work, there is a very dominant style of piano-bass-drum music over which Bush's sensuous vocals sail. The attempt at a more rock orchestration on "James and the Cold Gun", while musically lush in performance, seems a bit forced and is one of the weaker spots on the album. Basically, if the opening song grabs you by the soul and makes you sit up, then the whole thing is a banquet of similar delights.

Lastly, the album also features the (now) signature Kate Bush song, "Wuthering Heights". One of those rare kinds of song that deserves every bit of admiration that Bush's devoted fans lavish on it. Newcomers should be warned not to overread the meaning in the lyrics, here or anywhere else. Bush's lyrics seem to be very private, on the one hand, or are imaginative projections of the person in her song. In other words, and as Bush has asserted in interviews, the artist should not be mistaken for her subject.

Over the course of her career, one can actually hear the young woman who is singing on this album growing up--songs about broken hearts, rather than romantic idylls about Prince Charmings. The freshness, even the innocence, captured on this disk is truly remarkable. The singing, often in the very high range, is almost painfully moving--a truly amazing musical experience if you can be open to it without irony.

Imagine that Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, and Patti Smith pooled their musical genes and gave rise to a single unique musical artist. What would that artist be like? Well, if the artist happened to be a young English-Irish woman, it might be Kate Bush: a superior musician, a remarkable vocalist, a talented writer, a theatrical visionary, and a truly unique--often to the point of the bizarrely weird--performer.

During the recording of her first three albums, Kate Bush--a protege of Pink Floyd--seemed primarily preoccupied with extending her vocal range, which is quite astonishing, and then twisting what would normally be considered an elegant soprano into a cat-like sound that bespeaks of angels, devils, faires, witches, lovers, and killers all rolled into one. The result is often gothic in tone, darkly flavored, and extremely strange, with the delicacy of her voice playing sharply against the intensity of her material. Some loved her; some hated hated her; but none were ever indifferent to her.

THE KICK INSIDE is her debut album, and the first of three recordings on which she would increasingly refine a unique vocal style that might best be described as at once delicately haunting and intensely theatrical. Her voice was indeed a remarkable instrument, and some of her best songs here--such as the justly famous "Wuthering Heights"--achieve their effect by the combination of little-girlish soprano tones that suddenly descend into a fierce and passionate alto. Also notable are the album's warmer, more sensuous tracks, particularly "The Man With The Child In His Eyes." But there is a lighter side to her work as well, purely playful music that fuses her extraordinary voice with unexpected rhythms and styles, such as the pure-fun "Kite" and the intelligentsia-inclined "Them Heavy People." Regardless of the particular track, however, the cumulative impact of THE KICK INSIDE is remarkable, and once heard Kate Bush is never quite forgotten.

Kate Bush was one of the first to teach us that pop music doesn't have to be shallow and that girl singers don't have to be airheads. Some of these songs actually require you to read a book before you understand the lyrics.
I discovered her music about three years ago (I was born in 1978 so I was too young to remember her in her heyday)when a friend lent me the C.D. A huge fan of Emily Bronte, I was just blown away by Wuthering Heights, I felt like the spirit of Emily was speaking through her. It's so amazing that an 18 year old could compose a song full of such raw emotion and intellectual depth.
Every song on the album has a warmth to it, a charm that is both old-world and distinctly ahead of it's time. How lucky for us that, unlike most of the genius population, Kate Bush didn't have to struggle for years in anonimity, but that her songs were given to the world straight away.
I'll never be one of the people who critisize Tori Amos and other singers inspired by Kate because WE NEED MORE OF THEM.

Yes, the cover's different, and that's what prompted me to get this version instead of the standard one. No bonus tracks or anything, but I liked this cover better. Well, this is where the story starts for Kate Bush.

Kate's vocals are somewhat girlish here but not too discernible.
I make that observation in comparing the version of "Wuthering Heights" here and the new vocal version on The Whole Story.

With the haunting and lovely opener "Moving" the lyric "You crush the lily in my soul" shows of what lyricism is capable of from the word go. Metaphysics and the paranormal are explored in the mid-paced "Strange Phenomena."

The two most upbeat songs here are "Kite" and "James and the Cold Gun." "Kite" has the some of the most imaginative imagery and lyrics I've seen. "There's a hole in the sky with a big eyeball." Wow! And how's this for a rhyming scheme--belly-o with wellios? She becomes a 2D diamond kite, which is what the Japanese album cover is all about. There's part of the eyeball, the diamond kite, and her on it. "James" has a 1920's gangster motif, and to paraphrase, Kate tells the title character that he's losing his humanity and sense of reality by selling his soul to a cold gun.

Two of Kate's best realized pieces come back to back--the ballad "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" on a man who is most surely her Prince Charming, and "Wuthering Heights." Ballads are her specialty, as she closes the album with with feminine-assertive "Room For The Life" and the title track, which is just Kate, her piano, and some strings.

"Feel It," basically about a quickie in the parlor, has the same eroticism that would kick up a notch higher in Wow's "In The Warm Room." "L'Amour Looks Something Like You" also fits into this category, especially when she speaks of her sticky love. Right, that wouldn't be a Valentine card with too much glue, would it?

"Oh To Be In Love" starts out with Kate and her piano, then the mandolin, bass, and drums kick in to its slow rolling beat. Even the chorus gets stretched into "oh oh oh to be e e in love"

This is where the good woman and her piano music started, so Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, and Norah Jones, you'd better recognize! A classic stunning debut album that really kicked me inside nice and good.

I recently read that Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" was not initially inspired by the actual book but by a television mini-series based on same (not even the classic Laurence Olivier/Merle Oberon film apparently). My initial reaction was one of shock. I mean, Kate must have been all of 15 or 16 when she conceived of the song, but haven't all well-bred (and reasonably well-read) young English girls read the Bronte classic by then? And wasn't it just the height of presumption to pen a three minute musical adaptation of that narrative without having digested the actual book itself? Well, that's the librarian in me speaking, I guess. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea that Kate's classic (some might say "signature" song) was based on a screenplay rather than its source novel.

First of all, Kate supposedly read the novel right after having composed the song, in order to verify that her "research" was right. So all is forgiven on that score. Secondly, it seems all the more emblematic of her teenage creative soul that she would take her inspiration where she found it--even if it's not necessarily through the accepted channels. And then, just the fact that she apparently admitted it without much reservation is charmingly candid.

And of course it is a great song--one of many on this, Kate Bush's astonishing debut album. And I am not one to use words like "astonishing" lightly. To think that this almost flawless, truly poetic and musically sophisticated record was the work of a 19 year old almost boggles the mind. And one considers that many of the tracks were actually written when Kate was an even younger teen, well, it's clear that we are dealing with a true prodigy.

In terms of her adolescent burst of creative energy, Kate Bush reminds me of no one so much as Laura Nyro. Like Nyro, her songs were both quirky and yet eminently listenable. They were,in fact, full of hooks. Both women simultaneously enjoyed "cult" status while proving to be "commercially viable," (Nyro, unfortunately, primarily in the role of a hit factory for OTHER artists--even though her own interpretations were invariabley superior; Bush enjoyed considerable popularity on her home turf, but had to wait years to achieve any prominence in the US). Despite wildly divergent influences (Laura being steeped in NYC Doo-Wop, R&B, Broadway, and--really just--a bit of folk; while Kate was rooted in an Anglo-Celtic folk tradition, melded with a particularly British brand of progressive rock), they were in so many ways, sisters under the skin. Kate Nyro? Laura Bush? (Strike that last.)

If you accept that premise, then you might also agree with me that Kate Bush's early work displays the same kind of "madcap energy" that Laura saw in her own early work. Her songs were wildly inventive, musically and lyrically. Her off-handed spirituality galled some critics, but others found her bandying about of names like Gurdjieff and Jesus in the context of a bouncy, spirited near novelty number ("Them Heavy People") completely winning. A similar spirit sends a song like "Kite" aloft. And keeps it there.

The slower tempoed tunes are equally captivating, many of them moody meditations on love and loss that should have been beyond her years (as, say, Nyro had been a decade or so before with tunes like "December's Boudoir'). One can allow a 19-year old her Romanticism, so when she sees herself "in a Berlin bar, in a corner brooding," the listener indulges her her fantasy. Everyone's entitled to what Joni Mitchell calls their "dark cafe days." And at least, the young Kate Bush spent her time there sincerely grooving to a genius player's saxophone. And the sax arrangement captures that sentiment beautifully.

And speaking of arrangements, KICK INSIDE does differ from any number of other promising debut albums in one significant regard: the production and arrangements are spot on. They complement Kate's material beautifully. Kate did not start producing her own material for another few years, but she either lucked out and had the most compatible producer and arrangers possible or she was already--at the age of 19--calling the shots behind the scenes.

"The Kick Inside" is really a beautiful album. What makes it more unique and special, is that the album was created by a girl of 17 years of age. This was Kate Bush's debut, and it was a stunning and extremely literate debut. Kate's voice soars over an eight octave range to songs that can be sexual, romantic, and spiritual. "Wuthering Heights" (maybe to the annoyance of Kate)is her signature tune in some countries. The song is amazing, and is delivered in a theatrical manner, showing off Kate's beautiful and unorthodox voice and songwriting.

This album has one of the best songs written about a one night stand ("L'Amour Looks Something About You") and the orgasmic ("Feel It"). Despite its positive and romantic vibe, it ends with a suicide note in "The Kick Inside". Stark and beautiful stuff.

"When I'm dead, I think I'll come haunt you as the sunset." ~Catherine in Wuthering Heights (1970)

Creatures from the ocean and forest are as comfortable dancing around Kate Bush's voice as the music that seems to spin a magic spell over the listener. As she sings "Oh to be in love, and never get out again..." you can feel her wistful longings.

I tried listening to this on my stereo and then another CD player and couldn't hear the lyrics as well as on my headphones. The clarity of her voice is exquisite on the K240 AKG headphones. They are worth buying to listen to this album.

Every word has a renewed clarity and the lyrics are wildly poetic and the way Kate sings gives me shivers. Her music has a highly creative appeal. This is the type of album you listen to with the lyrics in hand so you can experience every nuance and understand every element of the story. "Wuthering Heights" is especially beautiful:

"Out on the wiley, windy moors

We'd roll and fall in green

You had a temper, like my jealousy

Too hot, too greedy

How could you leave me?

When I needed to possess you

I hated you. I loved you too..."

If you enjoy music by Tori Amos, Sarah Brightman or Bjork, I'm convinced this will impress you. Kate Bush has a breathlessly beautiful voice that can be as smooth as honey or as sharp as ice. The clarity in her voice is stunning and this is not just an album you can listen to casually, this is a soul experience.

~The Rebecca Review

One of the most brilliant and mature debut albums in the history of pop music, Kate Bush's "The Kick Inside" is stunning, especially given that she was only 20 when this was released. What makes it even more remarkable is that as good as this is, this is far from the best work she did.

Vocally, the influence Bush had through this album on woman singers a generation later (i.e. Tori Amos, P.J. Harvey, Sarah McLaughlin, Happy Rhodes) is certainly noticable-- with her girly vocals floating gently above piano-driven ballads and bizarre near swinging rock songs, the path to alternative/female vocal music so prevelent in the mid-90s is clear. It may be the case that her voice is somewhat hard to deal with-- remembeing she was 20, and her vocal does occasionally get a bit, for lack of better word, shrill. Still, this remarkably doesn't get in the way of the music.

The album is at its best with its ballads, Bush seems to have a more self-assured confidence in her voice on powerful opener "Moving", the stunning "The Man With the Child in His Eyes" and "L'amour Looks Something Like You". Its largely the more energetic pieces where vocally she becomes less focusewd ("Kite", the otherwise excellent "James and the Cold Gun"). And of course there's the album's hit, "Wuthering Heights", a musical interpretation of Emily Bronte's piece that soars, bubbles and was deserving of its success.

Bush would do better albums-- "Never For Ever" took the sounds of this record to a level of full maturity, "The Dreaming" is bizarre and brilliant, and "Hounds of Love" shows Bush at the peak of her powers and maturity, but in many ways, this is the best place to start exploring Bush's music. Recommended.

This album, released way back in 1978, is one of the best debuts ever. In my opinion, Kate only topped this album with The Dreaming and Hounds Of Love. This album includes some of her earliest compositions, some she wrote when still in her early teens. The Man With The Child In His Eyes is one of the most beautiful songs ever; Moving and the title track are way up with the best of the best as well, as far as I am concerned. It even includes some love songs (Oh To Be In Love, L'Amour Looks Something Like You), which are gorgeous. Her lyrical subjects matters are sometimes unexpected and of shock-value to some, but I think hers are so well crafted.... also, the instruments used on this album are unusual if some cases, but to great effect. I don't like every song on this album (Kite and Feel It don't do it for me), but the inclusion of the best pop song EVER makes up for that: Wuthering Heights. I have never heard anything better since. As for her voice: you either like it or you don't. And I love it.....