Customer Reviews

Never Forever

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although it clearly belongs to the same style as the previous THE KICK INSIDE and LIONHEART, NEVER FOREVER marks a decided change in Kate Bush's direction; less whimsical and considerably more overtly macabre, on this particular recording Bush largely eschews both the purely playful and the warm love songs of previous recordings. Her tone of voice is also fuller and considerably less girlish than on previous recordings.

The material here is also considerably more violent in terms of lyrics. In her previous recordings Bush certainly showed a tendency toward images of impending or actual death ("James and the Cold Gun" and "Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake" leap to mind), but in NEVER FOREVER she is less inclined to present such pieces as "character pieces," less inclined to romanticize them with a gothic flavor. And irony, never far beneath the surface in earlier work, is much more apparent.

Such tracks as "Violin" (concerning a neurotic/erotic obsession with the instrument, in which Bush's voice mimics the tone of the instrument), "Wedding List," (in which a frustrated bride contemplates the slaughter of the whole wedding party), and "Breathing" (in which the singer is dying of radium posioning following an atomic blast) are perhaps the logical extensions of Bush's earlier work; at the same time, with such tracks as "All We Ever Look For" and "Army Dreamers," we begin to see a transition from material based on internal private fantasty into something much broader and considerably more subtle: deliberate commentary on the world around her. This is particularly true of "Army Dreamers," which is very clearly a percusor to her next album, THE DREAMING--which will be a radical departure from her earlier sound.

Even as she is toying with new dimensions in her lyrics and vocal interpretations, Bush is also toying with increasingly complex arrangements. There is a sense of greater delicacy and greater deliberation in terms of pure music on this particular recording, again with "Army Dreamers" a case in point. Fans of the earlier recordings will find enough similarity to them in NEVER FOREVER to enjoy them as a continuation; fans of her later work, however, will see in it the build toward her two finest recordings, THE DREAMING and HOUNDS OF LOVE, both of which are as completely unlike her early works as can be imagined.

Surfing the Net recently, I came upon what in some circles was a notoriously nasty critique of Kate Bush's work by the American rock critic Dave Marsh. You may have read it in the first ROLLING STONE RECORD GUIDE from the 70s, namely that she sounded "like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a Hoover vacuum cleaner." Well, Marsh was of course one of the founding fathers (or founding self-described teenage dwarves) behind CREEM Magazine, and if you remember CREEM, fondly or otherwise, you still have to ask yourself what the heck the editors of the RS RECORD GUIDE were thinking, assigning the likes of Marsh to review Britain's reigning queen or art rock. Marsh was the quintessential American ROCK--no, make that ROCK'N'ROLL critic: if it wasn't three minutes of three chord power pop, he didn't want anything to do with it. No way Kate Bush was not going to be his cup of meat.

But the Patti Smith comparison was certainly intriguing. Most people, when comparing the veddy British Kate with American female singer-songwriters, mention Joni Mitchell (Canadian by birth, but who's counting) or Laura Nyro (New Yorker by birth, which made her suspect to many other Americans, but who's counting there either). But Patti Smith? Well, that's not such a stretch as all that. There's a moment in Kate Bush's track "Delius," on this album, that she slips into a Patti-style-American-Indian chant. The similarity is actually uncanny: briefly. But of course, Patti Smith was carving out her poetry in a punk rock context. And Kate was coming from a British art rock tradition (she was discovered as a teenager by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour) that in turn had its roots in Celtic folk and Classical European traditions in general. But in significant ways, both women were already stretching those traditions and re-defining them from the very outset of their careers. So the similarity is real. The tradition actually mattered less than the urge to extend it and, to a great degree, move beyond it.

The comparison with Laura Nyro is also significant. Nyro was similarly eclectic and similarly inclined to shatter the traditional forms she loved (in her case American R&B, Doo Wop, Broadway, folk and some classical). She also had her own unique sense of language and an ability to create whole universes within three minute pop songs. All three women met with initial critical acclaim and quickly garnered strong cult followings (and some mass recognition to boot). And then they all pretty much retreated--much to their fans chagrin and to some critical taunts of burn-out--mainly to raise their families. Dropping out was not a permanent state for any of them, and, in many ways, their refusal to sacrifice their personal and (just as significantly) their ARTISTIC lives on the altar of show biz actually serve to make them all the more credible as genuine artists.

And of course, when they DID come back, they did so on their own terms.

But I digress, I suppose. At the time of NEVER FOR EVER, Kate Bush was still a relatively new phenomenon. And in her home country, she really was a phenomenon. Her singles had all done quite well, thank you very much. And if she remained a virtual unknown in the US, her popularity extended to the European continent handily. I recall that when my ex and I were staying with a French family she had previously lived with on an exchange program, I innocently asked their teenager daughter if she knew Kate Bush, "Mais oui," she said and starting singing, "Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka Ya Ya."

Now Kate had been a European discovery for me and my then-bride when we were living in Germany. NEVER FOR EVER was the one recording I had not heard yet when I posed that question to the young Veronique in France, but as soon as I got back to Deutschland I sought out a copy of the cassette version of that record--in part because of Vero's cute little rendition of Kate's continental hit. (Spot on, actually). And I was not disappointed. We had bought THE KICK INSIDE and THE DREAMING pretty much at the same time, loved them both, but were curious about how she got from point A to point OMEGA-to-the-nth-power. (Yes, I had never heard anything quite like THE DREAMING before in my life). LIONHEART had proven to be KICK INSIDE TWO (aka: KICK HARDER). Finally, laying my hands on NEVER FOR EVER was the great aha! moment. That's where you hear the transition. Still lots of whimsy and girlish charm, but things start getting a little more dangerous too, a little spookier.

And not just in terms of the lyrics. Kate Bush had always had a Gothic sensibility from the outset, leavened with humor, of course, a delightful sense of off-handed mysticism. And lots of melodic hooks, hooks, hooks! The girl could just churn out tune after quirky, catchy tune. Well, the hooks are still here on this album, but they serve to highlight a darker lyrical vision. Murderous revenge for a Wedding Day Massacre (sounds as though it might have been ripped from current US headlines, but no, its inspiration is a Truffaut movie) and women feeling erotic impulses toward the children in their charge (even more of a contemporary headline case, but again, inspired by cinematic--and ultimately--literary sources: this time Henry James by way of Hollywood). Still this kind of stuff("The Infant Kiss"--or as it might also be called "The Child With the Man In His Eyes--could get you BANNED in this country. Luckily for Kate, it remains obscure enough for most people not to have had a chance to misunderstand it. (She's not advocating anything: she's telling a story).

The major departure for Kate with this record, though, is probably more in terms of production than in lyrical content. This was the first record that she co-produced, and it shows. There was always a certain textural (as well as textual) richness to the early stuff, but it's more sharply defined on this record. It is a solid step forward, maybe even bold--not yet a gigantic leap into the abyss (that would come a few years later with the release of--what many, including myself--consider her masterpiece, THE DREAMING.

Speaking of comparisons, the only time I ever subscribed to an actual fanzine was one dedicated to Kate. Called BREAKTHROUGH, the ads for it used to say, "Bigger Than The Beatles!" I used to wonder why anyone would compare a solo woman performer with ANY group--let alone a group as iconic as the Beatles. But I realized later that it's no more absurd than comparing Kate to Patti Smith or Laura Nyro (I don't really see much basis for a Joni comparision, however--other than they've both been boldly experimental). Listening to the production values of NEVER FOR EVER, I'm reminded of the great Beatles experiments of a decade or so earlier. Slamming doors, footsteps, disembodied voices lecturing about the aftereffects of nuclear war, "--all of these "effects" are successfully interwoven into the musical whole. The music doesn't suffer for their inclusion. These are sound effects that actually work. They hold up over repeated listenings. And that's hard to achieve. And what about those eerie tape loops on "Egypt" reminiscent of nothing so much as "Tomorrow Never Knows." I don't know if the young Kate Bush could fairly be described as "BIGGER than the Beatles," but the comparison is certainly interesting. For a solo artist to even be in the same league is remarkable. For a young woman barely out of her teens at the time this album was released), it's pretty darn astonishing.

Never For Ever followed the sweet and mellow Lionheart. This time around, Kate Bush's entry into weird sounds and vocals is in the making. And this album came out in 1980. Pretty progressive and avant-garde-ish. This tops Lionheart and The Kick Inside in its sheer innovation of strange sounds, vocals that reach a manic frenzy, and some sobering songs on social issues.

"Babooshka" tells the story of a woman who tests her husband's fidelity by writing him anonymous letters, disguising herself as a younger her, and seeing if he'll go through with an adulterous affair with his own wife. The piano is struck forcefully during the verses, before the electric guitar riffs kick in the prechorus and chorus. And what's with the glass-shattering special effect towards the end?

"Blow AwayEis a showcase for Kate's voice, which has her singing about a man too obsessed with music. She wonders where the music he plays goes. "Surely not with his soul?"she surmises.

The slow but brisk piano number, "All We Ever Look For," sporting an accompanying whistle, is another highlight here. Weird stuff: in the second verse, there's a cookie monster sounding growl that comes in every fourth beat. Another open door is what "all we ever look for," where one might find "the truth," "a little hug," "our own tomb," and other things. There are some sound effects that come in when someone walks down the hall and opens doors in search of that something.

"Egypt" is of someone falling in love with the ambience of Egypt, be it the shifting sands, the pyramids, and the Nile. The rhythmic melody is like a ship that keeps time with the beater, and towards the end, a weird cacophony of multiple voices comes in.

"The Wedding ListEis a bit of a shocker, as it tells of a pair of newlyweds, where a "mystery man"shoots the groom in a passion crime. Kate's lyrics are a bit on the bloody and violent side, speaking of swooning in warm maroon, and "I'm gonna fill your head with lead." In the final lines, we find out why the groom was killed.

The frenzied guitar rocker "Violin" is the closest to punk rock Kate will ever come to. Her voice swoops up to a lunatic pitch when she sings "Filling me up WITH shivers." And her voice soars to a weird pitch and manic madness. Even today, I can still think of people going, "What is this? It's so weird!"

"The Infant Kiss" is a bit of a controversy, as it details a Lolita-like obsession, only the genders are switched and the younger party is a little boy, the older party being an adult woman.

The soft melodic guitar "Army Dreamers" featuring a group of male backing singers in the chorus, including an accompanying male voice. The repeated refrain "B.F.P.O."is a reference to the British Forces Post Office. This tells the lack of opportunity and assets of a now-dead and mourned for army recruit. "What could he do-should've been a rock star/but he didn't have the money for a guitar/what could he do-should've been a politician/but he never had a proper education/what should he do-should've been a father/but he never made it till his twenties/what a waste of army dreamers."

The brooding and haunting piano number "Breathing", a chilling anti-nuclear single, is sung from the POV of a baby still in the womb, affected by the radiation her mother is inhaling following an atomic bomb explosion. The baby knows it's dangerous to take in the fallout, but her instincts tell her to keep "breathing my mother in/breathing my beloved in/breathing her nicotine/breathing the fallout in out in out in..." After a casual and authoritative report of a nuclear test, the music rises to a crescendo, climaxing with a heavy guitar and poignant refrain: "What are we going to do?/We are all going to die." One of Kate's best ever songs. Overall, a sign of better things to come.

The first Kate Bush album I bought was The Dreaming. I fell in love. And I fell in love with this woman who created this brilliant album, The Dreaming! I then bought Hounds of Love. To my disappointment, Hounds of Love didn't have that oomph of The Dreaming. I head heard that the next best album of Kate's, if not the best, was Hounds of Love. I thought, maybe, like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, The Dreaming was the one and only brilliant album from her. Then I decided, I should try to explore more of her albums... I got The Kick Inside and absolutely loved it, it's definitely a fascinating debut. But it lacked that lower range in Kate's voice that I learned to love. It also lacked some complexity as well. THEN, I thought I'd give Never for Ever a chance. To my surprise, I fell in love! This album is perfect! Every song has something very special and different to it. Songs that make you giggle, yet awe in their total beauty. I do prefer The Dreaming, but this album has something that The Dreaming lacked... intense emotion in Kate's voice. Considering my favorite album of all time is Radiohead's Kid A, I really enjoy my music to be very "overproduced", if you will, and have lots of time and effort put into the music. This album has some very brilliant sounds and textures to it that pull you in and never make you want to escape. To sum up what this album sounds like to someone who hasn't heard it, or Kate Bush even: Very beautiful crazy wide-eyed mad woman screaming with a good melody while doing the shimmy in a very theatrical manner... good visual... now think of what that would sound like.

PS. I've heard more of Hounds of Love and do think it's a very good album, indeed. It's just over rated in my opinion.

I actually only bought this album fairly recently, but it has become one of my faves (or at least the cover art is). These are just really great pop songs and classic Kate. Also, this is the first that Kate produced and you can tell with the multiple layers and background voices in the music. Much of the album is playful and fun -- like Violin, Delius, and Egypt -- and create a sort of fantasy world. Heck, even a song about murder and suicide like The Wedding List is somehow made fun. Towards the end of the album the tone becomes more serious starting with Infant Kiss and ending in an amazing song about nuclear fallout -- Breathing. This is a great album, one that I have to listen to straight through (sometimes several times in a row).

Kate's third release is a combination of her early style with something she later perfected on The Dreaming and Hounds Of Love. She started taking over control producing her own music and included all the ideas she had in her head. Like Kate on the cover, it's like you open you own Pandora's box and let all the weird, spooky and mysterious things out in the open. I never heard this album before my 12th birthday but it still brings back feelings and memories from my early childhood in the forms of dreams and fantasies. This is another essential album for people who like original and daring music.

This was the album that introduced me to Kate in the early eighties. After listening to it I went out the next day and bought The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Twenty years later this album is still one of my favorites. Never for Ever is simply one of those rare pieces of art which can transport the receptive listener from his sitting room through a bewildering array of emotions and situations. Such disparate scenes as the great Delius and Fenby working together, a bride shooting her husband, and a post apocalyptic plutonium suffocation don't seem to have much in common but it all comes together in in a magical way.

Kate Bush's music up to this release had been a traditional 'girl and a piano' sound, with simple songs and no real experimentation. However, in this album she started to dabble further into the unknown territory that she would eventually fully explore in "The Dreaming" and in parts of "Hounds Of Love", this said she still kept the heirlooms of "The Kick Inside" and "Lionheart" intact. "Never For Ever" is perhaps one of the more interesting albums in Kate's catalogue because it is the first point in which she changed her style and voice.

The album opens with "Babooshka", a #1 hit in Australia and peaking at #5 in the UK. The song has a dark feel to it, a little bit avant-garde at times and has a catchy, commercial hook. I like the background chanting also.

"Delius (Song Of Summer)" is a nice alternative track with lush instrumentation and layered vocals. It's one of the more abstract tracks on the album and seems just a little bit out of place.

"Blow Away (For Bill)" is a dig at her previous albums with vivid imagery and literacy in her lyrics. The song has a very eclectic feel to it. It's a nice change of mood before the next track.

The next song is "All We Ever Look For" and highlights a parent and child's relationship. The song is one of the best on the album and combines elements of simplicity (the melody) and an interwoven story/theme (the opening of the doors). The song has superb instrumentation, the choices of instruments really suit the song's theme and atmosphere.

"Egypt" is a song about love with or in Egypt, the song can be percieved as both really. It's a very exotic song in a similar vein to "Kashka From Baghdad". Kate's voice is very sensual with hints of sultriness.

The next two tracks are more rock influenced than anything else, firstly is "The Wedding List". It has funky feel to it with it's pulsating guitar rhythm and high pitched vocals. A really good song.

"Violin" is an epic rock like track that is amazing. The violin sounds like something from the mountains of Austria but with an electrified punch. Kate's vocals soar in and amongst the instruments and mimic the violin. A great example of Kate's experimentation.

"The Infant Kiss" is a random and weird track that flows well and leads onto the next track with ease.

"Night Scented Stock" is a lovely instrumental track that follows on well from the previous song, "The Infant Kiss".

"Army Dreamers" is a great track that leans towards the style of "The Dreaming" more than anything else, it's one of her best tracks with a nice toy-soldier march feel to it.

"Breathing" is a fantastic song about a baby suffering in it's mother's womb because of nuclear radiation. The song is the best on the album and is very emotive. Overall an amzing track to close the album on.

Overall, this album is a difficult one to classify as it combines various elements and shows influences of previous and forthcoming albums. The album has superb production and some amazing songs. This album is again another classic by Kate and was the first album by a British female to top the UK charts.

As you know, this is Kate's third album, and it was followed by the masterpieces "The Dreaming", and "Hounds of Love". To me, "Never Forever" sounds like a cross between her debut and the Dreaming, but still is a very rewarding and challenging experience.

The album begins with favourite Kate Bush single ever (besides "The Dreaming"). It is such a strange pop song, but it somehow got to #1 in Australia and top 5 in the UK. The song starts out with a cello, and the verses are rather quiet, and the chorus just explodes with Kate singing 'All yours / Babooshka / Babooshka / Babooshka ya ya' - the video is one of Kate's best also. The second track is the strange "Delius (song of summer)". It is one of my least favourites, but this is not to say that it is bad. It is a nice contrast to the out-there-ness of most of the other track and makes a nice chillout song. "Blow Away" is another great song that Kate wrote for one of her band members. This is a nice and catchy song that would have made a great single. "All We Ever Look For" is yet another strange song about we should really look for, and about the relationship between a father and son or daughter especially.

"Egypt" is another strange (I am really overusing this word today), and one of my favourite songs EVER! The song sounds so modern - it could be released today or in the future, remembering that this album is 26 years old. The climax in this song is one of the best Kate Bush moments ever (others are the climaxes of Hello Earth and Jig of Life), and I cannot understand how anyone could dislike this song. "The Wedding List" sounds like a novelty song musically but is much more than that. Kate sings about anger and hurt in a fun way, which I thought was strange... "Violin" is just an out of control song about who knows what. All I can say is that the vocals are great, the music is great, and this song is very fun and very crazy.

"The Infant Kiss" is a nice ballad, but not one of my favourites, but does feature one of my favourite lines ever: 'There's a man behind those eyes'. "Night Scented Stock" sets the mood for the album, and its running time is not more than one minute. There are just backing vocals in this song basically. "Army Dreamers" is a mysterious song and defiantly one of my favourites. It was the third and final single and peaked at #16 in the UK. The song is about war and how bad it is, and tells the story of a man who wanted to be a successful father, but died (in a war) before he was 20. "Breathing" closes the album, and should leave you in awe. It is another strange song, and I am surprised in peaked so highly in the UK (#16) because it is so different and inaccessible. The song begins with some weird piano chords, and has another great video, and I think the Never Forever/Dreaming was the era when Kate produced her best videos. The song is about a baby inside a mother's womb, breathing in toxins such as nicotine, because of a war.

9.5 / 10

As you don't know, for me, and album has to be an absolute masterpiece for me to give it a 10, and this album (with tracks such as 2 and 8) just falls short of this. But the album is still great, and ranks around my 4th/5th favourite Kate album at the moment, but her albums ARE VERY hard to rank, because they are all really really good (yes, including Lionheart and The Red Shoes). Kate Bush is my favourite artist/band etc. ever, and this album is one of the main reasons why.

Kate could write a great song, that we knew. On Never Forever she reinvents herself; Breathing and Delius show a more experimental Kate without losing the feel of earlier great work.

Babooska and Army Dreamers show another example of her emphasis for feelings. For some too sweet, but they are for real and that you can hear. The forementioned songs are great but not all are of that same level. So not a 5 star.