Customer Reviews

Sensual World

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In her home country, England, Kate Bush's most famous song is probably Wuthering Heights and her most famous album is probably one that that song didn't come off- Hounds of Love (1985). However, abroad it seems to be a different story. The album that came four years after Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World (1989) appears to be most well-known, in particular in the US, where This Woman's Work appeared in a film once- way back in 1988!
Yes, as a shy Home Counties girl, Kate has never gone big on promotion and whereas, in society, it seems ok for a band like Radiohead to get away with left-field ideas, people are still scared by a powerfully sensitive woman with unusual ideas. Subconciously, with her mystical lyrics and wild-eyed flights of fancy, they think she might really be a witch.
Kate has done a few songs about witches- Waking The Witch on 'Hounds of Love' springs to mind. And Rocket's Tail on this album, which reaches a breathtaking crescendo and has references to pointed hats and flying sticks, hints at the same theme. Despite this album being regarded as her 'relationship' album, it is far from the safe channels of most female lyricists. It is as much about Kate's relationship with herself, her ideas and the 'world' as with any man.
Kate talks about things buried deep in her, both physically (self pleasure on 'The Sensual World') and past events on 'Love and Anger.' Communication is a big theme, on 'Deeper Understanding' where she develops a relationship over (and with) the internet and on Between a man and a woman where she speaks of love between two people away from 'modern Western pressures'.
'Never be mine' is like a negative of the chorus of the song 'Hounds of Love' from her earlier album. Instead of being consumed by emotion she now quietly mourns 'The thrill and the hurting...'(of love) '...will never be mine'.
Earlier on in the album, 'The Fog' and 'Reaching Out' seem most occupied with the theme of childhood that has stayed with Kate during her career, a mixture of innocence and worldly knowingness. There is always a fear and an tension in making her way in the big wide world, away from familiar things. This coincides with the theme of being excitedly scared of love.
That leaves Walk Straight Down the Middle, which is the weakest song on the album and Heads We're Dancing in which Kate, or a character of Kate's imagining, finds out only from a picture that she has actually been dancing with Hitler. You could read into this that we never know for sure who we have fallen in love with - that we fall in love with an idea and the idea is often enough.

The album is simply one of Kate's best and, to me, her most intriguing. The insrumentation and backing singers are sublime. It is a deeply mature work about woman's sexuality, love, childhood, fear. Each song is complete and contained in itself like a new thought or dream. Abstract, advant-garde but highly personal. Genius.

I originally bought this CD in 1992 right after seeing the movie "She's Having A Baby," with Kevin Bacon. "This Woman's Work" was featured in this movie, and I frantically searched for the artist and title of this song after seeing the movie. At the time, I, too, was pregnant with our first child. After I had our son, Aaron, in 1992, I remember laying him on the floor on a blanket and lying next to him, looking into his eyes, and holding his tiny fingers in mine while we listened to this haunting, bittersweet song. My eyes would fill with tears at the realization of the miracle that he truly was, and how truly blessed we were to have such a beautiful child. My son died from S.I.D.S. four months later. I now bring out this CD only when I want to relive those moments with my son --always on his birthday, his death anniversary, and sometimes simply on days when I really miss him. It's been eight years, now, and of course, the memories have faded with time. But whenever I want to feel close to my son, I turn on the song "This Woman's Work." This song is the only thing that enables me to relive those beautiful moments that I had with my child. "I know you have got a little life, in you yet. I know you've got a lot of strength, left... I should be crying, but I just can't let it show...Give me those moments, back. Give them back to me. Give me that little kiss. Give me your hand... All the things we should have done, that we never did..." The words are tremendously haunting, yet touch me so much within the depths of my soul. Although I can't listen to it daily (it's too hard, still...), I truly thank Ms. Bush for this "gift" of emotional perfection that she gives me, each time I hear it. I think this song will remain a part of me, forever. -An eternally grateful mother

I have played this album then CD over 100 times, and it is better richer more gorgeous and perfect each time. Put on your earphones and let this magical mystical album take you places deep in your soul. I love it, if you can not tell. Kate is an underappreciated genius, lost in the shuffle of marketing ploys and teeny girl hyper sexuality... this is sexuality on a different level. A level beyond age time gender. Get it and be enriched, I mean it.

Only the second Kate Bush album I ever loved the first time I heard it, this may in fact be her most accessible, with neither the wildness of experimentation on "The Dreaming", nor the exceptionally soprano vocals of her first three. If you are curious about whether to try Kate Bush or not, this is a fine place to start.

Opening with "The Sensual World", we are at once plunged into an appropriately sensual sonic world. Bush's musical experimentation has moved (for this song at least) away from compositional complexity to orchestral richness. As usual, of course, the musicianship is simply exquisite. The lyrics are confessionally lurid.

"Love and Anger", the single from the album, is Bush reaching back to the kind of rock composition she originally attempted with "James and the Cold Gun", now magnified with the ferocity of her intelligence and experience. The chorus is typically powerful, and it is both endearing and amazing how her emotional range has changed over the course of her albums. A must hear piece.

"The Fog" is a truly rich symphony that is lush, but not at all misty or vague. One of the things so amazing about Bush's music is how you really have to concentrate to pick out the instruments in her best songs. She puts together such artful combinations that it is received as a whole, as if the melody and accompaniment are more sensed than heard. In any case, the string arrangement here is simply sumptuous and the vocals, crystalline and beautiful.

"Reaching Out" is one of the best Kate Bush songs ever. It's what you get with eleven years of experience applied to the basic song formula of piano, drums and bass that Bush began with. The simultaneous power and clarity of her backing vocals here makes the disc worth having alone, but the chorus is simply one of her most beautiful and haunting ever.

"Heads Were Dancing", a quirky song about meeting Hitler in a dancehall, is not the most compelling combination of music and vocals Bush has ever done. Subpar only by her high standards, the song has its strengths, particularly the funky bass line. I'd never try to make converts with this song though. It doesn't help much that the song runs on for over five minutes.

"Deeper Understanding", technically an even quirkier song about a computer program that provides emotional nurturing and deeper understanding for lonely people, is much more successful because of the truly lovely vocal arrangements Bush builds up, especially in the chorus with the child-like and sweet timbre of her voice, as opposed to the desperate and hollow intonation she uses for the narrator, who is describing her (or his) lonely and desperate condition. Simple drums, keyboards, piano and subtle bass provide the skeleton for the song. The "Eastern"-influenced vocal flourish toward the end is also especially nice.

For the songwriter who began with some many dreamy ballads about love, "Between a Man and a Woman" shows, lyrically, emotionally and musically, how very, very far Bush has come as an artist. There is more emotional nuance, characterization and range in this one song than on many other people's albums. And once again, the surprising simplicity of orchestration, with its continuous splashes of guitar or bass or drum or keyboard, disappears in the overall complexity of its sound.

"Never Be Mine" is another of those exquisite Kate Bush songs that seems to disappear into her catalog, overshadowed unjustly by other justly marvelous songs. It seems genuinely impossible to do descriptive justice to this song--the many layers of vocals are simply breathtaking, and the way the bass and the guitar tones combine here to form an unprecedented instrument of their own is gorgeous. Definitely a song to make buying the disk worth it.

"Rocket's Tail" is a stand out piece, since it opens with an a cappella section with Bush providing all of the voices. The bassist (that must be Del Palmer, Bush's long time David Gilmour of the bass) provides especially scrumptious lines in the rock section that follows. It's hard not to think of this song as a kind of musically super-developed version of "Kite".

"This Woman's Work", an example of Kate Bush at the very bedrock of her compositional strength (just her and the piano), is an unbelievably beautiful, achingly affecting song. The way she sings about needing to be strong in a nearly cracking voice, how the backing vocals swell in intensity and then just fall away as she sings, "just make it go away"...a perfect combination of form and content. But the main thing is how haunting and beautiful the song is. Originally the last song on the album, it left an almost unbearable and amazing impression.

Technically, I should rant that the effect of the original album is compromised by tacking another song on the end, but "Walk Straight Down the Middle" (one of Bush's insanely good B-sides, like "Under the Ivy") is another of her finest vocal achievements. Sung in an almost-drugged voice for the verse, the chorus suddenly opens up into pure power and clarity backed by marvelously arpeggiated chords that put exactly the right amount of swing behind the strength of Bush's vocals. The bass work at the end is yet one more reason to vote for Del Palmer as a ranking member of the most undercelebrated bassists ever club.

Most people don't seem to get this album. Sadly it draws immediate comparison to it's predecessor The Hounds Of Love, Kate's most critically acclaimed and well known album. While I will be the first to admit that Hounds is indeed a masterpiece, so is The Sensual World. Unlike most artists Kate changes the sound between each release, important for evolution and the reason we love her so much. Thankfully (from my perspective) The Sensual World wasn't Hounds Part II.

The Sensual World is unashamedly romantic and lush. Songs of love, lust and hate fill this disc; from the gorgeous, syrup-like open track The Sensual World (adapted from Molly Blooms narative at the end of Ulysses and inspiring 1990's singers such as Tori Amos and Bjork), through to the foresightful Deeper Understanding, the crazy Rockets Tail and the beautiful This Womans Work. My personal favourite is Heads We're Dancing, a chilling story of a woman (maybe Eva Braun, though the lyrics suggest she didn't of him - or perhaps it's written from the perspective of a whole nation?) who falls in love with Hitler. Great percussion, brilliant guitars and a good story!

The disc also seems to draw a response for lacking cohesiveness. I think it flows beautifully, the "sound" of each track is similar enough without becoming repetative, and the theme of the album runs strong through all the lyrics. Give the album some time to settle in, allow the songs to float in your thoughts, and I am sure it will soon become a favourite!

"The Sensual World" by Kate Bush
Genres: Rock, Prog-Rock/Art Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, College Rock
Release Date: 1989
Label: EMI

"This is probably my most feminine album," said Kate Bush when asked about "The Sensual World" upon it's release. She's right, and this comes through in the decidedly more erotic lyrics and the music. From listening to the opening title track with wedding bells, lush instrumentals, sexy echo-drums, and sensually erotic lyrics, which was modern then, yet ahead of it's time, it's easy to think that Kate has grown up since "Hounds Of Love". However, the bashful romantic of "The Kick Inside" is still there only just under the surface, and she comes out to the top to play on a few occasions.

The first of those occasions is "Love And Anger" a catchy, rocking and worldly single which features the first of two memorable guitar contributions from Kate's personal friend and the man who discovered her, Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd. At the end she seems to literally laugh in our face for thinking that Kate Bush was all mature and grown. "The Fog" is a song who's meaning reflects the production. It is (sort of) about tough love; the production is soft yet the strings are as big as the deep and dark water Kate sings of. It's grown-up yet vulnerable, beautiful and acoustic-sounding, with those enveloping strings responding to a spoken contribution from her father (credited as Dr. Bush).

We move onto "Reaching Out", featuring sentimental lyrics, softly epic strings, and a very impressive vocal performance by Kate. "Heads We're Dancing" is incredibly dark and sounds like it could have been included on "The Dreaming" from seven years earlier. It's a tale of a woman in 1939 who dances with a charming man at a ball in Germany, who she later finds out is Adolf Hitler, much to her horror. It is dark and scary, yet doesn't really sink in for quite a few listens. Nonetheless, it shows aspects of Kate's genius in their best light. The Peter Gabriel style "Deeper Understanding" is the only track that sounds dated and maybe even a little cheesy, and is sort of a love-letter to Kate's computer (of course with a darker side), complete with beautiful vocals by the Bulgarian band Trio Bulgarka discovered by Kate and used again on "The Red Shoes" four years later. "Between A Man And A Woman" also sounds dated, but not too much, and is only slightly more light-hearted than "Head's We're Dancing". She scalds an outsider for trying to interfere with a delicate relationship, despite their good intentions. It's a type of song only Kate could do.

"Never Be Mine" is a little forgettable the first time around, but comes through atmospherically after repeated plays. The beautiful afternoon lake-side feeling to the song is complimented by the same mood-ring synths of "Mother Stands For Comfort", and still sounds oddly acoustic. The most instantly memorable track is the glam-rock "Rocket's Tail" (named after her cat). It starts off with Kate singing a-capella backed only by the Trio Bulgarka for the first two minutes (showing how good they are better than any other song they accompany Kate on), until David Gilmour bursts through stylishly with incredible guitar work reminiscent from his heyday in the 70s. "This Woman's Work" is her most beautiful ballad since "The Kick Inside" and was used in the 1988 film "She's Having A Baby". It was a hit for Kate, and a lot of peoples favourite. But casual fans or newcomers should not expect the album to be ten other "This Woman's Work"s.

The album on LP and Cassette closed with "This Woman's Work", but the CD features a bonus track, "Walk Straight Down The Middle", which is characteristically (of this album) atmospheric, dark, catchy and memorable, but dated. Like her closing "The Dreaming" with donkey braying like something from the more haunting parts of "Pinocchio", she opts to end the affair with the strange vocal experimentation of peacock sounds, also characteristically more feminine than the donkey from seven years ago.

The only thing consistent about this album is it's brilliance. Unfortunately the inconsistencies are the best things: instantly memorable songs and ageless production techniques. This takes away very little from the album, though, which is one of Kate's best and most sensual works to date. Kate has always made heart-stopping music, and it can be heart-stopping in so many ways. "The Sensual World" fits in between "Hounds Of Love" and "The Red Shoes" (four years after and before each one respectively) extremely well, and is a perfectly unique piece, but unmistakeably Kate. A wise purchase for a newcomer, if bought after "The Whole Story" which only chronicles the first eight years of her career.

Best Tracks: "The Sensual World" for being so sexy and memorable. "The Fog" for it's strange strong/vulnerable beauty. "Heads We're Dancing" for it's scary darkness. "This Woman's Work" for it's unmatched beauty.

Words cannot express how much I love this album.It's one of the few I've ever listened to where every song gives me goose-flesh,even now,ten years after I first heard it.Ms. Bush puts so much heart and soul and genuine,inspiringly HUMAN emotion into these breathtakingly crafted and played peices,one can only listen in awe.The opener "The Sensual World" blurrs the line forever between the divine and the erotic,"Love And Anger" combines hope and dread in a riveting interior monologue about love and loss."The Fog" a jaw-dropping dream-like reminiscence of childhood,is simply geogeous and indellibly haunting."Deeper Understanding",is another stunner about a woman who is seeking meaning and contact through endless hour in front of her computer;obviously,it's a song gets more relevent as the cyber-nation grows with each passing year."Never Be Mine" is almost overwhelming in it's primal,swoon-inducing longing(I may get hate-mail for this,but I always thought this song would have been smashing on the "Titanic" soundtrack).I don't knowhow to describe the next song "Rocket's Tail",featuring a soaring vocal by Kate,backed up by the Bulgarian Woman's Chior and David Gilmore (Pink Floyd) on guitar,the track blasts into the stratusphere,and leaves me speechless every time.You have to hear it to believe it,as I could never possibly describe it accurately.The album as a whole is an amzing amalgam of modern thems and ancient instrumentation and textures,with Irish pipes,and string sections and the above mentioned choir adding a timeless,eathy quality to Kate's never-better songwriting and vocals.Any one who hasn't heard this album should,immedeately.What are you waiting for?

It was a full four years after Hounds Of Love that Kate Bush reemerged with a new album, a new sound, and a new label, Sony.

The title track is one of her erotic songs a la "In The Warm Room" or "Symphony In Blue" from Lionheart, with Kate's girlish whispers almost tickling one's ears. and the lyrics are There is a distinct Irish sound with the Uileann pipes and a bouzouki.

The semi-calypso sound and prominent bass sets the tone of the mid-tempo "Love And Anger." Part of it has to do with saying the things one means, that "something so deep you don't think you can speak about it." Once that happens there'll be "two strings in sympathy", that someone who will help one change the past and the future.

After a burst of mad laughter, comes "The Fog". Kate's voice is at her most vulnerable here. Being overwhelmed enough by love has reduced Kate's persona to the frightened state of a child who's learning how to swim and has a kind father telling her the water's only waist high. She asks "Is this love big enough to watch over me, big enough to let go of me? Without hurting me" The emotional highlight has to be Nigel Kennedy's melancholy violin solo, and the orchestra arranged by Michael Kamen works well too.

"Reaching Out" shows how we all desire something and blindly reach out for it, whether it's a child reaching for fire, or a man for something he cannot have, but what they both have in common is "reaching out for Mama" which could mean certainty, but also an answer, harkening back to the universal navel.

The next two songs are the most imaginative from this album. The upbeat "Heads We're Dancing" is set in 1939, before "the music started" and has her dancing with someone, until she recognizes his face from a picture: "It couldn't be you/It's a picture of Hitler."

Before the proliferation of Internet recluses, the character of "Deeper Understanding," alienated and feeling lonely and lost by a colder world, turned to her computer and a new programme, a voice console, which talks to her. "Hello, I know that you've been feeling tired/I bring you love and deeper understanding." The Trio Bulgarka, consisting of the exotic voices of soloist Yanka Rupkhina, Eva Georgeva, and Stoyanka Boneva, all Bulgarians, chant while she sings the chorus. One of the songs I relate to.

The Celtic-flavoured ballad, "Never Be Mine" is a merging of Celtic Uileann pipes and the Trio Bulgarka. There's a conflict between wanting someone and a life as an ideal but missing the concrete reality of both. The two-sided coin of that concept is encapsulated with "The thrill and the hurting will never be mine."

"Rocket's Tail", also featuring the ethereal Trio Bulgarka, is about a woman who trying to emulate a rocket on November (I presume on Guy Fawkes night), goes as far as putting on a pointed hat, a gunpowder pack and stick (fuse), and standing on Waterloo Bridge, is ready to blast off. The songs starts a capella with Kate and Trio, till the line "and now shooting into the night", when Dave Gilmour's guitar signifies that the woman has taken off into the night. Creative!

The haunting and beautiful ballad "This Woman's Work" about a young unexpected mother-to-be who doesn't seem prepared, and is sung from the POV of a worried mother who anguishes over things she should've spoken to/or done with her daughter. Her vocals rise to a crescendo when she sings "Oh darling, make it go away" as in the feelings of angst. This was not only featured in the movie She's Having A Baby, but also was the name of the box set she released.

The Sensual World does not carry the romantic wonder of early albums such as Kick Inside and Lionheart, nor does its innovations top those of Never For Ever and The Dreaming. As for the sound, the constant drum backbeat is a bit distracting, as many of Kate's ethereal sounds did not require a steady drums. The songwriting though remains top-notch, even though some of the music doesn't reflect the lyrical quality. But both Celtic-flavoured songs, arranged by Bill Whelan, and the Trio Bulgarka songs add another dimension to Kate's sound.

It's Christmas Day 2002 and I'm listening to one of the most exquisite albums not just of the eighties, but that I've ever heard. Kate Bush's Sensual World is not an album. The Sensual World is a state of mind requiring patience and understanding. With a beautifully rich sound and a group of musicians including Floyd's David Gilmour on guitar, Bush draws you into her world for 45 minutes with her voice of pleasure and a trio of hedonistic background singers. It really is listening pleasure. I'm encouraging Sarah, my younger sister, to listen and love this album, but it's like pulling teeth in that she is in the middle of the Aguilara and Spears moment. I hope she one day converts. I also hope you'll give it a listen. Remember; patience and understanding.

Those who are familiar with Kate Bush, know she has come a long, long way from the seemingly high pitched, single piano track seventeen year old of the seventies. In the eighties a wonderful invention came out called the synthesizer. Kate Bush used it, but in the album she calms down to the pure softness and elegance of her and the piano. She also recruits the old Trio Bulgarka to form a sound that is truly found only in other worlds and in magic books.

The Sensual World isn't merely an album, it's a mantra. Where as Kate avoided any type of woman understanding (she didn't exactly avoid it all to well, heh, heh) with all of her albums, this is the most feminine to date. She actually paralells to other artists.

Perhaps the most notable track on this album is "This Woman's Work" which is beyond words. It a soft melody which Kate sings to with a feminine grace. If you like Kate, and haven't heard this song, you need to. You will fall in love with it and this CD will not leave your CD player for quite sometime.

Besides Woman's Work this CD is still pretty remarkable. "Sensual World" has a unique tribal sound to it and is truly magical. She uses alot of uncommon instrumentals and pulls it off beautifuly. On "Love and Anger" we hear a heavy drum beat and a unforgettable chorus. It also can act as a good remedy for troubled relationships. "Heads Were Dancing" is remarkable. The beat is totally lovely, and escapes me how anyone could write this.

Everyone (well almost everyone) has such lovely things to say about it. This CD knows no wrong.