After releasing 3 albums back to back to huge commercial success, Kate Bush needed a break to relax, consider and create her first album of all new songs. Whereas her previous albums had contained tracks from as early as 1976, this was to be a completely new album, created and recorded to exacting standards and totally controlled at points by Kate.
The process was slow, with Kate often relying on her Fairlight CMI to produce the sounds she was after. Indeed this was the most prominent sound used on the album. Other performances included Kate singing a line forwards, playing it then backwards, learning the sound until she could sing it, then reversing that sound. This gave the vocals an alien intense feeling I have only heard executed in songs by Dublin art rock band Virgin Prunes.
This was the album that would establish Kate as a serious artist and not just an enigmatic somewhat eccentric pop singer who did that dance to those songs.
After 'Never for Ever' Kate disappeared for nearly 2 years. She spent most of this time creating 'The Dreaming' but treated us to a glimpse a while before it's release. The tumbling, gothic, 'Sat in your lap' from 1981 became her seventh song to break the top 20 rising to a respectable number 11. This complete change of style shocked some people but wowed the critics. We were finally getting a glipse of the genius and raw emotion of Kate Bush. A three and a half minute frenzy of hard hitting drums, fairlight samples and Kate delivering her most powerful vocal yet. In no way could this be described as pop music.
The arrival of the album was preceded by the release of the somewhat bizarre 'The Dreaming' a strange single choice as it entered the chart at number 48 then promptly disappeared from view probably not helped by a weak b side - an instrumental version of the song. Even a hugely expensive video couldn't help push the song up the chart and zero airplay didn't help either. It was just too far ahead of it's time.
Nevetheless this was an interesting song featuring a cast of performers impesonating animals and playing digeridoo and Kate performing in a classic Australianesque accent. Completely crazy but crazily brilliant.
Shortly after the single, the album was released entering the chart at number 3 quickly selling more than 50,000 copies. And that was it. After 10 weeks it had dropped out of the chart. A re-entry to the chart was acheived in 2014 after Bush's record smashing 'Before the Dawn' concerts and it hung around in the lower reaches of the top 40 for a few more weeks. Sales figures of Bush's albums are notoriously well hidden but the album is likely to have sold around 100,000 copies in the UK. It did suceed moderately in other countries like France and Japan so is likely to have sold in the region of 250,000 copies. A mere quater of the sales of her previous recording. This was despite Kate extensively promoting the album - this was before she withdrew from the press - including record signings that went hours over their alloted time so Kate could meet all of her fans who had bought the record.
In order to try and boost the album, a third single was released. Now seen as Bush's lost single 'There goes a Tenner...' remains her only single not to chart despite it's shear brilliance of the telling of a robbery going wrong. It had an equally brilliant video but with no airplay it was doomed to history. A real shame.
The forth single came in the shape of 'Suspended in Gaffa' a brilliant song and somewhat autobiographical. Again a tremendous video and a hit in Europe, the single wasn't even given a UK release.
The final single was the hauntingly beautiful 'Night of the Swallow' which only had a release in Ireland with no video clip. Why this wasn't the lead single on the album has always bern a surprise to me as it surely had the potential to be a massive hit, as could 'There goes a Tenner...'. Sadly lack of record company promotion and radio play left them to linger on the vine. These singles have become some of Kate's most collectable. 'Night of the Swallow' often sells for in excess of £100, 'There goes a Tenner...' and 'Suspended in Gaffa' well into double figures and a 12" promo of 'The Dreaming' recently sold on an auction site for £1500.
Although the singles failed to set the charts ablaze it was the rest of the album tracks that were truly impressive. The first side was dominated by 'Pull out the Pin'. This was the story of a Vietnamese soldier and their perspective of fighting against the American enemy. With it's haunting vocal and use of Fairlight and bass, this track is quite unlike any other of Bush's songs. 'I love life... so pull out the pin' is the prevalent lyric throught the song, it has some feeling of 'Army Dreamers' but is far superior in all ways.
The second side ends with the absolute show stoppers. Both completely unique in Bush's repertoire. 'Houdini' is the story of Houdini giving his wife the code 'Rosabelle believe' so if spirit was real she would know he existed beyond death and could convey this message to her via a sceance or medium. This song is just so technically brilliant. Her growling vocal spanning 2 octaves in one song is truly impressive. During the recoring sessions, to perfect these vocals, including the rasping cry, she ate chocolate, drank milk and smoked as much of possible. Whether it is good or bad, it was certainly the key to fit her artistic lock. Bush will never equal this track and it must remain her most complex clever piece of music.
The album closes with a song about a possessed house wanting to remove it's tenanats. Loosly based on Stephen King's 'The Shining', 'Get out of my House' is a complex rythmic piece running over four odd minutes. A truly challenging vocal performence which Bush execute's perfectly. As the song and album draw to a close, it descend onto Kate and her band descending into donkey brays in time to thundering drums. This has to be the finest way ever to close an album.
'With a kiss, I pass the key...'
