FEATURE:
Love and Anger
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional shot for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow (‘Creating Wild Man’)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Why the Mystery and Tension Around Whether Kate Bush Will Release Another Album Is Pointless
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I am going to start with an article…
IN THIS PHOTO: Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek
that I sourced from last weekend - as I talked about the demands and misguided expectations of executives in the music industry. The article has caused quite a stir in the music world, and rightly so! The suggestion was, from Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek, that artists need to engage more with their fans and cannot rely on putting an album out every few years. Music Radar explains more:
“Despite the fact Spotify is still not making money, critics continue to suggest it's not paying musicians enough in royalties for the streaming of their music on its service. And Music Ally's new with interview CEO and founder Daniel Ek's is unlikely to win them around any time soon.
The interview followed the announcement of Spotify's Q2 numbers, and the billionaire Swede suggested that the royalties offered by company's business model are not the issue, and it's really a question of volume and marketing when it comes to musicians' output.
“There is a narrative fallacy here," said Ek, "combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.
"The artists today that are making it realise that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans".
I can understand why some would feel putting an album into the world regularly would be possible and advisable. Look back at decades past, and some of the biggest artists ever would be releasing an album every year or so. If artists were to commit to an album or new music so regularly, they would not be able to tour, and there would be very little in the way of quality control. Whilst releasing one album every five years might seem excessively infrequent, what is the perfect time period!? It is hard to say, but it is rich for a very wealthy boss like Ek to say that artists need to step up when he is not an artist! Every artist, whether they are established or new, has their own plan, and I think there are definitely risks when it comes to leaving it too long before putting music out. I think some of the best and most rewarding albums produced have happened because artists have left things long enough so they can ruminate and take their time let the muse strike. This takes me, rather ineloquently, to the subject of Kate Bush. Last week (on 30th July), she celebrated her birthday, and thousands of fans took to the Internet to praise and pay tribute to her. It is amazing to see all the love that was poured forth! I don’t think there is any other artist that has received so much love on their birthday – maybe someone like Paul McCartney or Madonna, but there aren’t many!
IMAGE CREDIT: Lance Unrau
Not only was Bush’s birthday a chance for people to list their favourite songs and albums of hers but, at the same time, many were asking when she would be returning with a new album. I can appreciate why some fans would feel a little tense and, at times, angry that there has not been a new Kate Bush album since 2011. Complex wrote an article last week that highlighted Bush’s impact on other artists, but they also implied that she had vanished:
"My life and my work are very interlocked. That's partly why I like to keep my private life private,” Kate Bush said in 2005. Privacy is an integral part of the British pop star’s nature. She rarely updates her social media accounts, her latest published interview was in 2016, and her last tour was in 1979. When it comes to projects, Bush has always followed her own agenda. Her most recent album was released nine years ago and came six years after the album before that. In other words, being a fan of the singer-songwriter is a never-ending waiting game supplemented by diving into the 10 studio albums she’s produced so far. Bush’s extensive discography, which has been described as complex and ethereal, has the range to keep fans immersed, no matter how lengthy the waiting period.
For the last three decades, Bush has been crowned the queen of art-pop without ever winning a Grammy or touring after the releases of new albums. You won’t catch her in the audience at an award show or giving lengthy interviews on a talk show. In fact, it isn’t even certain where she is spending her time, but many fans assume she’s tucked away somewhere in South Devon. With her pioneering legacy of experimental sound, masterful storytelling, and unconventional lyrics and structure, Bush’s influence in the music industry has stretched across genres and borders. “Kate Bush has always been a typewriter in a renaissance," Boy George explained. "She appeared out of nowhere at the tail end of punk and sort of embodied the punk spirit by just being completely herself. She blew things apart with things like ‘Running Up That Hill’ because it defied the classic logic of pop.”
After Bush’s seventh album in 1993, The Red Shoes, she took a 12-year hiatus. The break can be attributed to the birth of her first son in 1998, which was even kept a secret until two years later when it was revealed by Peter Gabriel during an interview. A nine-year hiatus followed that, pushing the idea that Bush had become a recluse and was nearing her final years in music. Whether that be true or not, her eclectic music style has yet to go out of fashion.
Even modern film has made space for the work of Bush. The iconic sex scene in Love and Basketball wouldn’t be nearly as steamy or moving without Maxwell’s cover of “This Woman’s Work.” More recently, “Running Up That Hill” was coined as a symbol of Angel and Stan’s relationship in Pose. Even “Cloudbusting” and Bush’s original “This Woman’s Work” helped set the tone in The Handmaid’s Tale”.
Whilst some media sources asked whether Bush had vanished others, like Graeme Thomson – the Scottish author wrote her biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, and he looked back at her productivity in the first and second thirty-one years of her life and asked what comes next. I think many are genuinely curious and patient, but there are those who feel like Bush has disappeared and will not return. I have been one of those people who has asked whether we will get a Kate Bush album in 2020. It seems unlikely considering it is August, but I feel the best thing about waiting for a new album is the impact it has when you finally get to hear it! Books have been written about Kate Bush’s life and how there is a long wait between some of her albums. - or how she seems to sort of fade into the mist After 1993’s The Red Shoes, there was a twelve year wait until Aerial. After that, there was six years until Director’s Cut. It has been almost nine years since 50 Words for Snow in 2011.
Kate Bush is 62 today. In the first 31 years she released 6 albums of original material and played 28 shows. In the second 31 years she made 3 albums of new material, one a double, plus Director's Cut, and played 22 shows. It's almost 9 years since 50 Words For Snow. What next?
— Graeme Thomson (@GraemeAThomson) July 30, 2020
As we are lockdown-ed and there is no saying when things will return to normal, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Bush to concoct and percolate ideas. I can imagine that studio time has been a part of her 2020, and it would have been a shame if she felt rushed into releasing an album so soon after 50 Words for Snow. Returning to the opening paragraph regarding Spotify’s CEO and how artists need to constantly engage; I guess not everyone is in the same position as Kate Bush, but I think there is too much pressure on all artists to churn out albums and, if they had a hit with their last album, to get back into the studio and follow it up. Bush faced that sort of pressure at the start of her career, and she released two albums in 1978 – The Kick Inside (her debut), and Lionheart. She felt that this was a mistake and, after some degree of expectation and push from EMI, it led to 1979’s The Tour of Life: not only a chance to get her albums’ material on the stage, but chance for her to assume some control and have a say regarding the next step in her career. Between 1978-1993, Bush put out seven studio albums, toured the world in 1979, and there were countless T.V. appearances, interviews, and events. It was an exhausting for her, and that was a big reason why she stepped away from music in 1993 – her mother also died in 1992, and her long-term relationship with Del Palmer broke up not too long after: a twin blow for an artist who desperately needed a break.
Whilst Bush has said she feels frustrated at how long it takes her to release albums, the wait between The Red Shoes and Aerial was worth the wait! I am not the only one who thinks that, and it allowed Bush the chance to start a family (her son, Bertie, was born in 1998) and re-evaluate. The double album she gave to us in 2005 was incredible! The sort of impatience and speculation that accompanies any long pause between albums directly links into this misconception that Bush is a recluse. This is a tag that has followed her for most of her career. The fact she does not attend galas and court press attention is why some think that she is hidden away and does not go outside! The truth of the matter is much simpler: she is trying to lead a normal life and, after years of working tirelessly, Bush has earned the right to create and release albums at her own pace. In an interview with The Guardian in 2005, Bush tackled the subjects of being viewed as a recluse and why she takes so long between albums:
“So, do the rumours bug you? That you're some fragile being who's hidden herself away?
"No," she replies. "A lot of the time it doesn't bother me. I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world." Her voice notches up in volume. "Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'."
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
This is how 12 years disappear if you're Kate Bush. You release The Red Shoes in 1993, your seventh album in a 15-year career characterised by increasingly ambitious records, ever-lengthening recording schedules and compulsive attention to detail. You are emotionally drained after the death of your mother Hannah but, against the advice of some of your friends, you throw yourself into The Line, the Cross & the Curve, a 45-minute video album released the following year that - despite its merits - you now consider to be "a load of bollocks". You take two years off to recharge your batteries, because you can. In 1996, you write a song called King of the Mountain. You have a bit of a think and take some more time off, similarly, because you can.
If the completion of Aerial put paid to one set of anxieties for Bush, then its impending release has brought another - not least, a brace of newspaper stories keen to push the "rock's mystery recluse" angle. It seems the more she craves privacy, the more it is threatened. "For the last 12 years, I've felt really privileged to be living such a normal life," she explains. "It's so a part of who I am. It's so important to me to do the washing, do the Hoovering. Friends of mine in the business don't know how dishwashers work. For me, that's frightening. I want to be in a position where I can function as a human being. Even more so now where you've got this sort of truly silly preoccupation with celebrities. Just because somebody's been in an ad on TV, so what? Who gives a toss?"
All of this considered makes me glad that there is no news of a new album! The past few months has been a very strange time, and a lot of changed in Bush’s life since her last studio album came out. Maybe she has written an album’s worth of songs, or there may be a couple of songs recorded. It is the distinctly unhurried approach to releasing albums that makes her so fascinating and admired. Rather than post tweets and teases regarding new songs and sharing silent videos ahead of an album coming out, Bush shuns the current-day promotional cycle where every morsel of an album needs to be shared and pushed to everyone! Bush’s last two studio albums – excluding Director’s Cut – have been, debatably, two of her strongest-ever albums, and they are more resonant and long-lasting than some of her material when she was at the peak of her career. That not only shows that Bush grows stronger with age, but time to cultivate and germinate at her own pace leads to phenomenal music of the highest order! The recluse tag will always follow her around, but Bush is the model of domesticity and normality.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
At a time when artists are being judged by the CEO of Spotify and there is a certain level of expectation from fans and record labels, someone like Kate Bush no longer feels the need to promote herself endlessly and put albums out to please the label. The fact she has her own label, Fish People, also means that she will not be getting polite reminders from EMI that it has been a while since 50 Words for Snow came out! Whether she chooses to release another album or not is up to her, and there is a wonderful joy in imagining what Bush is doing, what her next release will sound like and what might be. In any case, I think the birthday wave of affection she received last week shows that Bush has won the hearts of millions and has earned herself the right to whatever she likes! The always-adored and intriguing Kate Bush remains the subject of conversation, appreciation, and speculation…
OVER four decades after her debut album.