FEATURE: I Just Know That Something Good is Gonna Happen: Kate Bush CBE: Why Is She Not a Dame?

FEATURE:

 

 

I Just Know That Something Good is Gonna Happen

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush receives the Editors Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Palladium, London on 30th November, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

Kate Bush CBE: Why Is She Not a Dame?

_________

I have written about this before…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush awarded a CBE by The Queen on 10th April, 2013/PHOTO CREDIT: PA Wire/Press Association Images

but I wanted to revisit it because the topic is on my mind. There is no arguing against the fact Kate Bush is a hugely successful artist. In terms of the chart positions of her albums. Her studio albums always get into the top ten in the U.K. Even if her singles are a little less consistent, the fact is that Kate Bush is one of the most consistently successful albums artists ever. Over a period of more than thirty year, Bush has managed to release these acclaimed and different-sounding albums that have endured and inspired people. Bush is talking about the possibility of new music. How she is open to new ideas and wants to move forward. That possibility of an eleventh studio album. Her fanbase has widened over the past few years. Reaching a new generation without releasing any new music. It is quite an achievement. I am going to explore her influence on various groups of people. Something that I have been thinking about is why Bush has not received quite the sort of honours she deserves. I guess one can say that the music industry has rewarded her. She has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She has won awards through the years. In fact, there are few artists who have been acknowledged as consistently as Kate Bush. Think back to the 1970s and 1980s when she was award-nominated. In 2012, Kate Bush won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Pop. That was for 50 Words for Snow. Bush and her son Albert have been nominated in two GRAMMYs categories for Hounds of Love. Her 2023 illustrated vinyl release of Hounds of Love, The Baskerville Edition, has been nominated for Best Recording Package, while The Boxes of Lost at Sea art pieces (also editions of Hounds of Love) have been nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. We all hope that she wins! Of course, Bush will not be attending the ceremony in the U.S. next year. However, there is a strong chance that Bush will be a GRAMMY-winning artist very soon. Bush has not collected five GRAMMY nominations. Her most recent was for The Line, the Cross and the Curve in 1996, which was nominated for Best Music Film. So I guess she has been converted by the industry. Maybe not as garlanded as she should have been, at least awards have come her way!

I am thinking more about other honours. Why has Kate Bush never been made a Dame?! I guess it is an honour many think is insignificant. Many refuse that sort of thing because they do not like the Royal Family or they feel it sends a bad message. It does not mean anything in the grand scheme. That recognition of the highest order. That degree of excellence and significance. In April 2013, Kate Bush was awarded a CBE. It was a long overdue recognition of her services to music. By all accounts, it was an honour that meant a lot to Bush:

“Kate Bush has received her CBE for services to music from the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The singer-songwriter, who was catapulted to fame in 1978 when Wuthering Heights topped the charts, said she was "incredibly thrilled".

The 54-year-old dedicated the award to her family and joked that it would have pride of place at the top of her Christmas tree.

She has released 10 studio albums in a career spanning nearly 40 years.

Bush, whose other hits include Running Up That Hill and Babooshka, has won both Brit and Ivor Novello awards.

The artist, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has also recorded collaborations with some of the most prominent names in music, including Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel and Prince.

'Thrilled'

But she has toured only once, in 1979, and rarely makes public appearances or gives interviews.

She declined to speak directly to journalists who gathered at Windsor Castle for the ceremony, but did release a brief statement.

"I feel incredibly thrilled to receive this honour which I share with my family, friends and fellow musicians and everybody who has been such an important part of it all," she said.

"Now I've got something special to put on top of the Christmas tree."

The first British women ever to win Olympic gold for rowing and their coach have also been honoured at the same ceremony.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning triumphed in the coxless pairs to win Team GB's first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics, and received MBEs together with trainer Robin Williams.

Peter Charles, who won gold in the team showjumping event at London 2012 and cyclist Dani King, who won gold in the team pursuit event, have also received MBEs”.

I do think there are other music awards and honours Kate Bush should be awarded. However, many people have asked when she will be made a Dame. It will not really add to her legacy or how she is perceived. I feel it is something that is earned. In terms of acknowledging the effect she has had on popular culture. Her charity fundraising is also another factor. She has done a lot for charity right throughout her career. The most recent example is the video for Little Shrew (Snowflake) and how that was designed to help raise funds for War Child. It was not the first time Bush has created awareness for War Child before. She donated a signed turntable for Record Store Day earlier in the year. Inspired by The Ninth Wave from 1985’s Hounds of Love, Bush donated artwork to an auction on behalf of War Child in 1994. David Bowie took a shine to Bush’s artwork. The pieces were reauctioned in 2012. I have also written about how Bush has done so much for charity. I will revisit that at some point. In terms of how her music has affected and impacted people. All of this together makes her worthy of further honour. Whether it is an MBE or she is made a Dame, I think it would be a worthy nod of recognition. From actors to sport stars, so many have been a Dame or Sir. Knighted and bestowed one of the greatest honours you can get. Again, it is a divisive subject. Whether it means anything or whether people should accept them. Kate Bush is more than worthy of such esteem. Given how she has made contributions to charities like War Child and is now this artist resonating with a new generation, will it be her time?! King Charles III has an association with Kate Bush. Though loosely. The first Prince's Trust Rock Gala was held at the Dominion Tottenham Court Road, with Madness, Joan Armatrading, Phil Collins, Kate Bush and Pete Townshend performing. Kate Bush was featured on the official playlist for the coronation of King Charles III, along with other artists such as The Beatles and Madness. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) created the playlist, which was released three months before the coronation. That was last year.

Clearly, Kate Bush is known by King Charles III, so I would not be shocked if Bush was bestowed an honour in the New Year’s Honours List. We are around the time when we will know if Bush is included. On 29th December, 2023, on the same day as the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, 2024’s names were announced. You can see the complete list of who was awarded what. It would be amazing for Kate Bush to be included in the 2025 New Years Honours. Technically, the award is Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Last year, Jilly Cooper was made a Dame. I think that Kate Bush’s time is now. Maybe it is more likely a few years down the line, though why not now?! I can see why people would want these sort of great honours to go to people like doctors, nurses, scientists and social workers. How there is this criticism that people are being awarded for ‘doing their jobs’. Many others note how there is this anachronism and lack of diversity. Some issues with the current honours system. Every year, we get articles that note how there should be recognition of people who are unsung who do not get awarded such prestige. That is fair. However, in recent years, there has been more diversification in terms of those who are recognised. Not many artists are knighted or made a Dame. Paul McCartney, Bono, Julie Andrews and Bob Geldof have either been knighted or made a Dame. Charity seems to be a link to many. Will it take a few more years of Bush’s music and benevolence to make her worthy of being a Dame? Many fans feel she is deserving now. Me among them. Others would not care and feel that this is irrelevant or problematic. Bush herself is very comfortable and would definitely be flattered. She is our queen! Someone who deserves the highest honours and tributes. The music industry has done that. No doubt more awards will come. How long will it take before the extraordinary Kate Bush…

IS made a Dame?!

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Best Singles of 2024

FEATURE:

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Sabrina Carpenter/PHOTO CREDIT: Bryce Anderson

The Best Songs of 2024

_________

IN one of my last…

PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Jones/Pexels

Digital Mixtapes of the year, I want to compile the absolute best songs from this year. It has been a really strong year for tracks and singles, so it was hard whittling it down! I have taken suggestions from a number of different sources. There will be some songs in here that you have heard of, though there may also be others that are new. An eclectic and phenomenal assortment of the best from 2024. I am looking forward to seeing what great tracks come along next year. In the meantime, I have looked around and combined the finest songs and singles of 2024 has had to offer. As you will hear from this Digital Mixtape,. It has been another…

IN THIS PHOTO: Chappell Roan/PHOTO CREDIT: Island/UMG via AP

HUGELY strong year.

FEATURE: In the Eye of the Storm: Inside Beatles ‘64

FEATURE:

 

 

In the Eye of the Storm

Inside Beatles ‘64

_________

ONE of the most anticipated…

PHOTO CREDIT: Albert and David Maysles © 2024 Apple Corps, Ltd. All Rights Reserved

music documentaries of the year is available on Disney+ from tomorrow (29th November). Beatles ’64 charts The Beatles’ first visit to the U.S. It is already receiving some incredible reviews. I will end with one of them. Even if you are not a huge Beatles fan, the documentary is a historical snapshot. A moment when this Liverpool band wowed America and changed popular culture forever. It must have been exhilarating and a whirlwind for people who were there at the time. I can only imagine what it was like for the band! Before getting to a review for Beatles ’64, here is some information about the forthcoming documentary:

“Today, Disney+ announced that Beatles ‘64, an all-new documentary from producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi, will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning 29 November 2024. The film captures the electrifying moment of The Beatles’ first visit to America. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the band and the legions of young fans who helped fuel their ascendance, the film gives a rare glimpse into when The Beatles became the most influential and beloved band of all time.

On 7 February 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed at Kennedy Airport, met by thousands of fans, Beatlemania swept New York and the entire country. Their thrilling debut performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” captivated more than 73 million viewers, the most watched television event of its time. Beatles ‘64 presents the spectacle, but also reflects a more intimate behind the scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame.

The film includes rare footage filmed by pioneering documentarians Albert and David Maysles, beautifully restored in 4K by Park Road Post in New Zealand. The live performances from The Beatles first American concert at the Washington, DC Coliseum and their Ed Sullivan appearances were demixed by WingNut Films and remixed by Giles Martin. Spotlighting this singular cultural moment and its continued resonance today, the music and footage are augmented by newly filmed interviews with Paul and Ringo, as well as fans whose lives were transformed by The Beatles.

Beatles ’64 is directed by David Tedeschi and produced by Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Jonathan Clyde, Mikaela Beardsley, with Jeff Jones and Rick Yorn serving as executive producers.

Coinciding with the film’s Disney+ release, seven American Beatles albums have been analogue cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes for global release on 22 November by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Originally compiled for U.S. release between January 1964 and March 1965 by Capitol Records and United Artists, these mono albums have been out of print on vinyl since 1995. Meet The Beatles!; The Beatles’ Second Album; A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track); Something New; The Beatles’ Story (2LP); Beatles ’65; and The Early Beatles are available now for preorder in a new vinyl box set titled The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono, with six of the titles also available individually”.

I am keen to spotlight a five-star review for Beatles ’64. Before that, Rolling Stone interviewed director David Tedeschi about a documentary that is going to thrill and enlighten Beatles fans the world over. A unique and phenomenal look into the lives of four young men who were catapulted to a new level. The way they conquered America so quickly is testament to their extraordinary talent and appeal! We will never see anything like it again:

“The Beatles invaded America in early 1964, and the nation was never the same. Even as their plane was landing in New York, mobs of screaming fans stormed the airport. The night they played The Ed Sullivan Show, on February 9, they blew the minds of 73 million viewers. Beatlemania gripped the whole country. That moment is captured in Beatles ’64, a new documentary produced by Martin Scorsese. It’s directed by David Tedeschi, who has worked on many Scorsese docs, include the great George Harrison bio Living in the Material World.

Beatles ’64 arrives on Disney+ on Thanksgiving weekend—just as Peter Jackson’s Get Back did three years ago. It premieres on Nov. 29. The film features new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with archival interviews from John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as their first American concert. “The movie goes from New York to Washington D.C. and Miami, which was chaos,” David Tedeschi tells Rolling Stone in an exclusive interview. “There’s over 17 minutes of footage that’s never been seen before.”

The footage comes mostly from the documentary pioneers David and Albert Maysles, who went on to make classics films like Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. They followed the band, filming three weeks in the life of the Fab Four as the world around them goes mad, capturing Beatlemania as it exploded day by day. “We were kind of normal, and the rest of the world was crazy,” George Harrison says in the trailer. “Everybody got into the mania when the Beatles came to town.”

Peter Jackson’s WingNut Studios remastered the footage, as they did for Get Back. The music is produced by Giles Martin, who has produced the stellar run of Beatles editions that began in 2017 with Sgt. Pepper. Beatles ’64 gets up close and personal as John, Paul, George, and Ringo, already stars in their homeland, suddenly experience the kind of mass hysteria they’d never seen before — and neither had anyone else. “It was like being in the eye of a hurricane,” John says in in the trailer. “It was happening to us, but it was hard to see.

The film also has interviews with American music legends testifying to the Fabs’ impact, from Motown founder Berry Gordy to the late Ronnie Spector. Smokey Robinson, the Beatles’ original songwriting idol, discusses their connections with African-American music. As Robinson says, “They were the first white group that I’d ever heard in my life who said, ‘Yeah, we grew up listening to Black music.’”

Beatles ’64 is produced by Scorsese, Margaret Bodde, McCartney, Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Jonathan Clyde, and Mikaela Beardsley, with executive producers Jeff Jones and Rick Yorn. David Tedeschi spoke to Rolling Stone for an exclusive inside tour of the film, discussing how it happened and what fans can expect.

Are you a fan?

I’m a big Beatle fan. I grew up on the Beatles—it’s part of my DNA. Listen, I live in New York City. In a way, oddly enough, it’s a New York City story. Beatlemania feels like it took over the world in New York — Ed Sullivan was here. It wasn’t the beginning of Beatlemania, but that’s where it went up another level. Then it started happening all over the United States. So in a way, it’s a New York story, as a New Yorker who loved the Beatles, I feel very connected to it.

How did the movie come together?

I edited a film for Martin Scorsese called George Harrison: Living the Material World. As a result, we were very good friends with Olivia Harrison. We interviewed Paul and Ringo for that film. So there’s a relationship with Apple — we know them. Apple was aware that they had this footage and they wanted to do something with it, so they reached out to me.

Where does this footage come from?

David and Albert Maysles, who became very famous later in the sixties. This is their second movie-they made a movie that was rarely shown called What’s Happening! And one of the reasons it was rarely shown is they didn’t really have rights — a variety of rights. So Apple took ownership of the actual Maysles negatives.

Hardly anyone has seen What’s Happening!

Al and David, they were just phenomenal filmmakers and pioneers, and what they were doing was very unusual. So What’s Happening! did play on American TV, but it was considered too, how shall I say this, radical or obscure. And what played on American TV had interstitials with Carol Burnett.

What’s Happening! has a beautiful moment when the Beatles have just landed, riding in the car from the airport. Paul is holding up a transistor radio, hearing their song on the air. He looks right at the camera and says “I love this!” It’s so intimate.

Yeah, the Maysles brothers were pioneers of direct cinema, as they called it. In that footage, you can see that the Beatles are very relaxed. They have so much charisma on camera. But even the fans, these young women in front of the Plaza Hotel, or what we call the Sullivan Theater now — they also have so much charisma. There’s something about the energy of Al and David that relaxed people, and allowed them to project something on film. I don’t know what it is. I worked with Al when Scorsese hired him for [the Rolling Stones’ concert film] Shine a Light. So as the Rolling Stones were rehearsing, I got to watch Al at work. And he was very sly. People would see the camera, but quickly they forgot about it.

In the trailer, there’s a moment of Ringo talking to Martin Scorsese. Did Scorsese interview him?

We did two interviews: Ringo and Paul. Marty was there for Ringo, and I would say he primarily conducted the interview. We didn’t want to do just sit-down interviews. With Ringo, he has saved a lot of his clothes through the years, so he had one of the suits he wore on the train to Washington. He has it all — that same drum kit that he played at Ed Sullivan. I interviewed Paul at the Brooklyn Museum, when he was there for Eye of the Storm photo exhibit. When you look at the handwritten lyrics for ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ it’s an emotional thing

How far into 1964 does Beatles ’64 go?

It’s just those three weeks—they arrive in New York, for maybe four or five days, then Washington and Miami. There’s footage from the Maysleses all the way through, but there’s other stuff. We had a great researcher who found a lot of local Miami footage from local archives—a lot of footage was buried, and he really had to go digging in order to find it. So that’s exciting”.

PHOTO CREDIT: © 2024 Apple Corps

I will finish off with a review from The Guardian. Although I have seen one or two reviews give a middling assessment of Beatles ’64 – calling it an uneven portrait -, many have given it a huge thumbs up. Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day, as we will get to see one of the most important Beatles documentaries ever made. I cannot wait to see what comes from it:

“The Beatles’ breaking of America – that mythic, ecstatic moment which restored Britain’s postwar pride and became an enduring cornerstone of our soft power self-respect – is the subject of this absorbing documentary from director David Tedeschi; Martin Scorsese is a producer and interviews Ringo himself in the present day, with Paul speaking to camera separately. It also uses the intimate hotel-room and backstage footage shot at the time by the Maysles brothers, Albert and David.

The film is a record of the band’s arrival in New York in 1964, and their legendary live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the host resembling a wary, jowly Richard Nixon. Craig Brown’s book One Two Three Four points out that the Beatles’ appearance on the show followed an interminable succession of forgotten support acts who, though they may have eagerly accepted the TV booking at the time, were doomed to be hated by an impatient nation for not being the Beatles, for ever tainted by their sheer irrelevance. This film shows one of the TV audience yawning at one of these lesser mortals.

The band’s first concert in the US was in Washington DC, where the staff and officials at a British embassy reception notoriously disgraced themselves with their boorish snobbery towards the band; a well-spoken chap is shown sneering that he had no patriotic pride about the Beatles. Then it was back to New York to play Carnegie Hall, then on to Miami where they got to goof around with Muhammad Ali, though there is no film footage of that.

As ever, the four faces of the Beatles glow with incredulous bafflement and joy at the surreal storm swirling around them; they radiate an inexhaustible, almost supernatural energy, cracking wise and laughing, and apparently never in a bad mood with the cameras that are forever being shoved in their faces. They are good-tempered and bemused by the New York radio DJ Murray Kaufman, or Murray the K, who had somehow managed to fluke his way into hanging out with them in their hotel room, and no one quite knows who allowed him to do this. The film gives us some great closeups of the band’s faces while they are playing – I’d never noticed before that George sometimes briefly appeared to zone out on stage.

Writer Joe Queenan chokes up while remembering how he felt when he first heard the Beatles on the radio; that eerie alchemy of voices, at once galvanised with rock’n’roll energy and yet innocent and unthreatening. They were cathedral choristers of romantic joy, and the band that gave white America permission to rock out and lift their spirits after the Kennedy assassination. Some of the documentary is interested in how soft, and even exotically non-binary, the Beatles looked – so different from what Betty Friedan is shown describing as the crew-cut Prussian masculinity that was mandatory for American manhood at the time. (Again, without knowing it, they paved the way for America’s acceptance of Brit-androgynous glam rock.)

Photographer Harry Benson is interviewed in the present day, confiding that John, nervous about how he and the others would go down with the US public, found himself talking about Lee Harvey Oswald. Lennon is also shown making a pertinent point: “The Beatles and their ilk were created by the vacuum of non-conscription … we were the army that never was.” National service was abolished … and rock’n’roll took its place? It’s an intriguing thought, though it should be said that Elvis Presley did military service.

And what is still amazing is how brief an instant it was; in just a few years, the Beatles and their music would evolve into something completely different. A few years after that, they would break up, while still only in their 20s. An amazing split-second of cultural history”.

Beatles ’64 shows that there is still this incredible gravity and love around the band. How the whole story can never be told. Sixty years after they visited America, we are still talking about them! Band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr talking about that time is really emotional and important. That incredible, first-hand testimony from young men who were in the eye of a storm. It must have been such a daze for them. They, John Lennon and George Harrison left their mark on the world. Their legacy will last forever. Make sure that you watch Beatles ’64 on Apple+, as it is a documentary…

YOU will not want to miss!

FEATURE: Director’s Cut II: Will Kate Bush Ever Revisit Her First Three Albums?

FEATURE:

 

 

Director’s Cut II

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Will Kate Bush Ever Revisit Her First Three Albums?

_________

I feel we have reached a point…

where Kate Bush has done all the revision and retrospection. I don’t think we will get any more album reissues and expansions. As good as it would be to have an expansive reissue of Hounds of Love or The Dreaming, I feel everything that has been released is enough. I do hold out hope that Kate Bush will open up the archives, as you just know there are studio takes and extras that nobody has heard. She seems to be much more open to her older work. Maybe she finds those offcuts imperfect and detrimental, whereas her album reissues have been about taking something album-worthy and making it even better. I have said before how it would be wonderful having a tribute album. Artists tackling Kate Bush’s songs. It has sort of been done before but not by well-known artists. It is a definite gap that requires filling. In May, it will be fourteen years since Kate Bush released Director’s Cut through Fish People (and EMI). I am going to write about that album nearer the anniversary. Her first studio album since 2005’s Aerial, it was a big step re-examining her older work. If fans were looking for new material, what they got was a compromise. Bush taking a real interest in previous work whilst offering new versions of those songs. She selected tracks from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). Maybe she felt were not great the first time around. The production sound not as she imagined.

I can understand why Bush wanted to tackle those two albums. Whilst she loves 1985’s Hounds of Love and 2005’s Aerial, the two albums in the middle were not as strong as they could have been. I am speaking for Kate Bush rather than providing my own opinion. Even though her production is terrific, there is room for reinvention and improvement. I do feel The Red Shoes especially has a bit of an edgy or emptier sound that is not as warm and fulsome as other studio albums. Whilst some of the reworkings improve on the originals or at least offer tantalising and fresh perspectives, a fair few of the songs cannot surpass the studio album versions. I was really excited when the album was announced. Director’s Cut got some positive reviews, though many consider it to be Bush’s only inessential album. There were some baffled by the album. I feel it is underrated and deserves more love. Director’s Cut is an album many fans leave to collect dust on the shelf. There are treasures to be found. I am going to sort of defend Director’s Cut in a feature near to May. It is a great album and it is wonderful hearing Bush with this older voice revisit songs from a couple of decades prior. Songs such as Top of the City (The Red Shoes) and Never Be Mine (The Sensual World), which fans might not have known about or appreciated, are put back in the spotlight.

I do wonder why Bush never considered revisiting her first three albums. She sort of wrote them off at one point. In the same way Steely Dan dismissed their first three albums as juvenilia, Kate Bush felt that her first few albums were maybe not up to snuff. A different person. What I would love to hear is Kate Bush now revisiting songs from The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Both released in 1978, she was nineteen and twenty respectively when those albums arrived,. 1980’s Never for Ever was the first album where she co-produced (alongside Jon Kelly). Even though at the time she said she was proud of the albums, that attitude sort of shifted in years since. I am ending this feature with a playlist of twelve songs from those three albums that would be interesting to see given a new take. I can appreciate how Bush might have wanted to keep some distance from her earliest work. After all, she was in her late-teens/early-twenties when those three albums came out, so it might have felt weird going that far back. Such a different sound and headspace, could Bush have tackled songs from The Kick Inside where she was writing from a teenage perspective. Albeit it a very mature viewpoint. She did re-record the vocal for Wuthering Heights (1978) and included it on her sole greatest hits collection, The Whole Story (1986). That question remains as to why she reapproached The Sensual World and The Red Shoes rather than her first three albums. Albums where she did not feel in control or that they were truly representative of her. I guess there are still distribution and ownership rights issues for those albums. Especially Kick Inside and Lionheart. I don’t think her Fish People label has distribution ownership of those albums, so would it be a hassle trying to reissue songs from those albums onto a new Director’s Cut?

The fact Bush felt The Sensual World and The Red Shoes suffered because of the production trends and sounds of the time in which they were released, her reasoning would be different for revisiting her first three albums. The title, Director’s Cut, does imply this was Bush releasing the albums she always wanted to. Taking control and giving her version. If she felt ownership of some albums were out of her control and she was wrestling it back, it was more silencing a nagging voice in her head. Rectifying some issues that were weighing heavy on her mind. I love how Steve Gadd was integral to Director’s Cut and its brilliant percussion. He would also be utilised for the follow-up, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. Gadd said how Bush wanted him to treat the tracks as new. She stripped them down and built them again, so it seemed like a new album - albeit one with some familiar words! Another big reason for Director’s Cut was that she could use words from James Joyce’s Ulysses. She was not able to for The Sensual World’s title track but she was granted permission in time for Director’s Cut. That is because the book was in the public domain and was not subjected to copyright restrictions. Flower of the Mountain was Bush using words she longed to sing.

People are very keen for Kate Bush to move forward. She recently discussed how she is looking to do something new and has lots of ideas. Whether this is a much-demanded eleventh studio album or a new project of some sort, would a second Director’s Cut please or divide fans? On the one hand, those who disliked or were a bit ho-hum about 2011’s Director’s Cut would not jump at the sequel. My biggest problem was that many of the songs on The Sensual World and The Red Shoes Bush decided to rework were strong on the original albums. You could say the same about cuts from The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever, though the biggest fascination would be going that far back. Giving this completely new spin on these songs. So many people overlook those first three albums and see them as inferior. It would give them their due and also introduce them to new fans. What would the motivation be for Bush revisiting albums from the 1970s and 1980s?! I think the most compelling argument would be how dissatisfied she is with them. At least there is this lingering feeling that she was not the driving force. Think of some of the songs and collaborations that could go into the album! I will end with my choices for songs that would appear on Director’s Cut II, though many others have their opinions. In any case, it is just a theory and hope, yet many other people would love to see Kate Bush take some time to re-record songs from the simply wonderful The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever. I feel that Director’s Cut II would be…

A box office success.

FEATURE: Catch Us Now for I Am Your Future: What Possibilities Does 2025 Hold for All Things Kate Bush?

FEATURE:

 

 

Catch Us Now for I Am Your Future

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Babooshka photo session in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

What Possibilities Does 2025 Hold for All Things Kate Bush?

_________

IT is a fool’s errand…

 ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Jim Kay

predicting what will happen with Kate Bush in 2025! However, as we are nearing the end of the year and looking ahead, it is worth predicting. After a somewhat downbeat 2023 Christmas message from Bush, there was a glimmer of hope. Many didn’t think we would see much activity from Kate Bush during the pandemic. Not only did she post message to her website, there was also the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) after it featured on Stranger Things. I am almost sick of talking about it, though it is important. Nobody thought this year we would hear a new interview from Kate Bush. Speaking with Emma Barnett for Today in October, Bush was discussing the Little Shrew (Snowflake) video and how she wants to raise funds for War Child. When asked whether Bush was thinking of new music, she revealed she is keen to do something new and was open to the idea. Whilst not an official confirmation of her eleventh studio album, it is the clearest indication in years we have had. That shaft of light some thought would never come! It has been more than thirteen years since she released 50 Words for Snow. Whilst many feel that revelation for Today was Bush looking ahead to maybe starting writing for a new album, the fact she has discussed the possibility of a new album means it is probably further along than the inception stage. Rather than it being a polite answer to a question – Bush wanting people to stop talking about it -, this was her genuinely engaging with a new album.

If she had no plans then she would have said that. I do think next year will finally be the one where Bush announces a new album. As I say with every feature like this, I hope she does not announce one before the end of the year, as it messes up so many features I have already written! I am writing this feature on 24th November – it will go out in December – and thinking we have heard everything significant from Bush in 2024. There will be her Christmas message later in the year. We mark forty-five years of her Christmas special, Kate, on 28th December. However, next year offers some tantalising possibilities. Given that possibility Kate Bush is at least working on an album if not ready to announce it yet, that means there will be a lot of fascination and exposure. I think we will see new magazine articles and entire editions dedicated to her. Rather than it being tied to a particular anniversary, we will see articles that rank her songs and albums. Fans talking about their music. I am going to write a separate feature speculating what a new album might sound like or be called. It is likely that we will get a few Kate Bush posts on her website. In terms of this year, it has been defined by retrospection and reissues. It seems like Bush has finished with that particular stage. What could she reissue or repackage for 2025? The albums have come out several times and I don’t think she could do anything more with them. I guess we have to accept that Bush will not reissue albums with demos, outtakes or B-sides.

I shall come to the biggest anniversary of 2025 at the end. There are two big anniversaries later in the year. In September, Never for Ever turns forty-five. I think we will get magazine and online celebration of this album closer to the date. The majestic Aerial turns twenty next November. I hope that both anniversaries are greeted with new inspection and spotlight. As I say, there will be no more album reissues. Instead, a chance for fans to come together to share their thoughts about this important album. I think it is unlikely we will get a new Kate Bush biography, though you can never bet against a book of some sort coming out. Leah Kardos released her book about Hounds of Love for the 33 1/3 series. Maybe Kate Bush album will be added to the series in 2025? I do think we will get at least one new Kate Bush-related book, though it is unclear what it could be about. Given she has invited the possibility of new music, it will compel and inspire writers. Although it is unlikely to be marked by any Kate Bush post or anything online, I am looking forward to June. That will mark fifty years since Kate Bush visited AIR Studios in London and recorded two songs that would appear on her debut album, The Kick Inside. Although Humming (or Maybe as it was known) did not make the cut, The Man with the Child in His Eyes and The Saxophone Song did. The versions we hear on the album were from 1975 and that recording. Bush was only sixteen when she laid down those vocals. So extraordinary! What else could come from Kate Bush in 2025?

I do think that there will be some charity involvement. Bush has recently raised money for War Child, so I would not be surprised if she increases that involvement. Keen to raise money for worthy causes. There was a Kate Bush pop-up in Kings Cross, London in 2018, which sold merchandise and albums. That was the year she remastered her albums, so they were available, alongside some great items. It raised a lot of money for Crisis. It would be wonderful if there was another pop-up shop in 2025. I do feel we will get a lot of Kate Bush covers next year. More than in recent years anyway. Artists discovering her now sharing their takes on her tracks. Maybe Hounds of Love’s tracks will get most exposure, though you never know which songs will be covered. Kate Bush will engage with fans through the year. I feel we will get an album announcement at some point next year. The likelihood is she has written tracks for an album and will not leave such a huge gap between finishing archiving and retrospection and something new. Why would she say she is interested in making new music and then leave us hanging for a couple or several years?! It is very unlikely we will have an entire year when Bush is writing and recording and we’d get an album announcement some time in 2026. I think it is likely that she will announce an album towards the summer next year and release something in the autumn or early winter. However, as this is Kate Bush, you can never tell! I get the feeling she has recorded quite a bit of a new album and will have something ready to go next year. It would be wonderful if we got an eleventh studio album and Bush kept the door open for a twelfth studio album. It does seem like she is keen to embark on a new creative phase, so all fans want her to keep recording. We can’t be greedy, though!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the photo session for The Ninth Wave/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

The biggest anniversary next year is when Hounds of Love turns forty on 16th September. Even if the album has been reissued a few times in various forms and will not be done again, there will be plenty of attention around it. I would like to think there will be a podcast or two. A BBC show or documentary. Maybe not filmed. Instead, a station like BBC Radio 4 will commission a documentary. One that examines an album that seems as relevant now as ever. I do also think BBC Radio 6 will run a day of playing songs from the album on 16th September. Hearing from fans of the album. I keep putting the idea out there of an adaptation of The Ninth Wave. The album’s second side suite, it was brought to life for 2014’s Before the Dawn though the DVD will never be released. People say that the stage version is sufficient and there is no demand for a filmed version. I would disagree. The vast majority of Kate Bush fans have and never will see that staged version. Things can be done more than once if done differently. Bush has reissued the same albums more than once. She also said in 1985 how she was thinking of making a cinematic version of The Ninth Wave…and fans cannot really speak for Kate Bush or predict how others will react. Personally, I feel there would be demand and definite scope. Some film or single comedy-drama announced near the fortieth anniversary of Hounds of Love. I have previously pitched an idea where Saoirse Ronan is the woman lost at sea. Playing a character called Catherine, we would follow her after her wedding day and a honeymoon trip that would involve her being on a boat. Coming out of New York, she falls into the sea midway through a cruise. Set in modern-day U.S. in August, we would focus on the heroine trying to stay alive as The Ninth Wave comes to life. Each song would have a different visual and cinematic tone. There would be a mix of terror, suspense, comedy, emotional hit and beauty. Different lighting, visual styles and techniques as eventually Catherine is found by a helicopter and we see her returned to New York as she ponders her life.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Saoirse Ronan/PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Merchadier

There is a lot more to it than that, though that is the core of the story. We end the film wondering if she actually survived and this is a dream or she did get back and it is real. Whether it was an accidental or she was pushed. Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave very much at the centre of the film of the same name. I recently shared a feature where I pitched a potential Kate Bush video (for a hypothetical new single). I actually think it would fit better as the opening of The Ninth Wave. Catherine in this scenario listening to a song through headphones (I am imagining something by David Bowie or even Radiohead) before the introduction ends and we cut to her in her New York apartment at night lying awake with headphones on. An overhead shot of the bedroom that would mirror the overhead shot during Hello Earth near the end of The Ninth Wave. Again making us wonder if she survived and The Ninth Wave was a dream or she is dreaming of the ‘on land’ scenes from the sea. It would end with a twist and that unanswerable question. Although unlikely, I do think something big should happen around the fortieth anniversary of Hounds of Love. Lots of possibilities regarding Kate Bush next year. Given how busy the last few years have been – and few of us ever expected that! -, one thing we can guarantee is that 2025 will not be quiet! I do love how this year has seen Bush interact with fans and there has been so much happening. As we head to Christmas, we will prepare for a new Kate Bush message. Some great things have come from her in 2024, so there is a lot to reflect on! The wonderful and iconic Kate Bush has reached and inspired…

A whole new legion of fans.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts: Among Angels

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Among Angels

_________

FOR the final part…

of Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts, I am featuring a song that ranks alongside her best ‘recent’ work – from 2005’s Aerial to 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. This late-career masterpiece is the final track on her most recent album, 50 Words for Snow. It ranks alongside her very best tracks ever. There are Kate Bush song ranking features, though Among Angels rarely features. When ranking Kate Bush’s fifty best tracks earlier this year, I was glad to see MOJO placed Among Angels in the very respectable place of thirty-seven (“Who you gonna call? Kate's supernatural support service. Concluding 50 Words…, this sparse, poignant torch song to a beleaguered loved one has nothing to do with snow but fits with the album’s atmosphere of glittering, supernatural reverie. Initially taking an unexpectedly grounded view of the problem (“Only you can do something about it”), the song soon thickens into a spiritual balm, Kate offering celestial comfort over tender broken chords: “I see angels standing around you/They shimmer like mirrors in summer/But you don’t know it”). The only other time I have seen it in a rankings list is from 2023 where PROG included it in their top forty Kate Bush songs feature (“Stephen W Tayler: “I heard it for the first time when I was mixing the album 50 Words For Snow with Kate. The mood, simplicity, intimacy and emotion hit me right there and then. It’s such a profound and evocative song and such a stunning performance. “When I was invited by Kate to become the ‘Kate Vocal Navigator’ for the Before The Dawn live shows, we spent months with the crew and the band rehearsing and preparing. Every day at lunchtime, when the rehearsal stage was empty, Kate would come and practise a few songs at the piano with just me in the room, controlling her sound. One song she rehearsed every day was Among Angels. I was almost in tears every time she performed it. I was controlling her vocal live which was nerve-racking as it became a real struggle to concentrate. I was overwhelmed with emotion every time. You could hear a pin drop in the theatre. “I’ve heard Among Angels too many times to count, yet still feel the same emotions whenever I hear it, as if for the very first time”).

Among Angels is the only song on 50 Words for Snow not about snow and the cold. It was performed as the penultimate (before Cloudbusting) song of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. The only song from 50 Words for Snow included in the setlist, Among Angels provided a suitably emotional and phenomenal first song of the encore. Many fans would not have expected this song to be included. It gave new light and attention to a track (and album) many people have overlooked or have not investigated fully. I think it is a great deep cut that deserves more love, as it is one of Kate Bush’s finest tracks. At 6:48, it is shorter than the official single released from 50 Words for Snow, Wild Man. There could have been a radio edit, as I would have loved to have seen a music video for Among Angels. I have said in a previous feature how there could be this animated video for the song. If all seven songs got an animated video and it was part of a story, the final part would be for Among Angels. A video set in Los Angeles (the city of angels), I could imagine something powerful and tender. As the final song of her most recent studio album, Among Angels is also the final Kate Bush album track. Though not the last! She will be back with new material. With just Kate Bush at the piano, it is this sparse and beautifully intimate song. In terms of Kate Bush album tracks, there is less written about it then most. It was just Kate Bush and her piano. It has only one studio version and the live version from Before the Dawn. It was covered (quite well) by Grimeland as part of the collection, I Wanna Be Kate: The Songs of Kate Bush. That was released in 2020. However, I think that the original is by far the best and most striking. I love when people cover Kate Bush, though for a song as distinct and utterly Kate Bush as Among Angels, everyone else can hope for second best at most!

Even though there are fewer lyrics than many of Kate Bush’s songs, I think that Among Angels has this economy that works in its favour. There is this sense of a dear friend falling apart or in trouble but Bush is reaching out. This sense that we all go through tough times but come through. Giving strength and hope to someone. A sense of mystery and intrigue that sits along such beautiful words and powerful visions: “Only you can do something about it/There’s no-one there, my friend, any better/I might know what you mean when you say you fall apart/Aren’t we all the same? In and out of doubt/I can see angels standing around you/They shimmer like mirrors in Summer/But you don’t know it/And they will carry you o’er the walls/If you need us, just call/Rest your weary world in their hands/Lay your broken laugh at their feet/I can see angels around you/They shimmer like mirrors in summer/There’s someone who’s loved you forever but you don’t know it/You might feel it and just not show it”. Pitchfork wrote in their review of 50 Words for Snow how gorgeous Among Angels is. NME noted (Among Angels) “has a spacious, sacred feel”. For Record Store Day, Lake Tahoe/Among Angels was released on a limited edition picture disc. One of the most detailed analysis of Among Angels came from Jude Rogers in a 2011 BBC review (“The album’s finale, Among Angels, is even better, a torch-song for a friend in need, with a stunning central lyric: "I can see angels standing around you / They shimmer like mirrors in summer / But you don’t know it." Throughout, the piano sets a magical mood, all dark, loud and heavy. Just after the song’s start, you also hear Bush stop for a second, take her fingers off the keys, and whisper the word "fine").

In a somewhat underwhelming and misguided three-star review – how could anyone give it such a mediocre score?! – this was what The Guardian said about Among Angels: “The final piano track, "Among Angels" should be pulling floods of tears from listeners' ducts but never quite locates the tap. This album is rather better when it is winking at you, rather than seeking to cryogenically preserve emotion”. I want to source from page 331 of Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. In his chapter on 50 Words for Snow - or the one where he goes into detail regarding her tenth studio album -, he discussed Among Angels. A song written some years earlier (than the other six on the album), it was unique in the sense it was not connected to snow. In an interview with BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum – which is annoyingly removed from YouTube! – in December 2011, Bush said she felt Among Angels was atmospherically at home with its album siblings. After a false start and muffled aside – which she wanted to take out but friends convinced her to keep in -, Bush addresses love, faith, death, belief and struggle. It is one of her most inspiring and powerful songs. Thomson muses how Among Angels could be about her departed father (who died in 2008 and would have occurred around the time she wrote the song I guess) or her young son, Bertie. Maybe a friend that was in need. Interestingly, Thomson also notes how Among Angels has more in common with the pre-The Kick Inside demos (the Cathy Demos) and a pile of gems that included the likes of Cussi Cussi and Something Like a Song  - the latter of which Thomson notes has a similarity with Among Angels. Her latest album sort of connects with her debut. The importance of the piano. Bush consciously thinking back to The Kick Inside and some of the tones and aspects of that album. Bush backed by a swelling orchestra and delivering this spinetingling song. Thomson summarises when closing his thoughts on Among Angels: “Elegant, exquisite, show stopping” (and a song that came before the show-stopping Cloudbusting in 2014). A stunning and unforgettable song that somehow transports us back to the music Bush recorded when she was a girl/young teen, Among Angels is truly…

A divine offering.

FEATURE: Off to a Flying Start: Ten Remarkable 2024 Debut Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Off to a Flying Start

IN THIS PHOTO: Tyla/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeremy Soma 

Ten Remarkable 2024 Debut Albums

_________

ALTHOUGH we take…

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Chinouriri/PHOTO CREDIT: Lauren Harris

a lot of time this time of year to recognise the very best albums, there are not as many features about the finest debut albums. Fewer to choose from granted, though it is important that we acknowledge the brilliant flying starts from artists. The debut album is so hard to get right. Everything leads up to that moment, so it is all the more impressive when you get a first album that sounds so complete, assured and uncracked. I am going to go on to highlight ten awesome debut albums from 2024. Those that you need to have a listen to. I want to give honourable mentions to Nia Archives’s Silence Is Loud, Kate Hudson’s Glorious and GloRilla’s Glorious. From some terrific solo artists to band-made debut wonders, these are the best and brightest from this year. Here are ten albums that show these artists got it spot on…

RIGHT from the start.

____________

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy 

Release Date: 2nd February

Label: Island

Producer: James Ford

Review:

“If you were looking to understand the appeal of The Last Dinner Party, you could alight on the world which they conjure in their beguiling songs: a cocktail of gothic romance and sparkling opulence. Having been mainstays on the London live circuit following the pandemic, the five-piece swiftly landed a major label deal and have since continued to align their image and artistry, bringing silken ball gowns and a raucous energy to stages the world over. It’s as though they figured where they were going long before they got there.

In the months leading up to their debut LP ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, their name has echoed around late night chat shows and festival lineups; yet the speed with which the band broke through has led to online discourse around their credentials, not too dissimilar to the conversations that were previously directed towards the rapid arrival of Wet Leg. Arguably, there is now an element of smoke and mirrors around a band whose mission appears to be fairly straightforward: “We imagined the kind of joyful act we’d want to see when we go out, and created our own ‘dream band’ from that,” vocalist Abigail Morris told NME last year.

It’s almost easy to forget that we’re here, primarily, because of one endlessly catchy single. ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ arrives nearly a year on from ‘Nothing Matters’, the track that launched the band on their dizzying trajectory; in terms of its Roxy Music-like stomp and fatalist lyrics, it serves as their own dark, escapist fantasy. “And you can hold me like he held her / And I will fuck you like nothing matters,” so goes the chorus.

Rendered in strings, groove-flecked guitar passages and twinkling keys, the album’s recurring themes continue to ooze out of every verse: girlhood, regret, intimacy, unsatisfying relationships. It swoops from a cavernous torch song (‘On Your Side’) to visions of hysteria via a plaintive ballad (‘Caesar On The TV Screen’). Slickly arranged as though these tracks are – with James Ford [Arctic Monkeys, Jessie Ware] on production duties – they offer a type of melodrama that doesn’t crop up often in modern mainstream pop.

In fact, when the band dial things down, like on ‘Beautiful Boy’ which peaks almost instantly with a panpipe section, the energy shift is noticeable. ‘Gjuha’, an Albanian-language call to home sung by keyboardist Aurora Nishevci, contains some beautiful, contrasting falsettos but feels out of place within the album’s clear vision. These more muted moments aren’t a slight on ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ as a whole; if anything, they go to show that the band manage to cram a surplus of ideas into the majority of the material here.

Even at its most overwrought – the rhythmic attack of ‘My Lady Of Mercy’; a chunk of wallowing reverb in ‘Burn Alive’, presumably to evoke misery and displacement – there’s a melodic confidence throughout that’s a rare find in a debut. The Last Dinner Party may have some reverence for their art-rock forebears (think: early Julia Holter or St Vincent), but also enough self-belief and magnetism to set them apart from what’s come before” – NME

Standout Tracks: Caesar on a TV Screen/Sinner/Nothing Matters

Key Cut: The Feminine Urge

English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

Release Date: 12th April

Label: Island

Producer: Marta Salogni

Review:

“The album opens with the swooping sentimentality of Albatross – a masterful display of tension and release, feathery piano and guitar work gliding gracefully across the track before it descends into a whirlpool of hypnotic syncopation. The World’s Biggest Paving Slab follows – a seemingly mundane but actually brilliant claiming of personal abundance, in which Lily Fontaine puts their hometown of Colne on the map, delivering lines pertaining to Lancashire lore: 'I am the Bank of Dave, Golden Postbox / And the festival of R&B / And I'm not the terrorist of Talbot Street / But I have apocalyptic dreams'.

The band flip the central sentiment of Beyoncé’s most recent single on its head with title track This Could Be Texas, favouring chipper ivories and hopeful brass over scratchy acoustic guitar and a driving hoedown kick drum. Other highlights include the arcade machine intro and critique of ridiculous billionaire hobbies on Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space; the fragmented time signature and snapshot lyricism of Broken Biscuits; and the drunken drumwork and extraterrestrial soundscape of Sideboob. This debut LP sees English Teacher beginning to consolidate and take the already-delicious sounds introduced on their Polyawkward EP to even greater heights” – The Skinny

Standout Tracks: The World’s Biggest Paving Slab/Broken Biscuits/Nearly Daffodils

Key Cut: Albert Road

FLO – Access All Areas

Release Date: 15th November

Label: Island

Producers: Various

Review:

“While many of their solo contemporaries understandably fixate on shady exes, FLO also lift up the good dudes. Explicitly starry-eyed tracks like the sweet, kinda crunk “Check”—which runs down an inventory of a partner’s desirable traits (“Is he faithful? Check…”) over sweaty trap 808s—and the doting “Bending My Rules” celebrate steady, dependable men. On lead single “Walk Like This,” with its stiletto-clicking beat, they sing about the aftershocks of great sex—wobbly knees and emotions—while the Dreamgirls-inspired title track, “AAA,” is a whispered invitation to foreplay over a suite of go-go snares and showy hi-hats. These songs might feel traditionalist in some ways, but FLO’s idea of partnership is reciprocal and well-earned. “If I give you everything, it better mean everything, not just anything,” they clarify on “AAA.” Later, they wonder, “How does it feel to know I could have anyone but you the one that I want?”

Just when the vibe starts to get too coddling, they balance it with a little venom, threatening to key cars on the cautionary tale “Caught Up,” a femme-fatale callback to the millennial aloofness of Blu Cantrell. This course correction happened intentionally in the midst of recording. Douglas told Dazed this past September, “We were able to see that we had four songs that were, like, ‘I love my man,’ and four songs that were [all] ‘I’m a Bad Bitch,’ but where were the songs about ourselves?” One of their self-love gems, “In My Bag,” features a bullish GloRilla guest verse and a speedy beat switch-up made for Peloton rides while FLO boast about being their own biggest fans: “What I got is manifested/I don’t even gotta try.” It’s an aspirational level of self-possession in the lineage of TLC. Even the icy breakup anthem “IWH2BMX” (“I Would Hate to Be My Ex”) exudes glow-up energy: “I’m a pop star like Rihanna,” they gloat.

What makes these songs particularly striking is FLO’s vocal chemistry and equity. Their primary collaborator, British producer-songwriter MNEK (whose credits include Beyoncé, Little Mix, Kylie Minogue, and Dua Lipa), keeps the group’s tones warm and precise as the album winds down to dreamier slow-burners like the pillowy “Soft” and “On and On,” a blushing ballad that feels like a soothing spa soak. As a collective, FLO and MNEK are keyed in on the exact sweet-and-salty frequency that makes a girl group pop. Impressively, none of these tracks feel like filler, and even some of the less immediate standouts take a charming or surprising turn, whether it’s the lush, slightly maudlin Dynasty-style strings on “Shoulda Woulda Coulda” or the rock-leaning closer “I’m Just a Girl,” a rallying cry about facing industry pushback. While out of place tonally and potentially polarizing (“This song ain’t for everybody,” they acknowledge at one point), it still shows FLO’s willingness to experiment.

Perfection isn’t just the goal for the average girl group—it’s gospel, and FLO are shamelessly invested. The quest isn’t literal, of course (nobody’s flawless), but about following the examples set by their forebears: clean vocals, tight harmonies, and choreography with something meaningful behind it. Quaresma told Teen Vogue, “I think we feel like we’re in good company with the girl groups that have come before because we know that we can work hard enough to be seen as one of them one day.” You can tell they’ve studied not just their influences’ lyrics, enunciations, and double-time flows but all the intangibles, too (they’ve sung on treadmills for practice like Destiny’s Child). And they’ve used that knowledge to craft a debut that’s neither overly formulaic nor purely decorative, one that comes from a youthful, self-actualized lens. Acesss All Areas makes a case that their pursuit of a more perfect union is within reach” – Pitchfork

Standout Tracks: AAA/In My Bag/Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Key Cut: Walk Like This

Rachel Chinouriri – What a Devastating Turn of Events

Release Date: 3rd May

Label: Parlophone

Producers: Various

Review:

“Rachel Chinouriri has always been far from a predictable artist (her 2019 EP ‘Mama’s Boy’ offered up a slice of soulful pop, while 2021 project ‘Four° In Winter’ leaned more into electronic influences), but it’s on this, her long-awaited debut full-length, that she fully steps into her considerable potential as one of indie pop’s most interesting, vital voices. Very much an album of two halves, ‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’ utterly rejects the notion that chart-friendly music need be thematically or emotionally beige. On its A-side, Rachel explores concepts of homesickness and heartsickness with candour, sass, and wry self-awareness; though this first section largely deals in affairs of the heart, she manages to bring new dimension to the well-worn ‘boy mistreats girl’ lyrical trope by swapping between nostalgia-tinged intimacy (‘All I Ever Asked’) and affirming, anthemic choruses (‘Never Need Me’).

As we pass the record’s halfway point, however, there’s a significant tonal shift: gone are the meta, tongue-in-cheek additions of matey voice notes (‘It Is What It Is’) and humorous radio links (‘Dumb Bitch Juice’), and in their place is the title track – an instrumentally understated yet thematically hard-hitting hairpin turn left, detailing the eponymous narrative that led to a relative of Rachel’s taking her own life. It’s a sucker-punch statement that aims to emulate the speed with which circumstances can change, and indeed begins a run of poignantly beautiful tracks that variously touch on disordered eating and body image (‘I Hate Myself’); familial tragedy (‘Robbed’); and generational trauma (‘My Blood’).

What’s remarkable about ‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’, though, is that the gravitas of this weightier material isn’t cheapened by the sudden contrast, just as the LP’s initial buoyancy somehow doesn’t become retrospectively flippant. Instead, the album honours that life’s lightness isn’t contradicted by the dark moments, but rather co-exists alongside them; a reminder that everything – and everyone – contains multitudes” – DIY

Standout Tracks: The Hills/All I Ever Asked/What a Devastating Turn of Events

Key Cut: Never Need Me

SPRINTS – Letter to Self 

Release Date: 5th January

Label: City Slang

Producer: Daniel Fox

Review:

“Dublin four-piece Sprints signed to City Slang in 2023, and blast into the New Year with debut album ‘Letter To Self’. Opening with the brooding beats of ‘Ticking’, the vocals of Karla Chubb begin low, full of foreboding. Questioning and self-doubt are apparent from the very beginning, an uncertainty about oneself. The instrumentation builds into an all-encompassing soundscape – a thrilling start which sets the scene for what is to follow. And to hear lyrics in German, the guttural nature of the language fitting perfectly with the atmosphere of the track. Although born in Dublin, Karla Chubb spent part of her early childhood in Germany, initially turning to music as a consequence of feeling out-of-step with the world.

It’s then straight into the scuzzy static-fuelled guitars of ‘Heavy’.  The external questions continue: “Do you ever feel like the room is heavy?” they ask. The energy and passion evoked here are raw and true. The lyrics build, eventually exploding in an air of frustration “watching the world go around the window”.

‘Cathedral’ is in a similar vein. There is a darkness here; “Maybe living’s easy / Maybe dying’s the same.”  The emotional intensity continues to seep through the music. The combination of Sam McCann’s bass and the guitars of Chubb and Colm O’Reilly combine to create a cacophony of sound, fast and furious.  

‘Shaking Their Hands’ takes us to a different place, with its weariness with life.  More contemplative, witnesses Chubb deliver a softer vocal.  The theme is more thoughtful with the singer “counting the minutes until the clock strikes six” – a sentiment most can connect with.  However it’s an intriguing song as the question is inevitably “whose hands?”.  ‘Adore, Adore, Adore’ was released as a single and projects the idea of being judged with its question “Do you adore me?” The pace rattles along and its chorus of “they never call me beautiful, they only call me insane” suggests a desire to fit in, to be accepted.

‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ has an eerie start with its haunting plucking guitar chords.  Again there is a atmosphere of foreboding, a lack of belonging.  The repetition of “I am lost” is gut-wrenching and Chubb builds the tension until the frustration boils over “can you hear me calling?” The sentiment is heart-breaking as it seems to be a call for help, and that wavering guitar chord perfectly evokes the anxiety.  Likewise with ‘Can’t Get Enough Of It’, the agitation remains. The inevitable ear-worm of the repeating “This is a living nightmare” is breath-taking, as it combines with the soaring soundscape. The mid-track key change takes the listener by surprise as it punches at the very core with its emotional impact. Perhaps there is a sense here of not being able to be oneself, a lack of self-belief, of security in ones own self-worth.  And goodness do those guitar parts add to the overall sense of anxiety.

The sign of a great song is that it still elicits an emotional response long after its initial release. And so it is with the 2022 single ‘Literary Mind’. Re-recorded for ‘Letter To Self’, Sprints have shared that this track has evolved over time. It is pacier than the original single version and is all the better for it. A love song, it relieves the tension felt so far on the album. It’s a song to belt out at the top of your voice, and is thus cathartic for us all. And just listen to McCann’s vocal on the outro, you know Sprints love playing this track. ‘A Wreck (A Mess)’ opens with electrifying guitar riffs and the percussive beats of Jack Callan.  The lighter tone set by ‘Literary Mind’ continues. Again lyrically reflective ‘A Wreck (A Mess)’ is delivered with wild abandon, all scuzzy guitars and thunderous drums. The ebb and flow of the pace keeps the listener on their toes, plus lyrics that will live long in the memory including: “is everyone a wreck, is everyone stressed?”

Latest single ‘Up And Comer’ reached the dizzy heights of the 6Music A-list. The opening guitar riffs stops the listener in their tracks every time.  And then the full force of ‘Up And Comer’ kicks in and once it reaches top speed you just know it’s not stopping with its full-frontal assault. The chorus is simply electrifying.

The title track closes out ‘Letter To Self’ and it takes a stand against the internal turmoil. “I’ll give as good as I get”.  Here there is defiance. The expression is one of hope, of possibility, of coming out from under the weight of expectation, of fighting back. It sees the journey through the album reach its conclusion.  Now the lyrics question those who criticise, those whose behaviour is inappropriate.  ‘Letter To Self’ states confidently “I am alive” compared to the questioning “am I alive?” from opener ‘Ticking’.  It’s a thunderous end, the theme of the track completely different from the rest of the album.

With ‘Letter To Self’ Sprints have produced an album brutally honest and personal. They have not been afraid to express the feeling of being an outsider, of looking for validation, of attempting to overcome self-doubt. The human condition and thus society is complex and difficult to navigate but Sprints have not been afraid to express uncertainty and vulnerability. And all the while they have enveloped these themes in the most glorious noise for us all to find comfort and lose ourselves in.

Is it possible to have an album of the year contender on only the first week in? Of course it is” – CLASH

Standout Tracks: Heavy/Shadow of a Doubt/Literary Mind

Key Cut: Up and Comer

NewDad - MADRA 

Release Date: 26th January

Labels: Fair Youth/Atlantic

Producer: Chris W Ryan

Review:

“The thing about looking into a polished surface is that your reflection will always be a smudge in its sheen. On ‘Madra’, NewDad find seams of doubt, uncertainty and frustration staring back at them from beneath an otherwise serene shoegaze-pop exterior.

There is a point a few songs into the London-via-Galway quartet’s debut album when their past and present meet, with the roiling emotions of young adulthood contained in Julie Dawson’s lyrics cutting through the glistening, propulsive sound the band have fashioned into a protective cocoon since the release of their promising-if-half-formed early EPs. “I don’t know where I go, I don’t know where I go,” Dawson repeats on ‘Where I Go’, her sense of dislocation growing with each additional syllable.

But while her words portray someone casting about for an anchor, NewDad’s circumstances are altogether more concrete. With major label backing and enough hype on their side to power Kevin Shields’ amplifier skyline, they are neatly placed in the slipstream of the shoegaze moment being enjoyed by reunited OG bands such as Slowdive and Ride, along with more seasoned next-gen acts in Nothing or Spirit Of The Beehive.

This weight of expectation sits easily on the broad shoulders of the LP’s best tracks, though, which are all could-be singles characterised by a keen appreciation of melody that continues to elude many of NewDad’s peers. ‘Where I Go’ leads off a killer run at the heart of ‘Madra’ where the band – completed by guitarist Sean O’Dowd, bassist Cara Joshi and drummer Fiachra Parslow – set fresh benchmarks in quick succession.

‘In My Head’ and ‘Dream Of Me’ are dream-pop gems with some lovely, nerdy guitar stuff set off to each side in the mix, while ‘Let Go’ is a hulking, riffy beast. The central hook behind ‘Change My Mind’, meanwhile, is a real flex, taking on an immediately classic feel as Dawson’s voice twists in the air.

Its few prosaic moments – including the oddly-sequenced opening pair of ‘Angel’ and ‘Sickly Sweet’ – are at the very least stylish and delivered with muscular flair as Joshi’s bass does much of the heavy lifting. Equally, while NewDad might not be as structurally inventive as the power-pop-indebted Hotline TNT or as heavy as the nu-gaze-leaning Fleshwater, they are perhaps more streamlined and together, which counts for plenty” – NME

Standout Tracks: In My Head/Nosebleed/Nightmares

Key Cut: Dream of Me

Normani - Dopamine

Release Date: 14th June

Label: RCA

Producers: Various

Review:

“The first track you hear on Normani’s solo debut album encapsulates the deceptive charm at the heart of it. Over subliminal bass pangs, synthetic horns and an interlocking groove, ‘Big Boy’ is a sensorial mood setter. It’s not an emphatic introduction but it does usher in the slow reveal of ‘Dopamine’, heralding Normani’s arrival in precise, deliberate steps.

‘Dopamine’ would always be judged against its long, faltering road to completion, documented industriously by a fan-fuelled online engine which builds up stars just to watch them descend into the abyss. Evidently, it has been a long wait. Normani first teased her girl-group breakaway in 2019, with the bubble-gum performance piece ‘Motivation’, a song that wore past influences on its graffitied sleeves; a hit that’s quietly endured but one Normani has since distanced herself from. In the interim period, she released the Cardi B-assisted ‘Wild Side’: the final track on ‘Dopamine’ paid tribute to Timbaland’s twitchy, hyperkinetic drum programming, interpolating Aaliyah’s ‘One in a Million’. Once again it was reliant on past trends and signifiers, which fed into criticism of the singer as risk-averse and too sterile.

A few years on, the Houston singer is the most famous she’s ever been but still crippled by the weight of expectation and personal anguish. It’s been revealed both of Normani’s parents were cancer-stricken, and personnel changes within her management team played a part in delaying the release. ‘Dopamine’ is in essence a survivor’s account; a paean to playing the long game. Track number two, ‘Still’, captures that quiet resistance and hardened resolve, with Normani intoning her Houston roots over a glazed trap beat that screws and grinds to a halt in its closing moments.

Throughout its forty-minute runtime, ‘Dopamine’ pays tribute to ’00s-stylized RnB deep cuts, covertly repurposing and reworking the iconography, spirit and form of her spiritual predecessors – making just enough tweaks and modifications so as to not duplicate what came to define that era. Brandy’s progressive RnB rhapsody ‘Afrodisiac’ is an obvious reference on ‘Dopamine’, and her woozy harmonic presence on torch song, ‘Insomnia’, is a luminous testimony to the union and exhange between progenitors and their students.

Normani lets loose with innuendo-laced bedroom commands. ‘Lights On’ is the quiet storm sex pinnacle, where silky-smooth, low-slung vocals meet a litany of demands. It’s forthright but not without nuance as Normani moves between submissiveness and power player, echoed on the creaky, spacious canvas ‘Grip’, allowing the singer to assume default vocal mode: pliable, steady, cool, gently bending time as she glissades across and stretches her syllables.

Normani counters the momentum lapse spoiling recent marquee pop releases with two of the best tracks positioned towards the end: ‘Tantrums’, featuring a revived ‘Overgrown’-era James Blake vocal flip, puts the two in opposition – one crystalline, one weighty – echoing the volatile memory of a tumultuous love affair; ‘Little Secrets’ plays out the aftermath, the singer in contention with her old flame’s new conquest, her superior prowess confirmed over a shrill, deconstructed RnB-rock escapade.

Normani’s storytelling isn’t revelatory on ‘Dopamine’. She hews closely to the algorithm of RnB reveries; clipped, catchy soundbites that compress raw emotions in real time. ‘Dopamine’ isn’t a raw confessional either but a balanced, art-directed exercise. It’s a debut that hits the programmed sweet spot, conversant with contemporary trends and greater RnB and soul traditions. It’s the sound of Normani calibrating her affinity for homage whilst subtly establishing her own presence as a star to bank on” – CLASH

Standout Tracks: All Yours/Insomnia/Wild Side

Key Cut: Lights On

Tyla - TYLA

Release Date: 22nd March

Labels: FAX/Epic

Producers: Various

Review:

“The mononymous South African singer first rose to international fame in 2023 with her single “Water”, which has been used on TikTok 1.5 million times. TYLA is her debut album, but to say she already has a captive audience would be an understatement.

Tyla’s edge is that she has all the trappings of a real Popstar, with a capital P – last year, videos of her dancing expertly in her shows started to emerge online, sparking interest in audiences accustomed to artists of the “go girl give us nothing” variety. Her stage presence, choreography, and vocal prowess have only grown with her fame. Even under intense public scrutiny, fighting the uphill battle of an African artist trying to break into a western music scene, Tyla has never faltered, breaking new ground with confidence at only 21 years old.

Critics have called Tyla’s take on afrobeats “westernized”, but she’s one step ahead of them, stating, “My album fuses amapiano, afrobeats, pop and R&B into a completely new sound.” These diverse influences are legible but expertly blended into every song of her debut album, resulting in a record that is above all cohesive, in an age of pop albums that can feel like amalgamations of caricatures. She bridges African and western pop traditions, which has resulted in her becoming the highest-charting African female solo artist ever on the Hot 100 chart. TYLA’S four singles, already verifiable hits, are all present on the album, giving it the feel of a victory lap even as a debut.

This celebratory mood is pervasive across the record, which only features one true ballad. TYLA is turned up to 11 – there is little emotional or energetic dynamism on the album, but every song is club-ready, danceable and infectious. As audiences emerge from winter into spring, Tyla presents them with 14 songs of the summer, perfectly timed to take the world by storm” – The Line of Best Fit

Standout Tracks: Water/Butterflies/Jump

Key Cut: Truth or Dare

Tems - Born in the Wild

Release Date: 7th June

Labels: RCA/Since '93

Producers: Tems/GuiltyBeatz/Sarz/Spax/P2J/London/DameDame

Review:

“Temilade Openiyi’s three-year rise from Lagos buzz to international contender has been vertiginous. The vocalist/producer has already scored one Grammy, plus further Grammy and Oscar nominations for her work with Future, Beyoncé and Rihanna.

After two well-received EPs, Tems’s debut album drops with 18-track swagger and a tiny handful of guests (Asake and J Cole). Born in the Wild runs a little long, but it makes good on Tems’s early promise as a thoughtful writer who retains her voice and Nigerian aesthetic – alté, Afrobeats – while feeling right at home in US soul/R&B.

The album is divided between songs about relationships and tracks about making her way in the world. We hear pep talks from her mother and managers (two interludes), and wry or righteous takedowns of partners who have not made the grade (Unfortunate, the stripped-back Boy O Boy). The bangers, though, are even better. Following on from the previously released Me & U and Love Me Je Je, Wickedest is a flex that prominently samples the pan-African 1999 hit Magic System’s 1er Gaou. The assured Turn Me Up feels like a single-in-waiting, and not an unreasonable instruction from an artist levelling up in style” – The Guardian

Standout Tracks: Born in the Wild/Burning/Love Me JeJe

Key Cut: Hold On

Crawlers – The Mess We Seem to Make

Release Date: 16th February

Label: Polydor

Producer: Pete Robertson

Review:

“Anyone after evidence of Crawlers’ growth, from buzzy Merseyside newcomers pre-pandemic to genuine rock contenders as we hit 2024 can find it in ‘Come Over (Again)’. The version featured here on debut ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ sits in direct constrast, sonically, to its 2019 outing on the quartet’s self-titled EP. It helps, of course, that the song itself was an impeccably-formed one to begin with, but where, before, its push-and-pull came largely in contrast to the ferociousness it sat alongside, its new iteration is expanded, the chorus transformed to a big hitter, vocalist Holly Minto pushing themselves further to convey every bit of emotion expressed in their lyrics.

And for all this is a sonically rich, musically accomplished record - and it truly is - it’s Holly’s enviably dextrous voice that can’t help but take centre stage. They can belt with the best of them: the rock stomp of ‘Hit It Again’ has it reaching a metallic roar, the chorus of the decidedly Weezer-indebted ‘What I Know Is What I Love’ has them belting out as if their life depended on it, ‘Better If I Just Pretend’ invokes ‘90s grunge ennui via their low-key delivery, while piano ballad and literal centrepiece ‘Golden Bridge’ flips the script entirely, with a turn that’s soft, subtle and jazzy; the wistfulness of Ellie Rowsell can be heard, the sadness of Billie Eilish’s whisper, even (dare we say it) the soar of Adele.

Through this, the snapshot of life Crawlers provide across the record is a vivid one, the heart-on-sleeve lyrics sometimes stark: “Am I just your pornography / A quick fix and some company” asks opener ‘Meaningless Sex’, a track which uses glitchy guitars and stop-start percussion alongisde Holly’s voice at full pelt to create a satisfying cresendo as the song fully kicks in. “I say I’m not addicted,” confesses ‘Hit It Again’, “‘Cause I only ask for one.” Closer ‘Nighttime Affair’ meanwhile, may offer no wholesome conclusion (“Everyone can see the way you look at me / When she’s not looking”) but there’s something so utterly pleasing about its use of ‘50s Hollywood style strings and classic pop chord changes to evoke romance - and sympathy. Crawlers’ buzz has been simmering for some time now. ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ should see it fully explode” – DIY

Standout Tracks: Would You Come to My Funeral/Golden Bridge/Call It Love

Key Cut: Meaningless Sex

FEATURE: December Will Be Magic Again: The Kate Bush Christmas Gift Guide

FEATURE:

 

 

December Will Be Magic Again

The Kate Bush Christmas Gift Guide

_________

I might…

keep this title when I do a Kate Bush Christmas gift guide next year. Really, as I cannot think of what else to call it! Here, I will recommend items which are good to get the Kate Bush fan in your life. I will cover books, albums, merchandise and some rarities. A lot of these people might know about and already own. As there have been some new releases and reissues this year, it is worth revisiting this subject. Let’s start out with the amazing books out there. For the new fan of diehard, these four books are essential purchases. They should definitely be on your bookshelf! Perhaps the most essential Kate Bush book is Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. It was updated for 2024, so you can get a copy here. It is great that this book has been updated because new things have happened. Since it was published (in June), Bush announced that she is open to a new album. I wonder whether Thomson will update his book once again! If you need some more details, then here is why you need to buy this brilliant biography;

“The critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinead Gleeson.

Detailing everything from Bush's upbringing to her early exposition of talent, to her subsequent evolution into a stunningly creative and endlessly fascinating visual and musical artist, Under The Ivy is the story of one woman's life in music. Written with great detail, accuracy and admiration for her work, this is in equal parts an in-depth biography and an immersive analysis of Kate Bush's art.

Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums and inescapable influence, Under The Ivy is an eminently readable and insightful exploration of one of the world's most unique and gifted artists.

The text has been updated to include coverage of Bush's return to the top of the charts in 2022 following the extraordinary resurgence of 'Running Up That Hill.' An eye-opening journey of discovery for anyone unfamiliar with the breadth of Bush's work, Under The Ivy also rewards the long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis”.

There are quite a few Kate Bush books around. Ones that are a more general overview and those that focus on specific albums. The next one I want to highlight is about Hounds of Love. Published recently, Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book is a great read. An album that is always relevant and remains Bush’s most popular, it provides an accessible investigation and spotlight of the 1985 masterpiece. However, it also goes quite deep. We get to look back at the years before the album was released and how Bush’s career changed. It is a complete story that adds new dimensions and layers to Hounds of Love. If you have not bought the book yet, this great stocking filler can be purchased here:

“Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into realms of imagination and possibility. Side A spawned four Top 40 hit singles in the UK, 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)', 'Cloudbusting', 'Hounds of Love' and 'The Big Sky', some of the best-loved and most enduring compositions in Bush's catalogue. On side B, a hallucinatory seven-part song cycle called The Ninth Wave broke away from the pop conventions of the era by using strange and vivid production techniques that plunge the listener into the psychological centre of a near-death experience. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process. When it came out in 1985, she was only 27 years old.

This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener's point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush's songwriting, production and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist's importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere”.

I think that we will see a lot of new magazine articles and special magazine editions dedicated to the amazing Kate Bush. I am not sure whether any new books will come, though you never know! It would be awesome if another book came along, yet one wonders what the angle would be. In terms of biography, I think everything has been covered. One that I would recommend is Tom Doyle’s excellent Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush. It is unique in the sense it is a Kate Bush biography that is not strictly chronological. Various chapters (fifty in total) that take us to different points in her career. It is a fascinating read. I would recommend all Kate Bush fans buy this book. You can find it here:

“A Times Book of the Year
An Uncut Magazine Book of the Year
A Waterstones Music Book of the Year
A Virgin Radio Book of the Year
A Louder Book of the Year

'Probably the best Bush book to date.' - Record Collector

Kate Bush: the subject of murmured legend and one of the most idiosyncratic musicians of the modern era. Comprising fifty chapters or 'visions', Running Up That Hill is a multi-faceted biography of this famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles.

Featuring details from the author's one-to-one conversations with Kate, as well as vignettes of her key songs, albums, videos and concerts, this artful, candid and often brutally funny portrait introduces the reader to the refreshingly real Kate Bush.

Along the way, the narrative also includes vivid reconstructions of transformative moments in her career and insights from the friends and collaborators closest to Kate, including her photographer brother John Carder Bush and fellow artists David Gilmour, John Lydon and Youth.

Running Up That Hill is a vibrant and comprehensive re-examination of Kate Bush and her many creative landmarks”.

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

The final book I want to highlight is John Carder Bush’s KATE: Inside the Rainbow. This is a wonderful photobook from her brother. Shots of Kate Bush taking through her career together with some commentary and notes about the photos. Even though it costs £50, it is well worth the investment. I do think that there are not enough photobooks about Kate Bush. Plenty of photos and collections that could be brought together. I do wonder if we will see anything like this in 2025. These books offer new perspectives and sides to Kate Bush:

“A MUST-HAVE COLLECTION OF RARE AND UNSEEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF KATE BUSH.

WITH ESSAYS BY HER BROTHER, JOHN CARDER BUSH, ABOUT KATE'S LIFE AND CAREER.

Stunning and unique images from throughout Kate Bush's career including:

Outtakes from classic album shoots and never-before-seen photographs from The Dreamingand Hounds of Love sessions

Rare candid studio shots and behind-the-scenes stills from video sets, including 'Army Dreamers' and 'Running Up that Hill'

Includes original essays from Kate's brother:

From Cathy to Kate: Describes in vibrant detail their shared childhood and the whirlwind days of Kate's career

Chasing the Shot: A vivid evocation of John's experience of photographing his sister

'For me, each of these images forms part of a golden thread that shoots through the visual tapestry of Kate's remarkable career. Storytelling has always been the heartbeat of Kate's body of work, and it has been a privilege to capture these photographic illustrations that accompany those magical tales' John Carder Bush”.

Moving onto music, it is hard to know what to suggest to people. I cannot say to Kate Bush fans to buy all of her music on vinyl, as that would be a huge expense! What I would say is have a listen to her music on a platform like Spotify so that you get a good idea of what they are about. Which ones take your fancy. You can get Bush’s albums on C.D. For instance, if you wanted to buy The Red Shoes on C.D., you can do so here. I would advise shopping around, as it is quite expensive at over £20. However, as the new Kate Bush fan might be buying one or two of her albums, it will not cost that much. In terms of vinyl, there are three albums I would recommend. Bush reissued her albums this year for independent record shops. You get these new vinyl designs. Bush giving each album its own colour and feel. In terms of C.D.s, you might be best to visit Rough Trade. One that you can get on C.D. is The Kick Inside. You can also get the new U.S. import of the album. Bush’s incredible debut album, I would recommend all fans start with this. If you do not know much about it, then here is some information:

“Kicking things off with a whimper, not a bang, Kate Bush quietly released her 1978 debut, The Kick Inside and that disc still to this day affects an incredible number people. There are so many elements that make this disc unique - Kate's soaring soprano, her warm piano playing - but the one thing that perhaps sticks out most is how different her sounds were from anything else circulating at that time. Ten years before 'Alternative' hit the forefront, this music was neither easy nor palatable, truly an alternative from the other styles out there. Among the more legendary tracks, search out The Man With The Child in His Eyes and her timeless classic Wuthering Heights”.

Hounds of Love is interesting, as you can get the vinyl, C.D. or reissue of the original cassette version. In this new Raspberry Beret colour, it is a treat that you need to add your collection. You can buy it from Kate Bush’s website, or you can go to Rough Trade again:

“Though not the most prolific of album artists, Bush's works make up in impact what they lack in frequency. Her style and material has always been unique, eccentric even, but Hounds of Love is probably the strongest mix of controlled musical experimentation and lyrical expression. It deals with big issues - childhood fantasy and trauma, conflict, sexuality - but rarely lapses into pretension. The intense arrangements are perfectly matched to the subjects: "Running Up That Hill" climactically erotic, "Cloudbusting" broodingly triumphant... and it's all her own work”.

There are expanded editions of Hounds of Love. You can get The Boxes of Lost at Sea. Perhaps more for the diehard fan, it will cost a bit more money, but it is a real collector’s item. You have a few different options when it comes to Hounds of Love. Depending on your budget, you can have the album as it is or you can have one of the other releases. I do hope the album gets reissued with some B-sides and extra material at some point:

“Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (The Boxes of Lost at Sea)

This special presentation consists of two wall-mountable art boxes, each containing one side of the Hounds of Love album pressed on white vinyl and UV printed with an illustration by Timorous Beasties. The LED, which pulses gently, is powered by a hidden AAA battery
“The idea was to create a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall. They’re based on something I designed for an auction for the charity War Child ”
A donation will be made to War Child with each box that's bought.
They can be bought separately, or as a set. There are also braille versions of the boxes, with the brass plaque text encoded in braille.
The Boxes of Lost at Sea are wall-mountable art boxes”.
Lost at Sea - Box A contains a UV printed single-sided white vinyl LP, side A of the album:
Lost at Sea - Box B contains a UV printed single-sided white vinyl LP, side B of the album:
The braille versions of Lost at Sea have the brass plaque text encoded in braille”.

You can also purchase the beautiful Baskerville Edition. One might feel it is quite expensive but, again, these are very special items that you can play and keep for years. Owning a piece of Kate Bush history. The fact that she is very proud of the album and has spent a lot of time with these new editions. The final album I would recommend people investigate is 50 Words for Snow. Her most recent album, it was released in 2011. “50 Words For Snow her tenth album, was released six months after her last LP, Director's Cut. The record is released on her own label Fish People. Unlike Director's Cut, which saw Bush reinterpreting tracks from her back catalogue, 50 Words for Snow consists entirely of new material. There are seven tracks on the album, which has a running time of 65 minutes. the tracks are 'Set Against a Background of Falling Snow”. You can get the album from Rough Trade or Kate Bush’s website . Whether you fancy the C.D. or vinyl version, this is an essential album that remains underrated. A gorgeous and accomplished album that I cannot recommend highly enough. Also reissued as the Polar Edition, there are beautiful illustrations and extras. Not in terms of material but design. It is a beautiful album that does not cost too much either. Complete with a special Christmas card, you can get it at Rough Trade.:

“The third in the series of illustrated reissues. Double 180 Gram vinyl housed in gatefold sleeve with belly band. Illustrated by Timorous Beasties. 50 Words For Snow her tenth album, was released six months after her last LP, Director's Cut. The record is released on her own label Fish People. Unlike Director's Cut, which saw Bush reinterpreting tracks from her back catalogue, 50 Words for Snow consists entirely of new material. There are seven tracks on the album, which has a running time of 65 minutes. the tracks are 'Set Against a Background of Falling Snow”.

I will end with some merchandise recommendation. Think about the Kate Bush Christmas plan. You could buy that Kate Bush fan a book or two. Have one like the 33 1/3 on Hounds of Love book and then, say, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush under the tree. Perhaps a special treat of John Carder Bush’s photobook for that ‘big present’. It is a treat getting vinyl as a present, so I imagine people wrapping up Hounds of Love or The Kick Inside for that new Kate Bush fan. Maybe one of the Hounds of Love special editions for that big Kate Bush fan. Perhaps the Hounds of Love cassette and a C.D. version of one of Bush’s other albums. So many choices! If you want to top it off with some Kate Bush merchandise, there are plenty of options. Take a look inside the Kate Bush Shop. As it is coming up to Christmas, how about the Polar Edition Christmas cards. Five cards for £10, you get five cards and five decorated envelopes. It would be a real treat getting a Kate Bush Christmas card. The final date for Christmas delivery is 13th December, so order as soon as possible! There are a number of prints available on her website. Ones you can put on the wall. My personal favourite is the one for Top of the City. In terms of clothing, I do hope more comes out next. The Never for Ever T-shirt that was sold at her pop-up in 2018. We do need another pop-up shop with goodies in! The Little Shrew T-shirt is one that I would recommend people get. To go alongside the T-shirt, and to keep warm, go and order a Fish People hoodie. To keep your new Kate Bush presents in, you could get the Fish People tote.  I have provided some recommendations. Of course, there is a whole world of Kate Bush goods out there. Whether you buy one vinyl album for a new Kate Bush fan or you have a bundle of a book, bit of merchandise and vinyl, I have provided some guidance. It is an exciting time to be a Kate Bush fan. With potential new music coming soon, it is a perfect moment to read up about her. Listen to those amazing albums. Make sure that you bring a bit of Kate Bush…

HOME for Christmas.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Tour of Life: Pulling Away from EMI and Towards Fish People

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Tour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Pulling Away from EMI and Towards Fish People

_________

PERHAPS similar…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

to recent features I have published that relate to Kate Bush’s career between 1993/1994 and 2005, I wanted to talk more about how she pulled away from EMI. I am interested in Bush’s label, Fish People, and the reason she went independent. Although she has not produce for other artist or has signings to Fish People, it did complete the transition from working with EMI to having her own brand and space. That suggests there was this long unhappiness and strain from Bush. Rather than it being a frayed relationship and something fractious, Bush wanted freedom. Maybe feeling that there was a pressure on her and she did not want to work to deadlines, I often think about he albums released with EMI and how difficult it was at time. In 1978, Bush put out two albums. The Kick Inside and Lionheart took a lot out of her. 1982’s The Dreaming, her fourth studio album, left the label unhappy. Even if it was a chart success, its sales were pretty low (compared to her debut, The Kick Inside) and the singles released from the album were largely unsuccessful. They could have no complaints about Hounds of Love, though one feels there was always an issue with timescales, expectations and budgets. Bush was spending so much money and time moving between studios for 1982’s The Dreaming. She built her own studio for Hounds of Love. It isn’t EMI’s fault that Bush became tired of going between studios. What I do find hard to ignore is how they were perhaps not as patient with her in the early years as they should have been. What I mean is that there was this rush to get the second album out. Whilst some feel that is them having faith in her and wanting to keep momentum going, it was pure commercial pressure and EMI not considering Bush’s need for space and time to write new material.

One could say Bush came with a certain amount of privilege and she was very lucky to sign with a label like EMI (or EMI Records to be precise). Thanks to some mentoring from David Gilmour, whose reputation and name would also have helped Bush, there were moments when the relationship between artist and label were not harmonious. In 2011, four Kate Bush albums were re-issued after she won back control of them from EMI. The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, which EMI originally released between 1982 and 1993, were all lined up to be re-issued with former EMI and PolyGram executive, David Munns (then acting as a consultant to her). That was reported by Kate Bush News. I believe The Red Shoes was remastered in 2011 whilst the other studio albums were reissued to C.D. under the Fish People label. There was a definite series of ups and downs with EMI. I can understand why Bush wanted ownership of her albums and set up Fish People. However, a lot of the time things were quite close between Kate Bush and EMI. As much as I hate how there was this pressure from EMI and, like most labels, they seemed to put sales and commercial success ahead of artistic freedom and space, they did realise that a very talented teenage Kate Bush needed time to develop her music at such a young age. There was not this push to get her right into the studio. When EMI’s Bob Mercer died in 2010, there was this loving and passionate obituary. The section relating to Kate Bush caught my eye:

“In July 1975 Mercer dropped in at Abbey Road to check on the Pink Floyd sessions for what would become the Wish You Were Here album. The Floyd guitarist David Gilmour played him the three-song demo tape he had made with Bush at AIR Studios. Mercer was particularly taken with "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song", which would both be included on The Kick Inside, the singer's 1978 debut album.

Mercer put the then 17-year-old singer under contract, but also suggested she take time to develop further artistically. "On meeting her, I realised how young she was mentally. We gave her some money to grow up with," he said. "EMI was like another family to her. She was the company's daughter for a few years."

When, during a fraught meeting, Bush burst into tears and insisted the company issue "Wuthering Heights" rather than "James and the Cold Gun" as her first single, and also demanded a change of picture bag which delayed its release until January 1978, Mercer gave in.

"It went to No 1 and stayed there for four weeks," he said. "I had told her not to worry, that it would take at least three albums and she should be patient. To her credit, she never reminded me of the incident." The notoriously elusive Bush held him in high regard and kept in touch after he moved to the US. In the 1980s he worked for EMI Films, and had a spell managing Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, which culminated in the momentous and monumental staging of The Wall in Berlin in 1990”.

It is complex unpicking the relationship between Kate Bush and EMI and truly understanding the reasons why Bush set up her own label. I guess she did want to make music on her own terms and in her own time. Also protect her albums and assume some sort of control that was not given to her at the time they were released. I want to investigate the move away from EMI. I am fascinated by the decades-long relationship between Kate Bush and EMI. Granted, she did take a while to record albums, though you always get the feeling the label were expecting her to pump out an album a year. They wanted their star to bring out music and stay in the public eye, yet there wasn’t quite the true space there should have been. Even though I say that, there is no telling how many times Kate Bush breached her contract! Even if it unreasonable, EMI would have expected faster turnaround. That flexibility, I guess, is to be admired. David Munns and Tony Wandsworth left EMI in 2008. They were reliable and familiar faces to Bush. Maybe Bush felt that EMI were prizing profitability over artistic merit. Things were changing. If once she felt like part of a record label family – albeit one with some arguments and tense moments -, things altered not long after Bush released 2005’s Aerial. She did not have a father figure or familial connection anymore to EMI. She did not want to hand her music over to strangers or people she couldn’t trust. The fact was Bush could record music on her own terms and without the help and support of EMI. I am taking many of these observations from Graeme Thomson’s book, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush.

One of the most significant dynamic changes in Kate Bush’s music happened in 2011. A year when she released two albums, I can understand the symbolism of her pushing away from EMI in 2011 and also releasing Director’s Cut. An album where she rerecorded songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes, it was almost like she was correcting mistakes or reworking the past. Not only did Kate Bush oversea the mix, packaging, and pressing of Director’s Cut, she also well aware of how the industry was changing (and the shifts in infrastructure). How albums were promoted and released. Bush’s Fish People swam into view in 2011. EMI distributed her albums still, though all the creative decisions and everything else was conducted at home. With very few familiar faces at EMI, that trust had well and truly gone. One of the most interesting passages from Graeme Thomson’s book is where we learn Tony Wadsworth left EMI. That happened when Terra Firma acquired the company. Bush apparently phoned Guy Hands up to say that this was the first and last time she would speak to him. Feeling angry that maybe Wadsworth was pushed out or there was this premature departure, that was the final straw. There was this delightful spoof that appeared in The Sunday Times in January 2008 that was a reaction to Guy Hands’s lack of tact regarding artists. EMI was sold to Universal Music Group in 2011. Bush did acknowledge that Fish People was not a reaction to being given no freedom. I do think EMI could have made better decisions in 1978 regarding the rush for a second studio album. However, since 1980, Bush was given more freedom regarding her output. So setting up her own label was not this radical shift. She just had total freedom! Fish People meant that she had control not over how her music was made and when it was released. Bush could also have say over how she was perceived and how she promoted her albums. Maybe that endless cycle of promotional interviews of the past was heavy on her mind.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

You could see and feel these subtle alterations. If Aerial’s photos, as Thomson notes, were more organic and natural, there was more flair and theatre for Director’s Cut’s promotional photo. Shots with her brother, John Carder Bush. She shot with Trevor Leighton in 2005, so bringing in her brother again for promotional images seemed to reflect how Fish People was in-house and homemade. I love the shots for Director’s Cut. Bush conducting interviews from her home. Although EMI would have been fine with that, you can feel how Bush was bringing everything back home. Almost returning her career to how things were before 1978. Going full circle in many ways. I am interested as to the future. It is clear Fish People will not sign artists or whether there will be any albums released through it from other artists. However, I do like how this label was Bush making it clear she was no longer working with EMI. One can argue whether her relationship with EMI was more positive and different to how it would have been with other labels. It is clear they let her get on with things for the most part, though what would have things been like if they made different decisions. That tussle between an artist wanting to make music in her own image and the record label concerned about commercial longevity and keeping Bush ‘accessible’. It was a shame Bush lost faith with EMI. I do think Fish People and this new increased independence was a great thing. If she does release a new album – which it seems is most likely -, how will Bush’s promotion change? We can look at how Bush has utilised her own record label and freedom when reassuring her studio albums. There are still issues around distribution and control over her first few studio albums. Regardless, Bush is now in a position when she can release albums when she wants and promote them as she sees fit – and she seems so much happier for it. The birth of and continued relevance of Fish People allows the divine Kate Bush to…

SWIM freely.

FEATURE: Marking a Phenomenal Year for Music: The Best Albums of 2025

FEATURE:

 

 

Marking a Phenomenal Year for Music

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé

The Best Albums of 2025

_________

EVEN though…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Charli xcx

there are a few more weeks of potentially exceptional albums and ones that could be among the best of the year, I think we have seen the absolute best. Like so many people, I wanted to highlight the standout albums from a brilliant year. Even though my rundown and spotlight is a little restrictive – with ten albums included – I do think that it has plenty of variety. Albums I would recommend people investigate. From a year-defining album from Charli xcx to some terrific albums by established and newer artists alike, it has been another stunning year for music. Below are ten albums that I feel are…

THE best of 2025.

___________

Charli xcx – BRAT

Release Date: 7th June

Label: Atlantic

Producers: A. G. Cook/Cirkut/George Daniel/Charli XCX/Gesaffelstein/Finn Keane/Hudson Mohawke/El Guincho/Jon Shave/Linus Wiklund/Omer Fedi

Review:

“The out all night in last night’s makeup, glorifies Lana Del Rey, a little bit messed up, and “you hate the fact she’s New York City’s darling” ones. If her latest album – a set of rave-y dance songs digging deep into the artist’s insecurities and looking good while doing it – is an attempt to court that crowd, it’s so good that it might as well be pandering.

Whereas Charli’s previous full-length effort Crash was her most garden-variety-pop release in years, recreating the synthpop of the late 20th century with a modern flair, Brat is a diametrically different kind of dance record: she “came from the clubs,” as she said in a post on X, and to the clubs she shall return. Brat is chock-full of grimy, booming synths, driving drum-machine beats, and repetitive hooks; these tracks would be best experienced by a headbanging, borderline-violent crowd surrounded by smoke machines and illicit hallucinogens. At fifteen tracks, the album’s club-friendly repetitiveness can make it a bit of a stretch to get through, especially because a few tracks feel less essential than the rest. But overall, it’s still surprisingly exceptional as a front-to-back listen.

That power and cohesion is due in no small part to the album’s producers. Electronic music visionary A.G. Cook, who has led Charli’s production work since the mid-2010s but largely took a backseat on Crash, has his fingerprints all over Brat; he even gets a shoutout on each of the album’s first two tracks. It’s all the little A.G. touches – the cutesy piano melody in “Mean girls,” the choice of synth on the outro of “Rewind” – that make this album feel a little closer to Charli’s comfort zone, if one can even call it that. Her PC Music-inspired, pioneering, avant-garde, abrasive comfort zone.

Even if Brat is Charli’s most bouncy, propulsive album, though, it’s also her most vulnerable.

It’s a common trope for pop artists to write introspective lyrics a couple times per album, in an attempt to show that the pop star, too, is a human being. Maybe the ambitious will write a whole album talking about their feelings. But Brat isn’t just inward-looking – it’s a full-on self-character dissection, delivered with all the rawness of a self-hating Notes app rant. Some tracks appear to be about other pop stars explicitly, and most delve into Charli’s most difficult feelings, from generational trauma to body image issues to an obsession with the Billboard charts. She describes herself as inhabiting the “background” at clubs, wonders aloud whether or not her contemporaries actually like her, expresses her fear of actually meeting someone for the first time in real life, asks if she “deserves commercial success,” laments how much she over-analyzes her face shape. She sings about how her jealousy of other pop stars can drive her to suicidal ideation; she writes about her fears that her parents’ generational trauma might have reached her. Even when paired with bombastic dance beats, this is easily the most insecure, dark album Charli has ever released. And in context, the few songs where Charli sounds fully and unreservedly secure in herself – “360,” “Von dutch” – start to sound less like re-affirmations of her greatness and more like attempts to convince herself of it.

Brat isn’t entirely mournful, though: on occasion, moments of hope filter through the misery of celebrity that pervades Charli’s lyricism. On “Everything is romantic,” she pens a list of small joys – “Bad tattoos on leather tanned skin / Jesus Christ on a plastic sign / Fall in love again and again / Winding roads doing manual drive” – and repeats it again and again, clinging to the beauty in those otherwise-insignificant moments. And at the end of the album on the penultimate “I think about it all the time,” she writes about meeting a friend and her new baby: “standing there, same old clothes she wore before, holding a child”. It’s these moments of vitality that cut through the insecurity and suffering throughout most of Brat, reminding Charli and her audience simultaneously that life can be – and is – beautiful, despite everything. “My career feels so small in the existential steam of it all,” she writes on “I think about it all the time”. Maybe it is.

By the end of the album, Charli seems to have no memory of her vulnerabilities. Instead, on album finale “365,” she raps over a sped-up mix of opener “360” about looking hot, calling an ambulance, and generally having what sounds like the craziest house party of all time. It’s superficial, unpoetic, unimportant – and absolutely deserved. She sounds more alive than she has in years. After over a dozen tender, depressive, beautiful club tracks, by the end of Brat, Charli is ready to actually be at the club. And you know she’s going to shine at its centre” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cuts: Club classics/Von dutch/I think about it all the time

Standout Track: 360

Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath

Release Date: 23rd February

Label: EMI North

Producer: Ben Hillier

Review:

“Nadine Shah is lingering backstage after a “blinding” show at the dawn of the track ‘Sad Lads Anonymous’ from her tour de force fifth album ‘Filthy Underneath’. Her gloriously expressive Wearside accent runs free in a spoken word monologue: “The band left hours ago, according to the work experience kid that I’m currently telling all my deepest darkest secrets to in a toilet cubicle”.

If that kid was privy to the first draft, then we are all now treated to the fully-realised final product. Those secrets, sadly, carry a profound weight: since Shah’s last album, 2020’s ‘Kitchen Sink’, she lost her mother at the height of lockdown, her marriage came to an end and she attempted to take her own life. Through a period of recovery has emerged a career-best statement of Shah’s songwriting prowess, where inner struggles are rendered with maturity and relatability, supercharged by a fearless, expansive sonic palette.

Twitches and chirrups of static fuzz adorn ‘Even Light’, a track ridden by a sense of foreboding, gothic paranoia, but at a rollicking, devil-may-care pace. ‘Food For Fuel’ shows off the qawwali devotional influence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, while ‘You Drive, I Shoot’ and ‘Keeping Score’ find Shah and longtime producer Ben Hillier [Blur, Depeche Mode] creating soundscapes that can send a shiver through the listener without ever alienating them. If the arrangements occasionally seem sparse and uncertain, then with Shah’s deeply felt vocals, we are always firmly rooted in a human place, where a warm embrace is never far away.

‘Greatest Dancer’ details nights watching Strictly with her ailing mother while illicitly slipping down some of her medicated morphine. What results is a glorious moment of escapism, a hallucinogenic fantasia with galloping drums and a glitterball swirl of dreamy synths.

But on ‘Topless Mother’, the mood changes as she sings, “When you were born you broke the mould / Another lie to you your mother told”. A glimpse into Shah’s recovery period, the song collapses into a non-sequitur chorus of random word exclamations (“Samosa!”, “Iguana!”), and we ponder whether Shah is shirking at us trying to listen in too closely, or surrendering to the jumble of her own internal monologue.

‘French Exit’ is a disarmingly frank contemplation of the day of her attempted suicide. “Blue polka dot and matching trousers / Reapplied lipstick, a clown who counts the downers / Just a French exit, sliding off the dancefloor / But how close is it, the now until the no more,” she sings, the poignant, matter of fact specificity averting any danger of glamourisation. Shah is writing about the darkest places a person can reach in a devastatingly human manner that demonstrates a rare level of repose and reflection” – NME

Key Cuts: Even Light/Greatest Dancer/Twenty Things

Standout Track: Topless Mother

Beyoncé – COWBOY CARTER

Release Date: 29th March

Labels: Parkswood/Columbia

Producers: Various

Review:

“Ever since Beyoncé – to quote the lady herself – “changed the game with that digital drop” via her self-titled fifth album, released without warning in 2013, she’s become the fixed point around which popular culture oscillates. Bandwidth-swallowing think pieces, detailed decoding of every lyric, plus an increasingly vexed right-wing America have kept her name on everyone’s lips. She wasn’t exactly a cult concern before, but the last decade has seen her move beyond mere superstar status, aided by 2016’s internet sleuth-facilitating infidelity opus Lemonade and 2022’s liberated, post-lockdown dance party, Renaissance.

That last album was billed teasingly as Act I, and now arrives the second part of a mooted trilogy. While Renaissance, with its celebration of the oft-ignored influence of Black queer dance pioneers, facilitated a healthy amount of debate, you could cobble together a hefty book on the discourse that’s already swirling around Cowboy Carter. Inspired by a less than welcome reaction to the Texan’s performance of her country single Daddy Lessons at the 2016 Country Music Awards – where she was dismissed as a “pop artist”, seemingly code for “Black woman” – it’s an album that takes country music by its plaid shirt collar, holds up its (mainly) male, pale and stale status to the light and sets it on fire.

A deliciously camp revenge fantasy suddenly breaks into a snatch of 18th-century aria – one of many vocal flexes

Thrilling opener Ameriican Requiem – a slow-burn, country-rock opera – references that CMA controversy directly (“Used to say I spoke too country / And the rejection came, said I wasn’t country ’nough”), before making broader statements on who gets to call themselves a “true American” (“A pretty house that we never settled in”). It is followed by a cover of the Beatles’ folk-y Blackbird (here retitled Blackbiird, a consistent motif used throughout the album to denote it being Act II), a song that was inspired by the experiences of nine teenage Black girls attending an all-white school in post-segregation 1957, featuring vocals from upcoming Black country singers Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy. It’s an opening salvo ripe for music scholars to unpick.

But Cowboy Carter is never just one thing. Nor does its scholarly detail weigh it down. Just as it uses country music as a backdrop to explore other genres, it also utilises anger and injustice as shades of a bigger picture. There’s fun to be had via the playful, thigh-slapping single Texas Hold ’Em, which makes more sense preceded by an introduction from a stoned Willie Nelson. The unhinged Ya Ya is a freewheelin’ sprint through social and economic disparity that channels the electifying spirit of Tina Turner, and samples Nancy Sinatra and the Beach Boys.

While Beyoncé’s take on Jolene by Dolly Parton (or Dolly P as she’s recast here) loses some of the original’s desperation by morphing into a glint-eyed warning, it’s still a hoot to hear her spit lines like “Jolene, I know I’m a queen, Jolene / I’m still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisiane.” Daughter is a deliciously camp revenge fantasy that suddenly breaks into – and this is one of Beyoncé’s many vocal flexes on the album – a snatch of the 18th-century aria Caro Mio Ben, sung in Italian.

By swapping the tightly packed synth and drum programming of Renaissance for live instrumentation (including percussion made from the click-clack of Beyoncé’s nails), Cowboy Carter has a looser, baggier feel than its predecessor. The excellent, loved-up Bodyguard unspools like a lost Fleetwood Mac classic, all rippling 70s soft-rock melodies, while the sweet Protector, dedicated to her daughter Rumi Carter, sounds like it was knocked out around a campfire. II Most Wanted, meanwhile, finds Beyoncé and pop-country maven Miley Cyrus trading odes to their ride or dies as if sharing the same mic.

If this all sounds decidedly mid-paced, Cowboy Carter isn’t solely about rustic shuffles. Spaghettii, which features Linda Martell, the first Black country star to perform on the Grand Ole Opry stage, is a trap-infused head knocker; II Hands II Heaven rides a soft electronic pulse and samples Underworld; while the finger-pointing Tyrant fuses fiddle filigrees with rib-rattling bass, perfect for a sweat-soaked dosey doe at Club Renaissance.

Cowboy Carter’s scope and scale can be overwhelming, as can its 27-track runtime – the shorter interludes-as-songs cause a dip in excitement midway through – but there’s something about its construction that pleads with you to consume it as a whole; a journey not just through, and beyond, American roots music, but through various moods, shades and emotions that coalesce as a celebration. It feels like a feast at a time when pop is offering up scraps. As she mentioned herself when announcing the album to a mix of anger, intrigue and confusion: “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.” It’s also her fourth classic in a row” – The Guardian

Key Cuts: BLACKBIRD/TEXAS HOLD ‘EM/ALLIIGATOR TEARS

Standout Track: SPAGHETTII

Jack White – No Name

Release Date: 19th July

Label: Third Man

Producer: Jack White

Review:

“Jack White didn't get where he is without a keen sense of theater and self-promotion, and not many artists could build a buzz around a new album the way he did with 2024's No Name. On July 19, 2024, anyone who made a purchase at one of White's Third Man stores in Detroit, Nashville, and London would find in their bags a mysterious LP, in a plain white sleeve and with the white labels simply stamped "No Name." Of course, the sort of folks shopping at his stores are the sort of music nerds who would be intrigued and delighted by getting a mystery disc, and before long the music media was abuzz with stories about White releasing a new album in a manner that was at once secretive and bound to call attention to itself. It didn't take long for needle-drop bootlegs of the album to circulate online, and within a week, No Name had been given an official wide release. So what sort of album did White make to hype in this manner? No Name happens to be the most straightforward rock & roll album he has delivered in some time, a set of 13 tough guitar-based tunes with an abundance of swagger and a kick that melds the punky minimalism of the White Stripes with his well-documented obsession with Led Zeppelin. (You could make an effective drinking game out of making listeners take a shot when they hear a clear Zep lift in the melodies or White's guitar.) If White's two albums of 2022, Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive, found him introspectively exploring the outer margins of his music as he struggled with the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, No Name is an enthusiastic return to the familiar, though it doesn't play like a regression so much as an artist embracing their strengths and having a good time doing so. The lyrics are full of braggadocio, declaring "If God's too busy then I'll bless myself" in "Bless Yourself" and "I'll make you miss me again" in "Missionary," and they're matched to guitar work that rhymes. White's leads constantly swing from elemental chunkiness to bluesy flash without losing his footing, and the clean, unobtrusive production flatters his tone and lets the other musicians strut their stuff without taking the spotlight off the star (as if he would permit such a thing). Even without its publicity stunt release, No Name would doubtless click with an awful lot of Jack White's fans, and it's the sort of idiosyncratic but lean and mean rock album he's needed to make for a while” – AllMusic

Key Cuts: Bless Yourself/Bombing Out/Terminal Archenemy Endling

Standout Track: Archbishop Harold Holmes

St. Vincent - All Born Screaming

Release Date: 26th April

Labels: Total Pleasure/Virgin

Producer: St. Vincent

Review:

“While hardly the most original observation, St. Vincent’s constant use of reinvention and high concepts shares a few similarities with our dear departed Starman. Both Clark and Bowie stand as ferocious creative forces spurned on by the next big idea, hungrily eager to change their musical makeup with every project. There’s also a shared sense of the alien that both artists inhabit. There’s a distance, the feeling of them being an observer of our world, not an earthy participant. Such elements make their songs exciting, otherly, and, of course, unique to most others. Why the preamble? To highlight why Clark’s previous album, 2021’s ‘Daddy’s Home’, didn’t quite linger in people’s hearts as well as her other work.

Inhabiting the sleazy funk and soul of 70s New York sounded exhilarating when announced, but when all was said and done, Clark embracing nostalgic sounds and aesthetics of yore didn’t come across as 100% convincing. Her dominant aura and forward-thinking spirit just didn’t fit the warm tones of the past – which takes us to ‘All Born Screaming,’ ten tracks of off-kilter rock and pop that sees Annie strap on her angular guitar and set coordinates straight for the sun. In other words, she’s back.

While ‘Daddy’s Home’ wasn’t without its merits, this latest release had an immediacy that it could only dream of. Despite opener ‘Hell Is Near’ acting as the album’s moodiest cut, there’s a lurking sense of propulsion and menace from the off. There’s a dash of Led Zep folk rock by way of the moody textures of trip-hop. Bold, arresting, and Clark at her finest. The following ‘Reckless’ sees her harness her love of Nine Inch Nails, embracing the cinematic darkness one Trent Reznor perfected. Groovy and dangerously carnal, she absolutely nails the sense of isolation and intimacy that NIN made their name with.

Continuing her teenage love of alt-rock is the lead single ‘Broken Man,’ an industrial-flavoured stomper with Mr. Dave Grohl adding his powerhouse drumming to proceedings. It’s three and a half minutes and gritty swagger, and it will undoubtedly become a live favorite for years to come. With Clark literally covered in flames on its cover and the title being, well, what is, you’d be excused for thinking that her seventh album may be her most somber, but at the midpoint, things take a welcome turn.

‘Big Time Nothing’ marries some of the funk and soul elements of the previous album but filters them through a kaleidoscopic prism of electronica and dance. It’s a far more exciting prospect. Not happy with subverting expectations there, Clark then goes full Bond theme tune on the brilliant ‘Violent Times.’ John Barry-esque guitar licks and horn blasts are married to lyrics focused on eyes and immortality. It’s a treat and makes you wonder why on earth St. Vincent has yet to be tapped to do a theme – after all, Garbage did a bang-up job.

Ever imagined what Annie Clark doing Blondie would sound like? Dream no more, ‘So Many Planets,’ breezy nu-wave is your answer. Light ska elements add a summery sheen to the number before Clark lets loose a mischievous guitar solo that shows off her chops without overpowering the song’s upbeat vibe. As for the mental-as-hell-sounding title track? An 80s-flavored foot-tapper slowly morphs into a trippy disco outro, like a more unhinged cousin to the beloved ‘Fast Slow Disco.’ Until its last moment, nothing is as it seems on ‘All Born Screaming’.

While it’s not a controversial take to say St. Vincent doesn’t have a bad album, this latest set sees Clark back in domineering form. There’s not a second wasted on the album’s taut track list, the songwriter managing to balance her teenage inspirations simultaneously, go back to basics, and break new ground all at once. Bowie soared highest when being his freaky little self. The same can be said of Clark, whose songs come alight when icy beauty and danger go for a dance—a staggering return” – CLASH

Key Cuts: Reckless/Big Time Nothing/Violent Times

Standout Track: Broken Man

Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat

Release Date: 25th October

Labels: Chrysalis/Partisan

Producers: Laura Marling/Dom Monks

Review:

“I want you to know that I gave it up willingly/ Nothing real was lost in the bringing of you to me,” sings Laura Marling to her baby daughter on Patterns in Repeat. Recorded mostly at the 34-year-old musician’s north London home, the album features infant gurgles and dog collar jangles interspersed with her decisively plucked acoustic guitar. It’s a record that celebrates motherhood as an expansion of creativity, rather than the stifling of it that she had expected.

It’s unsurprising that Marling feared the pram in the hall. Ever since the release of her 2008 debut album, Alas I Cannot Swim, released when she was just 18, critics have compared her precocious talent to that of Joni Mitchell – who put her only child up for adoption in 1965 and spent much of her subsequent songwriting career comparing the lonely exhilarations of her fearless artistry with the cosy prison of domesticity that she contemptuously/covetously cast as “the lady’s choice”.

Like Mitchell, Marling finds her truth in angular melodies that often elbow aside space for her blunt, questing confessions. She left home young, read fiercely, and sang of loving with wild unsentimentality. Often toying with the idea of walking away from the music industry, she took a break in America where she befriended vagabonds, cult members and people who lived off grid. She went electric (like Mitchell) on her 2015 album Short Movie, and in her podcast Reversing the Muse, challenged cultural constructs around women and art. On 2017’s Semper Femina she sang of yearning “to be the kind of free/women still can’t be alone”.

But it has been almost 60 years since Mitchell (then 20) felt forced to choose between music and motherhood. She was alone, with no support from her child’s father or her parents – and had not yet established herself as an artist. By contrast, Marling is a well-established talent, with financial security and a loving partner (a songwriter-turned-charcutier). Under these fortuitous conditions, she’s found parenthood to be an adventure and she stretches out thoughtfully into many of its corners on this album, like a baby in its first cot. Opener “Child of Mine” rises from a terrycloth-soft strum, casually picking up a heavenly choir as it journeys from intimate scenes of father-daughter kitchen dancing to the more abstract mysteries of the unreachable infant mind. Strings and accompanying male vocals curl around Marling’s voice like tiny fingers.

Marling recently earned a masters in psychoanalysis and attended “family constellation therapy” – a therapeutic approach in which she looked for patterns in gene pools. The skippily picked “Patterns” sees her relaxing into the repetition of generations that turn like seasons. She rakes leaves on “Your Girl” – the melody is slinky and her voice drops to a drawl as she tells a lover that he “let me down sometimes” as she “tried to play a boy’s game”. A piano pops in on “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can” and the guitar takes on a moody, melodramatic Spanish flare on “The Shadows”. You can hear the narrative turning on a flamenco dancer’s heel as Marling laments: “She knows, of course she knows… and one day she’ll tear me apart.” There’s a little flick of the skirt to Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven” in there, too.

There’s a bittersweet nod back to Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” on “Caroline” – a song written from the perspective of an older man getting a call from the old flame who left him, asking her not to call again because: “I got married and I love my wife/I have kids, they’re good and grown now/All in all I’ve been happy with my life.” Marling’s voice – once again, like Mitchell’s – is often most soul-grazing when it drops low and cold. She contrasts those moments with the sweetness of a forgotten tune that goes: “Laaa, la, la, laaa – something something, Caroline.”

Marling has often credited her dad for teaching her his “birdlike” guitar technique. Here she goes one further and covers a song he wrote as a young man called “Looking Back”. Here his daughter projects herself into the future where she remembers the joy of early motherhood – she knows she’ll ache for it one day. The latin-flavoured “Lullaby” does what it says on the bottle, promising her child that she is “safe in my arms”.

The album closes neatly with its title song – jazzy chords lifting to hammock-swung refrains. “A smile or two/a gap between your tooth,” wisecracks the singer, always with an edge of sharpness. Never sappy. Strings saw their way between semitones like teethers. It should be enough that Marling has expressed this version of motherhood for herself and her family alone. But I can’t help hoping it opens hopeful doors for other creative women – and shows the music industry how to value and support mothers without expecting them to crack on like nothing game-changing has happened to their minds, bodies and souls” – The Independent

Key Cuts: No One's Gonna Love You Like I Can/Caroline/Lullaby

Standout Track: Child of Mine

English Teacher - This Could Be Texas

Release Date: 12th April

Label: Island

Producer: Marta Salogni

Review:

“Not everybody gets a time to shine,” muses English Teacher’s Lily Fontaine on the suitably star-gazing ‘Not Everyone Gets To Go Space’ from their long-awaited debut ‘This Could Be Texas’. It’s a tongue-in-cheek line that also pragmatically lays out the logistical nightmare and societal issues that a free-at-the-point-of-delivery intergalactic travel system would create for us normies. A pretty perfect encapsulation of the band’s marriage of the fantastic and the everyday, and a pithy reminder of where we’re at.

There have been a lot of headlines of late about how totally impossible it’s becoming for musicians, artists and creatives to exist – let alone thrive. Venues closing, streaming services not paying out, shareholders laughing at us, and opportunities disappearing: see some sad-but-true points made by James Blake, Another Sky, BRITs champion RAYE and The Last Dinner Party in their correction of those out-of-context “cost of living” comments.

Yes, doom surrounds us, but so does talent. If you’re mourning a drought of decent new bands, please find the nearest bin. The year is still young and you’ve already been spoiled with stellar first albums from NewDad, Sprints, Whitelands and Lime Garden, for starters. The odds are stacked against these bands, and yet they deliver. Leading the charge are Leeds’ own English Teacher.

Another set of dry and talky post-punkers, they are not. Heavenly album opener ‘Albatross’ lays the table nicely with some gorgeous indie-prog string and piano work with a smack of ‘90s peak Radiohead. Buzz-generating single ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ delivers a rollocking ode to the little guys with big ideas – namely fellow Northern legends the Pendle Witches, John Simm, Lee Ingleby and The Bank Of Dave – vowing that “no one can walk over me”.

That defiance carries through to the lilting ‘fuck the Tories’ vibe of ‘Broken Biscuits’ as Fontaine demands someone take responsibility: “Can a river stop its banks from bursting? Blame the council, not the rain”. ‘R&B’ is a jagged fiery revenge song that sees the singer spit back at misplaced presumptions about her race and place in music: “despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B”.

The utterly gorgeous ‘Albert Road’ will speak to anyone who remembers bittersweet moments of boredom and frustration, and teenage daydreaming themselves out of the wire in working class neighbourhoods. As Fontaine offers: “So don’t take our prejudice to heart, we hate everyone” and refreshingly concludes without irony or patronisation: “That’s why we are how we are, and that’s why we don’t get very far” – NME

Key Cuts: The World's Biggest Paving Slab/Broken Biscuits/Nearly Daffodils

Standout Track: Albert Road

Fontaines D.C. - Romance

Release Date: 23rd August

Label: XL

Producer: James Ford

Review:

“When Fontaines D.C. dropped their debut album Dogrel in 2019, the Irish post-punkers were heralded in some quarters as generational voices, a band that was able to dissect their Irish identity in a way so acute that it evoked the spirit of that nation’s great poets — whether that was classic voices like James Joyce or modern hellraisers such as Shane McGowan.

“Dublin in the rain is mine,” the group’s singer Grian Chatten famously affirmed on the spiky punk of ‘Big’.

This thread continued all the way to their third album, 2022’s Skinty Fia, in which they offered the perspective of a band wracked with a degree of guilt when they moved away to London after hitting the big time.

But two years later, their return feels like a hard reset. This time around, it seems that this record is defined by something less rooted in reality and a search for something far more fantastical. To paraphrase a very famous quote from Dorothy Gale: “We’re not in Dublin anymore, Toto.”

The first sign of this came when they released the swaggering lead single ‘Starburster’, which saw the group decked out in oversized sports tops, hair clips and wraparound sunglasses.

It seemed like a sign that the band were searching for something bigger, and that’s only too clear on the sound of this latest record.

On the titular opening track, the group display an unsettling, Kubrickian edge as Chatten croons “Maybe romance is a place” over imposing, piercing instrumentals.

At times, it feels like this bigger sound is that of a band triumphantly gunning for the big leagues too, cementing their place as generational greats. It’s shown on that aforementioned rock-star verve of ‘Starburster’, but the searing ‘Death Kink’ — an examination of toxic relationships — feels like one of the best songs that Chatten has ever written.

As the album closes too, ‘Favourite’ feels like the closest thing they’ve ever managed to a driving song. We mean this entirely in the positive sense; it’s the kind of softly melodic, hook-laden number that could be paired nicely with a sun-soaked trip through the country, windows fully down, of course.

All of which is to say this: Fontaines D.C. have abandoned the serious for the fantastical, the tangible for the surreal. This new identity and successful quest for something, ahem, BIG, suits them down to the ground. They’re in a brilliant world, and indeed a league of their own” – Rolling Stone UK

Key Cuts: Romance/In the Modern World/Favourite

Standout Track: Starbuster

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

Release Date: 17th May

Label: Domino

Producers: Beth Gibbons/James Ford

Review:

“Stylistically, Lives Outgrown approaches folk music, thanks to its acoustic guitars and strings; but it feels denser, louder, and more exploratory, like stumbling across a junkyard deep in the forest. Unusual textures abound: In “Tell Me Who You Are Today,” producer James Ford (of Simian Mobile Disco) strikes piano strings with metal spoons; for another track, he and Gibbons spin whirly tubes over their heads, in search of the perfect creepy tone.

Melodies of endless melancholy and lyrics of pointed depth, reminiscent of Gibbons’ work with Portishead and (briefly) Rustin Man, her duo with Talk Talk’s Paul Webb, reflect the singer’s period of self-reflection. Lives Outgrown has moments of crushing relatability, as she tackles subjects like motherhood, anxiety, and menopause, her unvarnished humanity a world away from the otherworldly rage she inhabited on Third. “Without control/I’m heading toward a boundary/That divides us/Reminds us,” she sings on “Floating on a Moment,” striking a beautifully sparse rhythm and tone, while the opening couplet of “Ocean” (“I fake in the morning, a stake to relieve/I never noticed the pain I proceed”) distills years of dull suffering into two elegant lines. Her melodies are strong as iron: The elegantly inevitable “Floating on a Moment” and cathartic album closer “Whispering Love” are among the best songs that Gibbons has put her name to.

Gibbons’ voice makes comparisons to Portishead inevitable—and there is, perhaps, a tang of Adrian Utley’s spaghetti western guitar in the opening bars of “Floating on a Moment.” Occasionally, she makes veiled references to her past, with phrases that seem to mirror lines from elsewhere in her catalog. On the whole, though, the singer makes a concerted effort to outrun her musical history. Gibbons said that she wanted to get away from snare drums and breakbeats—both key elements of the Portishead sound—while recording Lives Outgrown, with the drum lines of collaborator Lee Harris (formerly of Talk Talk and a contributor to Gibbons and Rustin Man’s Out of Season) instead hammered out on toms and bass.

This percussive roll is complemented by an inconspicuously cosmopolitan mixture of sounds. Unusual groupings of instruments are packed into devious musical layers, like the viscid concoction of bass clarinet, bass, cello, Farfisa, harmonium, recorders, “fuzz flute,” violin, singing tubes, and bowed saw that is daubed over “Beyond the Sun”. This darkly sylvan stew has little of Portishead's cinematic high drama; its abstruse angles and woodland heavy metal are closer to Tom Waits’ discordant masterpiece Swordfishtrombones than the clean guitar lines of Out of Season. Gibbons also employs backing vocals for the first time, their sparing use bolstering, rather than radically altering, the album’s makeup, although the children’s choir and wobbly recorder on “Floating on a Moment” and “Beyond the Sun” give the two songs an unsettling air of innocence lost.

The arrangements, largely by Gibbons and Ford, luxuriate in the slightly unreal edge of music once removed. Much of the instrumentation (for example, the sweeping, almost Middle Eastern string lines on “For Sale”) could have been written at any point in the last century, although the rejection of the snare drum’s rebellious crack nudges Lives Outgrown into a parallel universe where rock’n’roll never really took root. Verses are punctuated by wild brass skronk (“Beyond the Sun”) and violins scrape across the percussive surface like nails on a blackboard (“Burden of Life”). These leftfield choices underscore the courageous and subtly unusual nature of Gibbons’ album” – Pitchfork

Key Cuts: Floating on a Moment/Lost Changes/Oceans

Standout Track: Reaching Out

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy

Release Date: 2nd February

Label: Island

Producer: James Ford

Review:

“Unapologetically flaunting an MO of gleeful maximalism at every turn, The Last Dinner Party’s hotly-anticipated debut album was never going to be a meek thing, but it’s hard to recall an opening gambit that greedily embraces every possible ounce of opportunity quite like ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’. If the primary spoils of major label backing are that the barriers to things like lavish string sections and world class producers (in their case, Arctic Monkeys’ go-to guy James Ford) are removed, then the London quintet have used their deal with Island to facilitate an album that dreams not just big but huge. It begins with a literal orchestral overture - 96 seconds of world-building that removes you from boring old reality and plants you into their version of Fantasia. Then, 11 tracks of similarly sky-high, grandiose ambition, that tie together lofty literary sentiment, cinematic sweeping theatricality and killer melodic indie hooks with an equal affinity for each.

It’s this unlikely balance that is The Last Dinner Party’s greatest trick. A band composed of both classical and alternative musicians, they knit the two sensibilities together in ways that sound like little else. Recent single ‘Caesar on a TV Screen’ might be the only modern pop song to reference Leningrad and the Red Scare, but it’s also all sorts of fun, switching up time signatures and styles from bombastic chest-puffing to a cheeky ‘60s shuffle. Early highlight ‘Burn Alive’ begins with tense, ‘80s gothic drama before exploding into a rousingly defiant chorus; ‘Beautiful Boy’ makes use of woodwind and an Oscar Wilde-like sense of romanticism; ‘Gjuha’ sees keyboard player Aurora Nishveci singing in Albanian, while it’s frontwoman Abigail Morris’ natural sense of vocal melodrama that’s likely earned them a fair whack of Kate Bush comparisons.

Dangling the carrot right through to the record’s closing moments, they leave breakout debut ‘Nothing Matters’ until the penultimate track. But it’s a holy trinity of brilliance in that single, the roaring rock opera of ‘My Lady of Mercy’, and ‘Portrait of a Dead Girl’ that sees out ‘Prelude…’s final third in truly ecstatic fashion. The latter track in particular serves up crescendo after crescendo; nestled between the band’s two finest singles, it’s even better than either of them.

If Wet Leg’s globe-conquering debut showed that it was still possible for an indie band to reach the dizzying heights of yore, then the success of The Last Dinner Party feels like one step further; proof in an age of algorithms that a completely singular band can beat them all and come out on top without diminishing a shred of their vision. If their debut is only the ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, then it’s truly thrilling to imagine what they could dream up when they reach the real meat of their career” – DIY

Key Cuts: Caesar on a TV Screen/Sinner/Nothing Matters

Standout Track: The Feminine Urge

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Taylor Swift at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

The Digital Mixtape

Taylor Swift at Thirty-Five

_________

THERE are not many…

big artists’ birthdays at this time of year. Not significant ones anyway. I wanted to focus on the incredible Taylor Swift, who turns thirty-five on 13th December. Perhaps the biggest artist in the world,. I have compiled a playlist featuring many of her hits and some deeper cuts. One of the most inspiring live performers and best songwriters of her generation, Swift has achieved so much over the past few years. Such a remarkable talent who seems to get better with every album. Before I get to that playlist, I am bringing in a biography of Taylor Swift:

“Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream, becoming an enduring pop culture icon and conquering the world in the process. Swift shed her country roots like a second skin, revealing that she was perhaps the savviest populist singer/songwriter of her generation, one who could harness the zeitgeist, make it personal and, just as impressively, perform the reverse. These skills were evident on her earliest hits, especially the neo-tribute "Tim McGraw," but her second album, 2008's Fearless, showcased a songwriter discovering who she was and, in the process, finding a mass audience. Fearless wound up having considerable legs not only in the U.S., where it racked up six platinum singles on the strength of the Top Ten hits "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me," but throughout the world, performing particularly well in the U.K., Canada, and Australia. Speak Now, delivered almost two years later, consolidated that success and moved Swift into the stratosphere of superstardom. Her popularity only increased with her next three albums -- Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017) -- and found her moving assuredly into a pop realm where she already belonged. Even when she scaled back her approach with 2020's stripped-down sibling releases folklore and Evermore, she remained at the top of the pop world, a position she maintained with re-recordings of her back catalog along with albums like 2022's chart-topping Midnights and 2024's The Tortured Poets Department.

This sense of confidence had been apparent in Taylor Swift since the beginning. The daughter of two bankers -- her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, worked at Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea, spent time as a mutual fund marketing executive -- Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in suburban Wyomissing. She began to show interest in music at the age of nine, and Shania Twain wound up as her biggest formative influence. Swift started to perform regularly at local talent contests, eventually winning a chance to open for Charlie Daniels. She learned how to play guitar and began writing songs, signing a music management deal with Dan Dymtrow; her family relocated to Nashville with the intent of furthering her music career. She was just 14 years old but on the radar of the music industry, signing a development deal with RCA Records in 2004. Swift sharpened her skills with a variety of professional songwriters, forming the strongest connections with Liz Rose. Taylor's original songs earned her a deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, but not long after that 2004 deal, she parted ways with Dymtrow and RCA, all with the intent of launching her recording career now, not later.

Things started moving quickly once Swift came to the attention of Scott Borchetta, a former DreamWorks Records exec about to launch Big Machine Records. Borchetta saw Swift perform at a songwriters showcase at the Bluebird Cafe and he signed her to Big Machine in 2005; shortly afterward, she started work on her debut with producer Nathan Chapman, who'd previously helmed demos for Taylor. Boasting original song credits on every one of the record's 11 songs (she penned three on her own), Taylor Swift appeared in October 2006 to strong reviews and Swift made sure to work the album hard, appearing at every radio or television event offered and marshaling a burgeoning fan base through the use of MySpace. "Tim McGraw," the first song from the album, did well, but "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song" did better on both the pop and country charts, where she racked up five consecutive Top Ten singles. Other successes followed in the wake of the debut -- a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (she lost to Amy Winehouse), stopgap EPs of Christmas songs -- and Swift concentrated on delivering her sophomore set, Fearless.

Appearing in November 2008, Fearless was certified gold by the RIAA in its first week of release, and the record gained momentum throughout 2009, earning several platinum certifications as "Love Story," "White Horse," "You Belong with Me," "Fifteen," and "Fearless" all scaled the upper reaches of the country charts while "You Belong with Me" nearly topped Billboard's Hot 100. Along with the success came some headlines, first in the form of an infamous appearance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards where her acceptance speech was interrupted by Kanye West, who burst on-stage to declare that Swift's rival Beyoncé deserved the award more, but her romances also started gaining attention, notably a liaison with Twilight star Taylor Lautner, who appeared with the singer in the 2009 film Valentine's Day.

Her flirtation with the silver screen was brief, and she poured herself into her third album, Speak Now. Released in October 2010, Speak Now was another massive first-week smash that refused to lose momentum. Hit singles like "Mine" and "Mean," which won two Grammy Awards, played a big factor in its success, not just on the country charts but on pop radio as well. Following a 2011 live album called World Tour Live: Speak Now, Swift turned toward following a pop path on her fourth album, hiring such mainstream musicians as Dan Wilson, Butch Walker, and Britney Spears producer Max Martin. This mainstream pulse was evident on "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," the first single from Red. Upon its October 2012 release, Red shattered expectations by selling over a million copies in its first week, a notable achievement that was doubly impressive in an era of declining sales. Once again, Swift's album had legs: it was certified platinum four times in the U.S. and its international sales outstripped those of Speak Now. She supported Red with an international tour in 2013 and more hits came, including "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "22."

As Swift geared up for the release of her fifth album in 2014, she made it clear that 1989 was designed as her first "documented, official" pop album and that there would be no country marketing push for the record. "Shake It Off," an ebullient dance-pop throwback, hit number one upon its August 2014 release. When 1989 appeared in late October 2014, it once again shot to number one and became her third straight album to sell one million copies in its first week (a new record for any artist).

Swift gathered many awards in the subsequent year, including Billboard's Woman of the Year, the Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards, and a special 50th Anniversary Milestone Award from the CMAs. Her 1989 World Tour included Asia, North America, and Europe during the last half of 2015, and she won three Grammy Awards at the 2016 ceremonies, including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video for "Bad Blood." At the end of 2016, she released "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," a duet with ZAYN from the soundtrack for Fifty Shades Darker. The single reached the Top Five across the world. Swift returned with her sixth album, Reputation, in November 2017. Preceded by the number one hit single "Look What You Made Me Do," Reputation debuted at number one, and while it didn't replicate the success of 1989, the album did help underscore her popularity while also pushing her toward mature musicality.

Reputation was Swift's final record for Big Machine. In November 2018, she signed with Universal Music Group, which distributed her new albums under its Republic Records banner. The first album under this contract was Lover. Released in August 2019, Lover was preceded by two singles, "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down," which both reached number two on the Hot 100 and helped push the album to number one. The acclaimed LP and two of its singles received a total of three nominations at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

Swift's plans to support Lover with a tour in 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With some unexpected time on her hands, she wrote and recorded a new set of songs, many in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of the National; Bon Iver and longtime Swift associate Jack Antonoff also contributed. The resulting album, folklore, was released in July 2020, and went straight to the top of the Billboard 200. Less than five months later, Swift released a companion album to folklore called Evermore. Featuring many of the same collaborators as its predecessor, the Grammy-nominated Evermore debuted at number one upon its December 11, 2020 release. Altogether, the sibling LPs planted Swift atop the U.S. charts for a combined 11 weeks, and folklore became the best-selling album of 2020.

In 2021, she began the process of re-recording her back catalog after her Big Machine masters were sold off in 2019, starting with 2008's Fearless. The first of these tracks -- "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" -- arrived that February, with Fearless [Taylor's Version] arriving in April. The new version of Fearless contained cameos from Colbie Caillat, Keith Urban, and Maren Morris, along with several previously unheard tunes originally written during the same time period; it debuted at number one on Billboard upon its release. Swift next revisited Red, releasing Red [Taylor's Version] in November 2021. Another chart-topper, this revamp of the 2012 album featured new duets with Phoebe Bridgers, Chris Stapleton, and Ed Sheeran, along with a ten-minute version of the ballad "All Too Well." Another re-recording, "This Love (Taylor's Version)" (originally off 1989), arrived in May 2022 and was included in the soundtrack to the coming-of-age drama The Summer I Turned Pretty.

At the same time she was revisiting her past work, Swift opened up another chapter in her career with the October 2022 release of Midnights, an album co-produced by Jack Antonoff and featuring a duet with Lana Del Rey on "Snow on the Beach." A moody, electronica-tinged album loosely conceptualized around songs the singer purportedly wrote in the middle of the night, Midnights topped numerous global charts, including the Billboard 200. In late 2022, she also had a supporting role in the David O. Russell film Amsterdam, and sales of her ensuing tour broke the record for the most concert tickets sold in a single day. By early 2023, Swift's career-spanning efforts had converged when she took home the Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Film for her ten-minute version of "All Too Well." Soon after, on Valentine's Day, she released Lover Live from Paris, which captured highlights of a September 2019 performance at the Olympia on limited heart-shaped vinyl.

Next up on the re-release schedule was Speak Now [Taylor's Version], which arrived in July 2023 with six additional songs that were written for but not included on the 2010 LP. Fall Out Boy and Paramore's Hayley Williams, both cited influences for Speak Now, appeared on two of those songs. That year, Swift also commenced her record-smashing, critically-acclaimed international stadium jaunt dubbed The Eras Tour. The extended journey -- spanning over 150 shows -- was so profitable and in-demand that Swift released Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in cinemas worldwide at the end of the year. Before 2023 was over, she also moved forward in her re-release series with 1989 [Taylor's Version], a revision of her pop-minded fifth album from 2014. As with many of the re-releases, the set included multiple previously unreleased songs from the same time, as well as re-recorded versions of some of Swift's biggest hits.

In early 2024, Midnights won the Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year, helping Swift make history by being the first artist to win the latter award four times. During her acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Album, she announced the April 2024 release of her next record, The Tortured Poets Department. The songwriting-focused album featured 16 new tracks, with each of four different physical editions featuring a different 17th bonus track. The album included guest features from Post Malone on the song "Fortnight" and Florence + the Machine on "Florida!!!" Just two hours after the album was released into the wild, Swift announced its expansion into a double album, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. Topping charts in over two dozen territories, it remained at number one in the U.S. for months, just as Swift continued the Eras Tour across Europe”.

Ahead of her thirty-fifth birthday on 13th December, I wanted to shine a spotlight on the brilliant Taylor Swift and her catalogue. One of the most impressive in music history, I know many fans will mark her birthday a matter of days before Christmas. If you are a fan or not, you will find much to enjoy in this Digital Mixtape. Here is a birthday playlist featuring tracks from…

A modern-day icon.

FEATURE: Stargazing: Does the BBC Sound Of Give Enough Spotlight to Newer Artists?

FEATURE:

 

 

Stargazing

IN THIS PHOTO: Ezra Collective

Does the BBC Sound Of Give Enough Spotlight to Newer Artists?

_________

IT is exciting…

IN THIS PHOTO: Chappell Roan

at this time of year, as we get the shortlists and longlist of artists tipped for success the following year. Most music websites and magazines project their forecast. They compile lists of artists who they deem worthy of following. There are bigger and established acts, though you get a good amount of upcoming artists. The BBC Sound Of 2025 has been announced. There has been a division of opinions when it comes to the names announced. I know it only one poll and list, though it is telling that a lot of their artists are more established rather than new. Although the BBC Sound Of poll is not exclusively for new artists, it should clear more way for fresh blood. One might argue that ‘sound of’ is not exclusive. It is an artist who is going to define the year ahead. There does need to be a division between artists making big strides and those newer artists who are worth seeking out. It seems this year’s list of contenders is not as fresh and unknown as previous years. Though, if you look back through previous years, you have to ask whether the BBC should be doing more for newer acts:

“BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025 longlist has been announced, with breakout stars like Chappell Roan and Barry Can't Swim joined by newcomers including Myles Smith and Good Neighbours.

The award is given to rising artists with "the best chance of mainstream success" in the next 12 months. Past winners include Adele, Sam Smith, Michael Kiwanuka, PinkPantheress and Haim.

Last year's winners, The Last Dinner Party, went on to score a number one album and a Mercury Prize nomination for their debut release, Prelude To Ecstasy.

This year's longlist also includes indie band English Teacher and Northern Irish rap act Kneecap. The winner will be announced on BBC Radio 1 and BBC News in January.

The 11 acts in the running are:

• Barry Can’t Swim

• Chappell Roan

• Confidence Man

• Doechii

• English Teacher

• Ezra Collective

• Good Neighbours

• KNEECAP

• mk.gee

• Myles Smith

• Pozer

The nominees were chosen by a panel of more than 180 music industry experts and artists including representatives from Spotify, the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC; as well as musicians such as Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa, Jorja Smith, The Blessed Madonna and Sam Smith.

US pop star Chapell Roan is the clear frontrunner, after an electrifying year that saw her go from Olivia Rodrigo's backing vocalist to breakout pop star.

Rejecting the trend for whispery bedroom pop, her songs are full of cheerleader chants and exuberant hooks that document her coming of age and the discovery of her sexuality.

Last week, she was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including best new artist and album of the year, for her debut The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess.

Also hotly-tipped are London jazz ensemble Ezra Collective, who won the Mercury Prize in 2023 for their soulful and ebullient album Where I'm Meant To Be”.

It is a shame that there were not one or two more spaces for acts that have perhaps had less exposure as larger artists such as Confidence Man, Ezra Collective or Barry Can’t Swim. I would have thought there would be one or two more women in the shortlist. One can certainly see why Chappell Roan was longlisted. She is one of the biggest artist in the world at the moment and she is creating a lot of conversation. You would put good money on her winning easily. I wonder about some other choices. English Teacher are a smart choice and should take one of the top three placings. It is hard selecting artists that make the longlist. There is so much debating and discussion. It is a tough choice as you are going to exclude some many people and can never please everyone! Although there is some vital new energy and some lesser-known artists in the running, I do worry that the top three will be filled out by artists who have already been around for a while and are perhaps not going to ‘define’ next year. I did think that a group like FLO might make the cut. There are many artists I could add to the mix, but you have to respect it is impossible to really get a true impression of artists who will define 2025 when you only have eleven spots. However, there has been some consternation and backlash against the longlist. How there are popular artists taking up space that could be reserved for newer artists who are going to break through next year.

In their article from yesterday (20th November), CLASH highlighted how bizarre the eleven names are. A random list with only three names that could be seen as new. They ask what is the purpose and point of the BBC Sound Of longlist each year when they are not interested in representing and highlighting newer artists. Established and already-popular artists do not really need to be on a list like this. It creates this monopoly that needs to be addressed:

“Ezra Collective are on there – a Mercury-winning jazz group who CLASH have supported for almost a decade across three studio albums. Having sold out London’s OVO Wembley Arena a matter of days ago, do they truly need that spot? Barry Can’t Swim is on there. Nominated for the Mercury, the SAY Award, and a BRIT, he caused a road-block at Glastonbury and sold out O2 Academy Brixton three times over without breaking a sweat. By what metric is he ‘new’

Then there’s mk.gee, who has been making music for a decade; English Teacher, who won the Mercury live on BBC 6Music a few weeks back. Confidence Man, who are now building their fourth studio album, and Chappell Roan – who is already a globally recognised icon, a figure re-shaping culture.

It’s a truly bizarre list. Indeed, the only artists who might genuinely be considered ‘new’ or ‘emerging’ are UK rap trailblazer Pozer, Myles Smith, and viral pop duo Good Neighbours. That’s essentially three names, from 11.

That isn’t to say the music picked is bad, per se. CLASH have supported each and every artist on this year’s Sound Of 2025 list – from gaelic rap vagabonds Kneecap through to Stateside queen Doechii. It’s more than the long-list placed the platform as a whole into sharp context – what is the Sound Of poll even for, anyway?

The reactions online have been equally strong. “Did you publish last year’s list by mistake?” asked one wag on social media. Terry Charleton said “this is a joke” while another user summed it up: “It was always supposed to be about championing new acts who hadn’t had a breakthrough yet… instead we’ve got festival headliners and multiple Mercury Prize winners. What a joke!

Ultimately, CLASH fully understands that predicting the year in music is a fool’s errand – critics are waiting with the same barbs year-on-year. It’s just that this list makes no sense at all – it doesn’t serve anyone, least of all emerging artist. Furthermore, it has to be seen against a broader context – less and less music is coming through. If we look at the BBC, the shrinking of their Introducing strand means its undeniably effective (and often inspiring) new music champions are hamstrung. DJ, label owner, and conversation starter Elijah has also pointed out the flaws in 1Xtra’s programming, with the drive-time schedule more interested in revisiting Lil Wayne & Chris Brown hits than championing homegrown talent.

There is a chokehold on new music in this country – the BBC Sound Of poll feels broken”.

I will round up very soon. Before that, NME also published a feature that collated some fan response to the latest BBC Sound Of list. Perhaps the most divisive in many years. It is clear that next year’s list needs to redress big issues this year. We do not need award-winning artists to be so heavily represented. If the BBC are keen to foster new artists who could make waves through the coming year then they need to stop being lazy and make easy picks of big artists who are obvious going to be successful next year – as they are already successful! It is quite worrying:

“Following the announcement, fans have been taking to social media to weigh in on the list – with many arguing that while the artists are all of a high calibre, a number of them have already experienced significant success, and that they hoped to see newer names highlighted.

“’The Sound Of list has a strong track record of predicting future superstars..’ by picking acts that have – checks notes – had films out at the cinema, headlined Wembley Arena, been nominated for numerous Grammys, won the Mercury Prize,” wrote Benefits on X/Twitter. Another agreed in the comment section, writing: “Does that mean that headlining Wembley is now just a stepping stone on the path to fame and glory? I always assumed it was headlining the Dover Castle in Camden.”

“Every single artist on the BBC Sound of 2025 list is already doing pretty well. This is their most lazy list yet,” a third shared, while another added: “Sad to see the Radio 1’s full Sound of 2025 longlist. It used to champion new acts & at least half of these are well established.

"The Sound Of list has a strong track record of predicting future superstars..” by picking acts that have – checks notes – had films out at the cinema, headlined Wembley Arena, been nominated for numerous Grammys, won the Mercury Prize.

“I thought the inclusion of Peggy Gou on last year’s list was a bit embarrassing, but sheesh the Sound of 2025 list is utterly insulting to any genuinely new act who HASN’T won a Mercury or spent four months at Number Two. It’s sending out a really shitty message too,” someone else wrote”.

It is sad that a longlist that should be all about including exciting new acts has been attacked because it is tired and seemingly interested mostly in big artists. The random mixing of artists. There does not seem to be as much thought and logic from this year’s longlist as there should be. You know Chappell Roan will win. Even if English Teacher win, they have a Mercury Prize, so there seems to be this entry requirement that you need to have won an award or be established to win! The few new acts on the longlist will be out of the medal places. It is clear that the BBC need to do better…

IN 2025.

FEATURE: An Underrated Festive Treat: Kate Bush’s Christmas Special at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

An Underrated Festive Treat

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Them Heavy People for the 1979 Christmas special, Kate

Kate Bush’s Christmas Special at Forty-Five

_________

I have covered this programme before…

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

so I will try and approach this from another angle. Let’s start with some of the fact. The Christmas special, Kate, was broadcast on the BBC on 28th December, 1979. I wanted to look ahead to its forty-fifth anniversary. I am going to be busy posting other Kate Bush features near Christmas, so I felt it only right to find some room for this wonderful episode. Although it was broadcast a few days after Christmas in 1979, it was recorded in October 1979. Many overlook or criticise the special as it is not quite like a true live performance. Bush finished up her run of dates for The Tour of Life in 1979. This was seen as a final engagement of the year. An encore perhaps, albeit in a very different setting and with less of an impact. It is clear Bush did not want to mount something huge for Kate. It was more low-key than her extraordinary tour. Many have highlighted a few numbers as being a little odd. Perhaps the look or choreography leaves them cold or confused. Some of the performances are pared-down or lesser versions of the ones that were mounted for The Tour of Life. Recorded out of Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham with choreography by Anthony Van Laast (who can be seen in the video for The Wedding List playing the groom). The Wedding List was one of the numbers not recorded at Pebble Mill Studios. It was recorded at Nunhead Cemetery in South London. I will come to some takes on Kate Bush 1979 Christmas special. As it is almost forty-five, it needs to be reappraised and back on T.V. I hope that the BBC re-run it this year to mark the anniversary. The thirteen-song set consisted of a mix of cuts from her first two albums. Songs that would appear on 1980’s Never for Ever, The Wedding List, Egypt and Violin, got an outing and di add something new to proceedings. There were guests spots from Peter Gabriel. It was one of the earliest times the two worked together. Bush would appear on a couple of later Pete Gabriel albums and she would take to the stage with him again. Gabriel performed at a tribute show for Bill Duffield during The Tour of Life. He was a lightning technician who sadly died during the warm-up gig.

It was nice that Gabriel was given a quite big role. One of the most affecting moments of Kate was when he and Bush covered Roy Harper’s song. Another Day. A gorgeous moment that could have been released as a single. I think there are many highlights from Kate. Granted, there is not much of a festive theme. Although ‘The Angel Gabriel’ is a nice nickname and appropriate one for Peter Gabriel during a Christmas special, we were treated to a live performance of December Will Be Magic Again. That song was released as a single in 1980. Many people first heard the song during that Christmas special in December 1979. Are there any lowlights from Kate? Maybe a real feeling that there is no audience. Something canned and artificial. I am not sure about logistics and practicalities, but one feels that it is just Bush performing to an empty studio. Also, a few songs that you hoped would make the cut. Blow Away (For Bill) could have featured. Maybe even a cover of a Christmas classic. A rare outing for Ran Tan Waltz – a B-side for Babooshka in 1980 – is a delight but has a someone unusual choreography. It is trying to be cute and fun but does not fit the song’s somewhat cheeky and sexual lyrics. It is a bit of a misfire. However, alongside the duet on Another Day, there are huge highlights. Bush performing a beautiful version of Symphony in Blue. December Will Be Magic Again too. The fact that it is another Kate Bush live performance – albeit it one vastly different from The Tour of Life – is to be treasured! I will end with reasons why we need to celebrate and re-evaluate Kate ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary.

I am going to bring in articles that have explored the extraordinary-yet-divisive 1979 Christmas special. Weird and wonderfully Kate Bush, The Cut shared their opinions of Kate in a 2020 piece. I am glad that people have written about it, even though there is a note of confusion:

“The 1979 Christmas special is also significant because in many ways, it’s Kate’s departing gift to fans — a bow atop a year that would mark the end of her concert career for the next three decades. Like anything with the notoriously private singer, the more information I try to find on this special, the more questions I ultimately end up having. Why, for instance, did Kate think it was appropriate to perform a murder-suicide ballad for a holiday show? Who at the BBC approved this to go on air? How does she pop out of a garbage can so effortlessly in skin-tight leather pants? And does she even know what a Christmas special is? Do we?

But this is why I keep coming back to the Kate Bush Christmas special, year after year. The desire to conform to the cookie-cutter — and completely unattainable — Christmas ideal unleashes my inner control freak, but I never stop to ask myself why I want this version of the holidays in the first place.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1979 for her BBC Christmas television special, Kate/PHOTO CREDIT: TV Times/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Even her one Christmas song is a wink to this idea. In “December Will Be Magic Again,” she sings with childlike yearning for the idyllic Christmas. “The white city, she is so beautiful, upon the black-soot-icicled roofs,” Kate coos. It’s a beautiful image, the dusting of pure white snow, falling like the haze of nostalgia to cover the tarnished memories we’d rather forget. But Kate knows it’s a pipe dream. And she gives us permission to let it all go.

Her Christmas special feels especially relevant this year, as normal has never felt more out of reach. It would be easy to give into a collective sense of despair as we enter an uncertain winter. But when I watch Kate roll around on the floor, fake blood dripping from her lips as she gleefully shoots a hole into the chest of her lover’s murderer, I am embraced by the warm comfort that things will be okay. Even if this holiday isn’t what we envisioned, it doesn’t make it any less special — all we need is to give ourselves the space to get a little weird”.

In 2019, Medium marked forty years of Kate with an in-depth look at the special. An interesting song-by-song examination. I want to bring in their view of several of their songs. In case you wonder, their ellipsis at the end of Another Day refers to Egypt. It is true that there are some bizarre staging choices for some songs. Egypt and Ran Tan Waltz. Less large-scale and ambitious as her 1979 tour, we get more intimate and perhaps repetitious versions of Them Heavy People and Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake. However, I love every moment because it all makes this fascinating and hugely watchable whole. The fact that it happened at all. The lack of a Christmas theme. Or many Christmas songs at all. It is a shame more people have not written about Kate:

“Ran Tan Waltz

Is this a Christmas song? No.

Is this a song about death? Not that I know of!

Is it unreleased? Yes. It would later be released as a B-side for “Babooshka” in June 1980.

A direct quote from my notes: “Kate Bush invented adult babies”

Speaking of bizarre tonal shifts, Kate is back — now in drag as a man — to sing “Ran Tan Waltz” with her wife and their adult baby. The choreography here is bonkers, wonderful, and really physically involved. She’s constantly getting picked up and thrown around, which causes her to lose both her beard and her hat, and by the end of the performance she’s no longer Kate Bush in drag as a man, but rather just a slightly disheveled Kate Bush in a vest.

December Will Be Magic Again

Is this a Christmas song? YES! This is undoubtedly, without a question, a Christmas song. Don’t get too excited though, because this is literally the only one in the whole special.

Is this a song about death? No.

Is it unreleased? Yes, it would be released in 1980.

A direct quote from my notes: “This song is really beautiful”

THIS IS A CHRISTMAS SONG!!! And a damn good one at that — I had never really appreciated how nice of a song this was until re-watching this special. Really gorgeous melodies here, and the piano arrangement paired with the jingle bells is really lovely! Good job, Kate. I’m sure we won’t be getting another bizarre tonal shift following this lovely Christmas song, right.

The Wedding List

Is this a Christmas song? No.

Is this a song about death? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT IS!!!!!

Is it unreleased? Yes, it would be released in 1980 on Never For Ever.

A direct quote from my notes: “She follows a Christmas song with a song about two murders and suicide!!!”

Kate follows her nice little Christmas song with the unreleased banger “The Wedding List.” Kate’s wearing a very wild wedding dress, and we cut back and forth between pre-recorded footage of her husband getting shot on their wedding day and in-studio footage of Kate plotting and enacting her revenge on the murderer. At the end of the song, her now-reanimated dead husband lifts her in the air and she dies in his arms. Merry Christmas!

Another Day (duet with Peter Gabriel, Roy Harper cover)

Is this a Christmas song? No.

Is this a song about death? No, but it’s depressing as hell.

Is it unreleased? No, it’s a cover of a 1970 Roy Harper track. Gabriel and Bush had plans to record and release it at some point, but never did.

A direct quote from my notes: “I don’t know what to say about this”

Peter Gabriel comes back to perform a duet of Roy Harper’s “Another Day.” It’s not a Christmas song, but it is an extremely depressing song about reflecting on What Could Have Been with a former lover. Peter and Kate really sell it, performing both the past and present versions of the couple. It’s a beautiful performance, but it’s hard not to laugh when you remember that a) this is ostensibly a Christmas special and b) it’s proceeded by “The Wedding List” and followed by, well…”

Many Kate Bush fans are unaware of the 1979 Christmas special. I admit that it does have its downsides. The hollow feel of the audience. The limitations at Pebble Mill compared to The Tour of Life. The fact it is a smaller and less spectacular set compared to gigs Bush performed earlier in 1979. However, there are so many great things. Peter Gabriel featuring and almost stealing the show. A televised set for those who could not see Kate Bush play live. The Wedding List is a real standout. Such a shame it was not released as a single from Never for Ever. Apologies if I have repeated myself. I have written about Kate a few times now. Because it has received criticism and bafflement from many, it does deserve more love ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary on 28th December. It is a magical, wildly eccentric and varied show that would have been well received by Kate Bush fans.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Paddy Bush in discussion whilst working on 1979’s Kate

A great way to end 1979, it still creates fascination and discussion all these years later! I do hope the BBC have a space for Kate this Christmas. In terms of releases, I am not sure it will come out on DVD. I would like to see an HD or 4K version on YouTube. There are some behind the scenes photos from the special, but having more written about if and getting words from Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Anthony Van Laast, Paddy Bush (her brother featured most notably during The Wedding List) and the dancers (Gary Hurst and Stewart Avon-Arnold). I have a lot of respect for Kate. I am curious what Bush thinks of it now. If she ever does! During such a whirlwind period of her career, I guess Kate was something that was forced on her to an extent rather than it being something Bush was passionate about. Graeme Thomson writes about Kate in his biography, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. He likes some moments but feel it is not a career highlight. That is fair. However, the brilliant and often beautiful Kate is well worth watching. Despite its lack of Christmas songs it does feel Christmas-like to me. It is a treasure I will defend and love…

FOR the rest of my life.

FEATURE: A New Director’s Cut: What Will Future Kate Bush Visuals and Videos Entail?

FEATURE:

 

 

A New Director’s Cut

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

What Will Future Kate Bush Visuals and Videos Entail?

_________

I cannot say with any profundity…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

that I know how Kate Bush thinks and where her ideas come from. In terms of music videos or how she wants her photos to look. I am going to look ahead to the possibility of an eleventh studio album and speculate what direction Bush could head in. For many upcoming features, I am looking back to her debut album, The Kick Inside, Wuthering Heights (its first single) and the years before 1978. Really going back to the start and spending some time looking at Kate Bush the teen prodigy. It is important to explore that as we head into a new year. It does seem likely that we will be graced by a new Kate Bush album in the future. She dropped that little bombshell, sort of, when speaking with Emma Barnett for BBC Radio 4 recently. Rather than this being evasiveness, you do get the feeling Bush wants to bring us new music. In terms of what that could entail, I will go into it for another feature. In terms of the sounds, themes and even personnel. However, I have been thinking about the visual aspect. What was notable from 2005’s Aerial onwards is how Bush has promoted those albums practically invisibly. We got generous reviews and plenty of words from her for Aerial, Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow (both 2011). For Aerial, there were some promotional photos shot by Trevor Leighton. For her 2011 albums, some nice shots from her brother, John Carder Bush. The icon not hiding her face away or shying from photography. Although she guards her privacy fiercely, she knows she has to have promotional photo taken. It is part of the campaign and extension of the album itself. Whilst Aerial’s photos didn’t have a particular theme, it was just nice seeing Kate Bush’s face! For Director’s Cut, there was more of a concept. Bush very much in the mode of a director. Examining a roll of film. One where she was hugging a cat (not a directorial duty but it was cute!) and there was this distinct tone, colour palette and feel. For 50 Words for Snow, alongside Bush in some artic gear looking very snug, she was shot ‘conceiving’ songs and in this directorial mode still. A creator and visionary. That trusted bond with her brother and that creative collaboration that has existed for about sixty years now. I do imagine that he will take photos for her if there is indeed another album coming.

ALBUM PHOTO COVER CREDIT: John Carder Bush

I can’t see Bush wanting to work with too many other photographers. We will have to wait for a title before we get any impression of what direction the photos might take. Whereas her early career saw her mixing album promotion shots with press photography and various different shoots, that has been limited since 2005. Fewer new photographers and working with the same photographer for the most part. I imagine John Carder Bush would be in her mind for all future promotional images. Though she might take a chance on a new photographer. In terms of the album visuals, more and more, I predict Bush will not include her own face. The last album where we did see her face was 1989’s The Sensual World. With her mouth covered by a flower, The Red Shoes in 1993 featured only feet…in red shoes. Aerial was a waveform of a blackbird song. Director’s Cut was an image of some film, whilst 50 Words for Snow is a woman kissing a snowman. It is an image inspired by one of the album’s songs, Misty, where a woman enjoys a tryst with a snowman after which she wakes find a puddle of water in her bed the following morning. Perhaps more intriguing and varied than simply having an image of Kate Bush on the cover, there is that feeling of the album covers being less personal and more to do with the music. I can appreciate Bush wants to keep the music about the music. There have been no press photos of her for quite a few years. I think about ten years or so. The year she took Before the Dawn to the stage and picked up an award for it too. Bush was nominated for 2012 BRIT Awards as Best British Female Solo Artist, but lost to Adele. She also made her first public appearance after a decade years, picking the South Bank Sky Arts Award in the Pop category for 50 Words for Snow. It has been a bit of a gap since we have seen her at an event or photographed by the press. Ten years in fact.

I think promotional interviews are likely to be very similar to how they have been for her latest albums. We will not see Bush in the flesh or on T.V. Not even a filmed podcast. Though it would be nice to see her filmed and speaking with BBC Radio 6 Music or BBC Radio 4 from a studio or great location, I feel it is more likely she will be at home and it will be audio-only. I will delve more into that side with a feature about a possible new album. I am in speculation mode. You can’t blame me! Kate Bush has always been innovative when it comes to music videos. If she winces at some of the early videos – around 1978 through 1979 – and feels that they are not representative of her, she can be very proud. They are moving and memorable because she is in them! A presence that is instantly magnetising and mesmeric. I think there was a turning point from Army Dreamers/Breathing onwards. Two singles released from her 1980 album, Never for Ever, you could see her videos becoming more cinematic. Bush learning from every shoot to the day she would direct her own videos. From Hounds of Love on, we saw Bush put her stamp on videos. She had assisted and co-directed prior to directing the video for Hounds of Love’s title track. You could feel a distinct colour palette. With nods to directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Bush expanded and broadened her vision. I love the videos for The Big Sky, Experiment IV, The Sensual World and This Woman’s Work. Bush also directed Eider Fall at Lake Tahoe in 2012. That was a video for an edited version of Lake Tahoe – taken from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. In terms of her video output, she has lent more into animation that live action. She did appear in King of the Mountain in 2005. That was the only official single from Aerial. The video was directed by Jimmy Murakami. Bush was conscious about her looks and weight and, as such, has not appeared in her videos since.

She did direct the video for Deeper Understanding (from Director’s Cut) in 2011. That was not hugely acclaimed and, though ambitious, is pretty odd and messy. I have said that before. However, Bush did also direct the video for Little Shrew (Snowflake) that has just been released. It is a magnificent animation that ranks alongside her best work. You can read more about it here. Working alongside illustrator Jim Kay, what was released – a video to raise funds for War Child – is a masterpiece that stirs the emotions. It has just won several awards at the International Film Festival at Cannes. I do feel Bush wants to work more with animation in the future. Even though the latest video took a lot of time, the fact Bush has directed a couple of animated videos already suggests she is comfortable in that medium. It means she does not need to be in the video and is not limited by imagination or budget. Able to create something extraordinary and cinematic for less money than it would cost to shoot live. I love how she is a big fan of music videos and always wanted to see The Ninth Wave (from Hounds of Love) visualised. That was brought to the stage in 2014 but could well be visualised in the future. Maybe she will continue to archive and make animated videos for some songs from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. I do assume any future Kate Bush video will either be animated or feature other actors. In rather pretentious and self-indulgent fashion, I am going to end with a video concept. One that does not have a song attached to it but would be a slightly large-budget video inspired by filmmaker Michel Gondry. The reason I bring this up is because Bush has always been a visual innovator. Whether it is her album covers or videos, as a director, she very much explored ideas beyond the cliché Pop videos and what here peers were doing. Directed by Julian Doyle, the video for Cloudbusting (from Hounds of Love) is dazzling and unique. Some of the moment on the short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve show Bush is a direct who can produce jaw-dropping moments. Her video for Little Shrew (Snowflake) is a work of wonder!

This is someone who will release more music and very much have visuals in mind. As Bush loves vinyl and has gone to great lengths to reissue her albums and ensure they reach new people, she will put so much effort into the album cover and the vinyl itself. Whether it is another animated cover or one that is more photographic but does not feature her, I am not sure – though the former seems more likely. I do feel it is a long shot we will ever see Kate Bush appear in one of her videos again. Perhaps too conscious still about her looks and that niggling self-conscious voice that was an issue when she was filming Aerial. I do think animations will feature heavily through any music videos she provides from now on. Bush is a magnificent director across multiple mediums and visual styles. I know we will get promotional photos but, as a new album is likely to have only one single released – and, therefore, one video -, it does beg the question as to what it might entail. I think Bush is one of these artists who still loves making videos. How important they are and how they connect to music. As such, I do wonder whether she will indulge in a video that is filmed rather than animated. This is purely self-indulgent, but I have recently written about how music videos are not as innovative as once they were. Maybe it is budget constraints or a feeling videos will not be seen and are not as lucrative, popular or even necessary as they were decades ago. It is a shame music is becoming less visually-minded and we are seeing fewer groundbreaking videos and few genuinely standout album covers. Kate Bush is an artist who could have a big budget and would still engage with music videos. Taking them somewhere genuinely new. I also wrote in that feature how we are not seeing pioneering video directors like Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze emerge. I had a video ideal combining his work on Beck’s Deadweight, Björk’s Bachelorette and more specifically Cibo Matto’s Sugar Water.

It is odd to search for a song that a video goes with. Having the egg before the chicken! I sort of feel like it would suit a five-minute song similar to Arcade Fire’s Ready to Start. However, it is an adaptable concept I feel would perfectly suit a Kate Bush song. I also think that it could open a film adaptation of The Ninth Wave. Something I am determined to see come to life. So this video idea might well be the opening sequence before cutting to the first scene. Maybe a director like Roxana Baldovin or even Michel Gondry could direct. It would be a wonderful new direction for Bush. The idea would feature a film director making a movie and a woman going about her life who wants to be an actress. It would be shot in New York and the left-hand side of the screen is the filmmaker putting together the film in December 1985 (or completing it then, at Christmas). The action would be reversed, so that we start from the final scenes and completion and work back to the very start – as he searches for his lead actress. We see the end of the film an actress accidentally killed by a falling piano. The video would sync the left and right sides of the screen similar to that of Sugar Water. On the right is the actress whose life is going forward. It would start in June 1985 and would work to September in the final scene, where the screens merge and the two meet in a café called Michel’s, where upon they would put together two scarps of paper. The director’s says ‘Thank God’ (his note referring to the fact the actress dies) and the woman’s says ‘I found you!’ (referring to a suicide note that mentions her unborn child). They would then hold hands and smile as people take away parts of the café set which are actually small chairs and props (thanks to forced perspective). The twist is that the woman will be the actress who eventually dies but she is pregnant and wants to start a new life. We wonder whether this is a dream the director had or is it hers? Also, what is real and what is not. Almost like Christopher Nolan directing a music video! In the same way as this treatment is me searching for a song to go with the video, the woman is trying to find a very specific film role based on her experiences and desires. The point is that the filmmaking is quite mundane and ordinary and her life is extraordinary and film-like. There would be the occasional crossover between left and right screen where a jogger, people on the street and car accident would crossover and merge.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ali Pazani/Pexels

At the start, we see a huge action scene or bustling street that looks like a movie but is the woman’s real life. There is a camera filming a film that is comparatively boring. The video would have humour. Sign gags and visuals jokes (drug references and 1980s nods; a vat of morphine that ays ‘Property of John Candy’) together with some physical comedy, some genuine horror, suspense, romance and genuine emotion. The woman is pregnant and wants to build a life for her child. She is carrying around a letter that might be a suicide letter but changes her mind. Her life is too hectic and she wants to escape into the fantasy of the film world. The letter becomes damaged and tears. A dog tries to snatch it near the end. The film director has a script that is being re-written according to the action in the right of the screen. As he tears pages and gets rid of some, that affects the action in the woman’s life. The same with her letter and the film. The film is about a woman who has a boring life and wants to find excitement. The reverse of the woman’s life. There is this symmetry and connection between both sides of the screen. A point in the middle where the characters both stop and there is action behind them. The camera swings to the right on the left-hand side and goes to the other side and the camera on the right swings to the left as we see a brief shot of someone asleep. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference and key to the video. Like eyes blinking. The camera swings referring to eyelids opening and closing again. Nods to directors like Spike Jonze and a taxi driver with a cow’s head (a reference his video for Daft Punk’s Da Funk). There is a moment outside an abortion clinic. The woman visits a music shop and puts on a vinyl of the (Kate Bush) song that is playing and listens to it as words from the song appear on the wall in the street that she runs past. Both sides of the action end in September 1985 (the month Hounds of Love was released, which will be referenced in a comical way) and the woman has got this message to meet the director. The director needs to reshoot his film but the woman does not know the fate of the other actress. Is it the same woman but the dead woman is her and the action is her dream? They both sit at a small table and have scraps of paper that they put together and we close in on them merging to say, ‘Thank God I found You!’. It then pans back up as they smile and the set is cleared and we fade. Is it a dream or was it part of the film? It is very Michel Gondry-esue in terms of layers. Rather than these being single-take scenes, Gondry’s influence would be in terms of the editing and leaning heavily on the video for Sugar Water and similarities to videos for Beck, Björk and even Lucas (Lucas with the Lid Off).

It is essentially me coming up with a specific video that would suit a particular sound and hoping Kate Bush comes up with it! To be honest, the treatment could fit a Kate Bush song. However, if she does go in the same direction as she did with 50 Words for Snow, then it may be a challenge! However, as she wants to do something different, you never know! What I do know is that she will still put a lot of emphasis into music videos. She has directed some stunning ones. I do hope that she takes a visit to live film again and shoots directs or conceives of something great. In my treatment idea, I wanted the woman to be played by U.S. actor Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and the film director by Donald Fagen (Steely Dan). Bush is a Steely Dan fan and it would be a fun combination. With reference to other videos such as Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, Childish Gambino’s This Is America and Weezer’s Buddy Holly, it would be ambitious! I would like to think Kate Bush would be into something like that. It depends whether the music would fit the idea. Maybe destined to have an interesting five-minute video treatment go unclaimed. If I knew how to make music and had a large budget – probably at least £100,000 – then it would be worth it. No matter. The point of this feature was to cast ahead and think about Kate Bush as a visual artist. Someone who always has been an innovator and visual thinker. The videos she has appeared in and directed have been these incredible pieces of cinema. Even the earliest videos have this real sense of wonder and beauty. I do like how she is still directing and spend so much time on the Little Shrew (Snowflake) video. Someone who puts so much effort into getting the look of a video right. So much story and brilliant images.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan in 2018/PHOTO CREDIT: We Are The Rhoads for Variety 

I love how Bush’s love of films has worked its way into her music which then goes into her own videos. That exciting possibility that a new single might come at some point. What will the song be and how will the video go? What will it encompass? Maybe it will be another animation or Bush will direct a live action video with her own concept? Perhaps she will work with a new director and charge them to direct something based on her treatment. It seems unlikely Bush is going to appear in anymore videos. That is a pity but you can see why she might not want to commit. Instead, we could get something radical and boundary-pushing. I do worry that the art – and that word ‘art’ is very deliberate – of the music video has gone. Mainstream artists can afford bigger-budget videos but they are not using that money to do much truly innovative and mind-blowing. Smaller artists can do a lot with a smaller budget but their videos do not get as many views so less impetus to do anything that inventive. We do need more major artists looking at the classic videos and trying to equal them. Kate Bush, if and when she does give is new music, could very well do that. Create a video that stays long in the mind. Whether because of it intricacies and layers of a beautiful simplicity that is affecting and singular. Bush is this stunning filmmaker so my hopes are high for the future. This tantalising and hugely exciting possibility for…

A new director’s cut.

FEATURE: A Match Made in Chelsea: Does Kate Bush and Rosalía Being Seen in a Studio Mean New Music Is Coming from the British Icon?

FEATURE:

 

 

A Match Made in Chelsea

Does Kate Bush and Rosalía Being Seen in a Studio Mean New Music Is Coming from the British Icon?

_________

THIS may be the rumour mill…

IN THIS PHOTO: Rosalia in 2022/PHOTO CREDIT: Mariano Regidor

working overtime, but there has been a sighting of Kate Bush in a studio with Rosalia. It seems like an unlikely partnership and it does not effectively and obviously suggest the two are working together. However, and I have it on good faith, that this studio is Studio 13, which is located on Latimer Road in Chelsea, London. It is unlikely that someone would mistake Kate Bush for another woman. Even at sixty-six, she is recognisable from her old self. Not a case of any ordinary human being mistaken for Kate Bush. Bush has a place in Chelsea I believe. It could well be a case of Kate Bush visiting the studio for another project. Whilst the odds are long, Rosalia – who is a Spanish artist who released the Spanish-language album, Motomami, in 2022 – and Kate Bush could be working together. There have long been rumours and talk that Bush and Big Boi have recorded something together. He keeps teasing it but I am always sceptical as to whether anything has actually been laid down! Maybe Bush does not want it out there until she releases new music. It does seem odd that these two disparate artists would be spotted together. It could have been Bush being seen near Rosalia at the same time, not necessarily them together. However, as it is unlikely that it was mistaken identity, it does create some ripples of excitement. I heard people react to the news saying Rosalia would not be in Bush’s radar. The assumption she does not keep up with modern music and has no idea who someone like Rosalia is. That would be ignorant and presumptuous. Since Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was used in Stranger Things and she has reached new territories and gained a huge new American following, she would have no doubt some more into contact with a lot of contemporary artists.

It may be the case Bush was simply visiting the studio. It would seem random is she was popping in with no eye to recording music or planning it for the future. It is true that Bush has not collaborated with many female artists. Aside from some personnel for her live shows and recorded music with the Trio Bulgarka and Mica Paris, I can’t think of many occasions where she has had women on her albums. Starting out in the 1970s, it was rare to see female musicians in studios. Apart from the artist in question, I mean. Most female artists worked exclusively with men. Studios were run by men and collaborations, when they did happen, mostly involved men. Bush grew up influenced by male musicians and the influence of her two brothers, Jay and Paddy. Also, Bush did not want to be influenced by female artists and was not very keen being compared to contemporaries like Carole King. However, things have moved on since then. Bush seems to be much more open as an artist when it comes to working with others. Whilst we want a new album to be as collaboration-free as possible, Bush uniting with contemporary artists like Rosalia would be amazing! A fan favourite collaboration would be between Bush and an admirer of her work, Björk. The two would sound phenomenal together! It is all speculation at this moment. Many also said Bush would not want to work with any modern artists. Nobody can speak for her or assume this based on history. Nobody knows what a new Kate Bush album would be like or whether she would work with other artists or go purely solo.

I can’t get over this rare sighting and the questions it raises. If it is indeed Kate Bush in Chelsea at a studio unlisted and hard to find, this does suggest future ambitions. A couple of other questions have been asked. When Bush spoke with Emma Barnett for Today recently, she did say she was keen to work on something new and had lots of ideas. Was this her saying that to please fans or the hope that people would not ask that question anymore?! It would seem foolhardy and naïve to think this was lip service. If she had no plans to release new music then she would be evasive and do what she has done previously when asked this question: say she had nothing planned and leave it at that. The fact she did say she was excited to look ahead at new music is all but confirmation that it will happen. There is also the question as to how far along she has come in the process. Many think a vague announcement means Bush has yet to write songs and is wrapping things up. Others, including author Graeme Thomson, suggest Bush sparking that tantalising thought of an eleventh studio album means she has already cultivated ideas and is a way through the process. Maybe not everything written ready to record. At least not at the blank page stage. I do think that Bush has an eleventh studio album in mind and she has started work on songs. Next year could well be the year we get the announcement we never thought would come: that the one and only Kate Bush has blessed us with new music! I always assumed she would record at her home studio and would work with musicians and personnel that have worked with her previously. However, you can never predict Kate Bush! One thing we can be sure of is that nobody should assume anything.

Many thought that Bush taking to gardening – when she spoke with Emma Barnett in 2022, Bush said she was really into gardening – was a sign of retirement. Fans of Bush know gardening has been a source of creativity and productivity for her. Nobody predicted that we would randomly get a new interview, a video (Bush released Little Shrew (Snowflake), which she directed and released to raise money for a charity she has worked alongside before, War Child) and there would be this potential for a new album. Listen to that interview and her tone is genuine. Not a woman trying to shrug off the question or in two minds. It is unlikely nothing new has been written since 50 Words for Snow. When interviewed about that album in 2011, Bush said she had more than enough ideas for a second album like that. In a future feature, I will explore what a new album might sound like and what sounds/themes will be explored. What is significant about Studio 13 is that it as founded by Damon Albarn. The Blur frontman also leads Gorillaz. Kate Bush mentioned the band in interviews previously (I heard her say that she bought a Gorrilaz album when she was promoting 2011’s 50 Words for Snow) and it might well be the case both artists are collaborating with Gorillaz on a new album. Rosalia did shout-out Kate Bush at the 2018  GRAMMYs, so it made me think Bush was working with Rosalia on a new album. However, it may seem more likely that Bush has contributed to a potential new album from Gorillaz. All guessing at the moment! I don’t think she would be spotted at a studio like that unless she was working on something in there.

Perhaps it is more likely original material from Bush would be done at her home studio and would be a less collaborative effort. Bush has worked with others in the past. Most of her collaborations in the past were in the 1980s. Working with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Roy Harper. She has contributed to tribute albums and worked with artists such as Prince and Big Country on their studio albums. Over the past few decades, there has been previous little in the way of Kate Bush cropping up on other records. This new flash of possibility has got fans excited. We cannot safely assume anything as of yet, though this confirmation Bush has been at Studio 13 with Rosalia is quite an exciting proposition! She would want privacy and people not pressing her on what she is doing there. However, as Kate Bush fans desperate for new material or any sign of her voice being on a record, one cannot help us but to dream and speculate! She herself recently said how she has been archiving and how she now has lots of ideas for something new. Who knows when that will arrive and what form it will take. For now, this potential match made in Chelsea does strongly suggest Bush is appearing on someone else’s album. More likely Gorillaz’s than Rosalia’s. Maybe it was just a visit and she wanted to see the studio or was invited by Damon Albarn. What could come. This inside scoop has got people excited. Rosalia fans think Bush will appear on her album. Many think it is for a Gorillaz album. It could all be simple enough: Kate Bush was in the area and wanted to scope the studio out for a future possible recording. However, so soon after saying how she has lots of ideas, it seems unlikely it is a coincidence. Lucky number 13 in Chelsea! This small and off-map studio. We will all have to patient, as Bush would not like to have anyone put it into the ether anything is confirmed. It is all rumour and what-ifs! However, she will forgive her fans for being excited and letting our imaginations run away with us! I am sure Kate Bush will update us when the time is right. Until then, we will all wait…

WITH bated breath.

FEATURE: Kate Bush, From Three Different Perspectives… Gathering Together Guido Harari, Gered Mankowitz and John Carder Bush

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush, From Three Different Perspectives…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978 (in the ‘Hollywood’ shot)/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

Gathering Together Guido Harari, Gered Mankowitz and John Carder Bush

_________

THESE three…

IN THIS PHOTO: A young Kate Bush (Cathy) photographed by her brother, John Carder Bush (this image is available in his book, Cathy)

kings I have named above all have a different relationship with the divine Kate Bush. Guido Harari is someone who captured Kate Bush at an interesting period in her career. From around 1982 through to 1993, Bush had produced her first album solo (The Dreaming) and then went on to release her masterpiece, Hounds of Love, in 1985. By 1993, she was in her mid-thirties and her sound had changed. She was about to go on a career hiatus. Capturing those transformations, events and changes would have been fascinating for Harari. Wall of Sound Gallery have a link where you can buy The Kate Inside. Many of Guido Harari’s wonderful photos of Kate Bush that show unique and beguiling sides of her. In 2016, Harari was interviewed by The Guardian about an extraordinary decade shooting Kate Bush:

“Any other star,” says Guido Harari, “would have gone crazy. They’d have probably thrown me out.” It was 1am one night in 1989 and the Italian had been photographing Kate Bush non-stop for 15 hours. “We hadn’t eaten. We weren’t really talking. Just shoot, costume change, more makeup, shoot, costume change, more makeup, shoot.” You worked in silence? “Yes. It was like we had telepathic communication.”

Bush had asked Harari to do the official photo shoot for her new album The Sensual World. And then, in the early hours, Harari had a bright idea. “I thought she looked like the figurehead of a ship. So I would make her look as though she was swimming towards the camera underwater.”

Harari decided to create this image by shooting Bush in a Romeo Gigli dress in front of a rented painted backdrop that looked like a Pollock painting. Then he would ask her to step out of the shot, rewind the film on his Hasselblad camera and shoot the backdrop again, making it look like she was a swimming through a submarine world of drips and blobs.

And then he had another idea. Why not have two images of Kate Bush on the same frame? “And then I thought: why only two Kates? Why not three Kates – all swimming in the water? She had to stand really still so she wouldn’t go out of focus because I was using a wide aperture, so there was no depth of field. She had to walk out of the shot, then back in, stand very still, and do the same again. I knew it was going to be great but it was going to take time and patience – and you don’t get either often from famous people when you’re photographing them.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on a trampoline in 1993 during filming of The Line, the Cross and the Curve/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Isn’t that when her PR minder should have intervened and said: Guido, enough already? “Well yes! But there was no minder. She was never part of what she called the machine.” As we chat, Harari shows me shots from his new book The Kate Inside, which documents his 10 years photographing the British pop star. It shows her wearing a T-shirt that says: I am a prima donna. “My God,” he says. “I’ve worked with some real prima donnas, not to mention any names. She wasn’t one of them.” Indeed, there is a copy of her handwritten thank you note which says: “You’ve made me look great.”

Harari has made his name over the years with disarmingly odd images of musicians. Leonard Cohen asleep on a little table before a huge painting; Tom Waits strutting in an improbably voluminous cape; Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed in a moment of tenderness, her nuzzling nose disappearing into his open shirt. Harari was a Kate Bush fan from the first time he heard her first single, Wuthering Heights, on the radio in 1978. “She was a pioneer, especially in Britain where no solo female artist had had a number one-selling album until she came along. And you had the sense that, despite her wistful manner, she had balls of steel.”

The photographer first met her in 1982 in Milan, when she was promoting her album The Dreaming. In the book he describes his first impressions: “Beautiful golden eyes, pouty lips, a big mane of hennaed hair.” Bush and her dancers had just come from a TV studio. “She was wearing what looked like decaying astronaut gear,” he recalls. “I had my equipment with me, so I asked them to improvise. What amazed me was how she switched. She seemed to be this shy girl then suddenly this wild beast came out. ”

In Milan, Harari showed her proofs for a new book he was making about Lindsay Kemp. The choreographer had trained the teenage Kate Bush in the mid-1970s, becoming a mentor to her, as he had been for David Bowie. “So my book was like a calling card – showing her that I understood where she was coming from artistically.”

Choreographer Lindsay Kemp, with Kate Bush in curlers, during the filming of The Line, The Cross and the Curve. Photograph: Guido Harari

Three years later, Bush called, asking if he would do the official shoot for her album Hounds of Love. “I went to meet her at her parents’ farmhouse in Kent. She had built a 48-track studio. One thing that really struck me was that there was no glass between the control room and where the musicians recorded. It was a place of silence and retreat from the rock’n’roll world. She had no desire to go to parties or be famous. Instead, she had her family around her. Her father was her manager and her brother had taken photos for her previous albums.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

For the Hounds of Love shoot, Bush told Harari that she would bring clothes that would be brown, blue and gold. “Nothing else! No other clues! So I got some backdrops I thought would go with those colours, and at 8am she turned up at the studio with her makeup woman and a few outfits and we went to work.”

Most of the photographs in Harari’s book have never been seen before. “There are lots of outtakes. What would happen is, at the end of the day, I’d have hundreds of rolls of film which I’d edit and then send to Kate. She’d send, say, four images to the record company. What nobody has seen until now is the progress through the day’s shoot. They really give a sense of her. The way she’s goofy one minute and then posing the next.”

After doing the photography for Hounds of Love and The Sensual World, in 1993 Harari was asked to be the stills photographer for her 50-minute film The Line, The Cross and the Curve starring Miranda Richardson, Lindsay Kemp and Bush, and showcasing songs from Bush’s album The Red Shoes. “It was a great invitation because I could be a fly on the wall. No fancy set ups, just me recording what was happening.” He’s particularly proud of his shot of Bush asleep on set in her curlers with Kemp posing behind her head. “I know she was disappointed in the film, she maybe thought it was a flop - not commercially but for her. So the photos were never published.”

That shoot marked the end of their collaboration, but there could have been another chapter. In 1998, Bush phoned Harari and asked if he would photograph her with guitarist Danny McIntosh and their newborn son, Bertie. “I said, ‘No. This is a private moment, keep it as it is”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993 whilst filming The Line, the Cross and the Curve/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Before moving to the second incredible photographer, we get new perspectives and angles from this Amateur Photographer interview with a masterful photographer who took some of the most iconic and enduring images of Kate Bush. Bringing something out of her that nobody else has or ever will. It makes me wonder whether we will get promotional photos of Kate Bush when she does release her eleventh studio album. Will it be her brother, John Carder Bush, who is charged with that?! Guido Harari’s collaboration with Kate Bush is truly astonishing:

“How did you end up collaborating with Kate Bush?

I had a chance to meet Kate when she was promoting The Dreaming, her fourth album, while she was in Italy. I showed her the book and she was very excited by it and agreed to be photographed. So that book started the whole collaboration, which I had with her for ten years.

What was Kate like to work with?

When she called me up in 1985 to do her official promo photos for Hounds of Love, I was surprised to find that she didn’t want to explore any major concepts. She was very impressed with the photos I’d taken of Lindsay, which were very natural photos, not contrived or too posey, so she wanted me to capture something authentic; she didn’t want me to turn her again into a diva or icon, she wanted me to find a different approach.

She would come to the studio, just with her make-up artist and a bunch of clothes and no major briefing, nobody around like managers or agents, so it was really like shooting a friend. Not much conversation – total concentration. Her focus was incredible. We would shoot for 12 or 15 hours straight. It was amazing.

Kate Bush is famous for being obsessive about having full control of everything that she does, but I had the feeling she would let me go as far as I wanted to go.

So a lot of the photographs were unplanned beforehand?

Yes, that’s basically how it was. She would just bring clothes that she felt comfortable in, you know, a kimono, some casual clothes, some very colourful things that had a nice texture, and it was very much improvised. It was very much ‘let’s use these key elements and see how far we can go’. That happened on the 1985 shoot for Hounds of Love and in 1989 for The Sensual World, and then the last shoot from that period was in 1993 on the set of the film The Line, the Cross & the Curve.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush taking a nap during the filming of The Line, the Cross and the Curve in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

What was it like being on the set of her film?

That was the most memorable opportunity I had with her, as she had stopped performing live during her first tour in ’79, so to be on the set of her film gave me chance to take performance shots and also to do some reportage, like I had done with Lindsay.

Again, she didn’t restrict me in any way. I was able to shoot everything I saw, which was very unusual for her, and in the end we had an impressive amount of photos. That part of my archives of Kate has never been seen, as she retired for 12 years just after that, so the images became instantly became passé in a way.

What kind of director was she?

I have been on sets with Italian directors and unless you are the official photographer, you are always in the way of somebody so you feel like you have to beg to get pictures, but with Kate it was like, OK, you are free to do whatever you want.

I could sit very close to her with a wideangle and she would rarely look at the camera unless I asked her to, she was really natural. She was totally absorbed in her work because she was also not just acting in the movie but also directing. She had just two weeks to complete the filming. Then she wanted to edit it very quickly in order to bring the film to the London Film Festival, so there was a lot of pressure on that side.

But at the same time she had the ability to gather a group of collaborators around her, that she felt very comfortable with, so there was really no tension having to finish quickly, it was really free flowing.

What made you decide to publish your new book of your photoshoots with Kate?

The idea of the book came about twoyears ago when she announced new concerts for the first time in 35 years. We had a first show in London at the Snap gallery, with mine and Gered Mankowitz’s photos, who had shot the first two album covers.

There was a lot of interest in my work from the fans. We had published a small catalogue for the exhibition, but it was soon very clear that fans wanted more.

I thought I would use all the pictures from all the shoots and present them in a sequence to give people an idea of how a shoot can start very slowly, and then peak and go down, because we get tired, and then we’ll have another peak of creative energy and then it dies down. It’s a dynamic that you rarely get to see because photographers will offer their hero shots and forget about everything else.

It is also intersecting to see in a sequence of pictures how Kate would go from a laugh to a joke and then get her diva expression, and then all of a sudden crack up again with a joke and so you see moments that usually get discarded when you edit a photoshoot because they don’t promote the artist, but do make interesting events in the book”.

I am getting interviews from each of the three photographers before coming to an idea. The second I want to include is Gered Mankowitz. Through his partnership with Kate Bush was shorter – between 1978 and 1979 – than what Guido Harari enjoyed, his images are no less important. That debut album period. Capturing Kate Bush when she was just starting out. Shots that launched her into the world. His coffee table book, WOW!, like Harari’s The Kate Inside, is essential and I would advise people to buy it. I would recommend people listen to this BBC archive from 2015, where Gered Mankowitz discussed working with Kate Bush. He also photographed The Rolling Stones. An interview I have brought in before, Big Issue chatted with Gered Mankowitz in 2014 about his work with Kate Bush:

“I was brought in to create the launch image for Wuthering Heights and I think what makes Kate brilliant is her unique talent, her extraordinary energy, her vision – everything she does has a tremendous vision.

I remember her to be somebody who worked very hard. She was very young, 19, when it came out and she was wonderful to work with. Very energetic, very frenetic, quite difficult to tie down sometimes, to get her to focus on making an idea work, she wasn’t very experienced in having her photograph taken at that time, which was part of the challenge. But her individuality shone through.

I don’t think I had to draw it out of her, it was there, it was bubbling out of her. When I first went to the record company to discuss the session she wasn’t there but they played the video of Wuthering Heights that they’d made. It was quite obvious that she was a unique and special talent, not just because the music was so extraordinary but because of her individual look, her beauty and movement and style.

She had a really special quality, which stood out instantly on record and visually. I knew that I had to be at the top of my game to produce an image that was going to complement and support this extraordinary talent, and that’s what I tried to do. I always try to break these things down so that they are as simple as possible.

I had to be at the top of my game to produce an image that was going to complement and support this extraordinary talent

I only had a very loose connection with the record company. They already had a cover for the album The Kick Inside, but they didn’t have an image of Kate, it was quite obscure and it wasn’t as up-front of Kate as they wanted it to be. But I sense that they weren’t quite sure where they were going with her.

What they seemed very certain of was here was a unique and special talent and that they had somebody who was pure gold, but they were being led by her and I think that they weren’t sure who they were getting.

I wouldn’t want to suggest that she was in control of our session, but she was very much in control of the way she looked when she stepped out of the dressing room and I saw her for the first time ready for the camera I was blown away and knew it was going to be something special.

We did the very famous leotard pictures. I chose the leotards to make visual link with dance, that was the point of choosing and selecting them, I wanted to keep it extremely simple, I hope that in the portrait there would be a visual connection with dance which was clearly very important to her.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

During the same session we reproduced the image of Wuthering Heights that she’d recorded for the video because everybody wanted stills of that but in those days they just couldn’t take them from the film. She did the whole dance for me. [Big Issue: “Wow!” Gered: “Wow indeed!”]. The only thing I didn’t have was the dry ice she had in the video, but it was spectacular.

We did four big photo sessions together between January 1978 and March or April 1979 and dance was always very high up on the list and a lot of the pictures we did are her moving, her different leotards, leaping, spinning, dancing and expressing herself like that and that was so important and trying to capture that in a very graphic way.

She could just look at the camera you would melt. You sense that she was really special and felt Wuthering Heights was going to be a big hit and I know that EMI was going to really get behind it. What nobody knew was how huge she would be and how important.

I had worked with a lot of people who had become incredibly successful for one reason or another – The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, who had that same charisma and presence as Kate, as did Annie Lennox and Suzi Quattro. What you recognise is talent and charisma but that doesn’t necessarily turn into longevity.

We know you’re going to move from one single, one album to the next and hope that the artist and everything in their support structure around them is going to remain intact and supportive, and that the artist will build a fan base that is solid enough to support them.

The one thing that was very clear was here was a very individual and unique special artist. There’s always terrible pressure on people especially if your first record is a huge hit. I don’t think that any of her records have been as big as Wuthering Heights but she’s big enough, talented enough and clever enough not to be overwhelmed by the success.

She would appear to be completely in control of her career, and she’s managed to maintain her privacy. When she makes an appearance [in public] she’s thought about it, and considered it, and the response to it is always huge.

The one picture that in a way is inescapable is the pink leotard Wuthering Heights picture. It’s one of those pictures that become iconic and represents so much, and that doesn’t happen very often. It has a life of its own and it has energy. I think it’s a beautiful portrait of a very beautiful young woman.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

The Big Issue: There has been discussion over the years whether her sexuality was being exploited – depending how it’s cropped, it’s quite graphic…

Gered: It didn’t occur to me at that time that [the nipples visible in the full-length shot] would be a problem. I know that it was pretty edgy for the late ’70s but it wasn’t sort of discussed or thought about a great deal. That was how she looked and I wasn’t going to say to her “I think you should cover up”.

She looked absolutely gorgeous. I’m looking at a cropped version of it now and it still has all the power that it did then. Her breasts might have been titillating to a few young boys but her beauty and her serenity, her stillness are what really make this a special photograph.

She used her sexuality throughout her performance

She certainly knew what she was doing, that’s how she came out of the dressing room, looking like that, and there was no attempt by anybody to make her look like that. That’s what she looked like and I don’t think it’s exploitative at all. I think it’s very, very beautiful.

I’m the photographer and I took that picture, and I don’t see how I could have exploited Kate Bush. She was in control of it.

But she used her sexuality throughout her performance – look at the Babooshka video or any of the records and promotional videos and stills, certainly in those first three or four years of her career she was a very sexual person and I think that came across in the way she moved, looked and the way she sang.

For me that makes any discussion or debate about whether the picture was ‘exploitative’ redundant. She wasn’t like Miley Cyrus trying to draw attention to herself through her sexuality. She’s a very strong woman and as a strong woman you know that she’s aware of everything that’s around her and I completely reject any possibility that the pictures were exploitative, it reflects her beauty and her power and serenity, and her comfortableness with it.

The Big Issue: It’s such a direct portrait, you feel like you know her, her face looks so open but she’s not giving anything away, it gives you chills still to look at it now.

Gered: It often is the case that in the beginning when an artist makes a really profound impact it’s often their first moments that are sort of welded into the public consciousness and that’s one of the most gratifying things. Going back to my favourite image, I’m incredibly proud and thrilled to have been associated with Kate Bush at this early stage. It’s fantastic to hear you say that [above] about it”.

katebushnews.com · The Kate Bush Fan Podcast Episode 53 - John Carder Bush interview - Part One

John Carder Bush has the longest creative relationship with Kate Bush. As her brother, he began taking photos of her when she was a small child. You can see shots of Bush as a young girl. Although it is another expensive purchase, we do get these rare and heart-warmingly intimate photographs taken at and around East Wickham Farm – the family home where Bush resided until her career started to take off. You can also purchase KATE: Inside the Rainbow. It is a fascinating book that every Kate Bush fan should own:

“Stunning and unique images from throughout Kate Bush's career including:

Outtakes from classic album shoots and never-before-seen photographs from The Dreaming and Hounds of Love sessions

Rare candid studio shots and behind-the-scenes stills from video sets, including 'Army Dreamers' and 'Running Up that Hill'

Includes original essays from Kate's brother:

From Cathy to Kate: Describes in vibrant detail their shared childhood and the whirlwind days of Kate's career

Chasing the Shot: A vivid evocation of John's experience of photographing his sister

'For me, each of these images forms part of a golden thread that shoots through the visual tapestry of Kate's remarkable career. Storytelling has always been the heartbeat of Kate's body of work, and it has been a privilege to capture these photographic illustrations that accompany those magical tales' John Carder Bush”.

I want to come to my idea. Whether it is a podcast or a filmed episode, getting three photographers together who, between them, have taken dozens of images of Kate Bush and contributed massively to her career, would be a treat for fans! In 2017, Attitude interviewed John Carder Bush about a lifetime photographing his sister. That incredible access to someone he has shot as a child, right through to an older woman for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. I am sure the two are not done yet:

“But while Kate certainly steers the ship, there are a core group of creatives helping her to realise each aspect of her ambitious musical projects – from her epic 2005 masterwork Aerial, to last year’s spectacular Before The Dawn live residency.

Key in this inner circle is Kate’s older brother, the photographer and writer John Carder Bush. John headed the Kate Bush management team for twenty years and since her early childhood, and throughout her career, he has photographed his little sister both candidly and professionally. His images have appeared on album, single and magazine covers worldwide. That instantly iconic Hounds Of Love album cover? He was behind the lens.

To coincide with Before The Dawn, last year John published a new edition of Cathy, his collection of photographs of his younger sister as a little girl. What’s been sorely lacking, though, is a catalogue of this remarkably visual artist’s career to date. Until now.

Kate: Inside The Rainbow is a collection of beautiful images from throughout her career, from her early days pre-Wuthering Heights right up to her most recent album, 2011’s 50 Words For Snow. It includes outtakes from classic album shoots, rare studio shots and behind-the-scenes stills from video sets, plus many other candid shots from John’s years turning the camera on his sister.

Basically, Kate Bush fans: here’s your new bible. John Carder Bush himself tells Attitude about this amazing project, some 40-odd years in the making…

John, Kate – Inside The Rainbow is just gorgeous. Why did now feel like the right time to put a book like this together?

I think the timing of this book was dictated by the reprint of Cathy [last year]. So many people had shown an interest in that book long after it went out of print, and it seemed logical to see what would happen if I brought it up to date. Originally, when I published Cathy back in 1986, I had planned to do three books – Cathy, Catherine and Kate, but like so many ambitious plans, it never happened.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the photoshoot for Babooshka (1980)PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Let’s start with those earliest photos you took of your sister, the ones that formed the book Cathy. Was it a case of your little sister being an easy subject to practice on, or were you aware even in those early days that there was a ‘star quality’ to her?

In those days I had only just started to feel that the camera could evoke something I wanted to express about childhood and the world of the imagination that so many children live in. I was also excited by my personal discovery of the pre-Raphaelites and had started collecting illustrated books of the turn of the century, which nobody was interested in in the early sixties and could be bought for next to nothing. My little sister was the perfect model, and although I was pleased with the results, I don’t think I detected star quality – we were a long way away from the her future career; when you know someone so well and see them every day of your life, you just don’t notice that kind of thing, although looking at them now it is quite clear she had something special.

This feels about as close to an ‘official’ retrospective book of Kate’s career as we might get. What are her thoughts on it?

I first discussed the book with Kate back in the summer of 2014. The live shows then swept her away for a few months. When I had done a preliminary selection of photos and written the text, I showed them to her for her comments and I then worked with her final selection of images for the rest of the project. As I remember, she pointed out that she had ten ‘O’ levels, when I had put nine.

When you look through the images in the book, do you see changes develop as the years go on? There’s a sophistication that seems to really develop in Kate’s imagery from Hounds of Love onwards…

Yes, I agree. You can see the development in the sense that she becomes more expert at conscious projection, more confident in knowing what works and what does not, and I think the same thing applies to my photography.

One thing that strikes me, looking through the book, is her willingness to try different things – poses, props, costumes etc – in the pursuit of a great shot. Did either of you take the lead in those situations, or was it quite a 50/50 partnership?

I think this is dictated by two different things. With album and single shots, there is a very specific intention to project a persona that matches the songs; with promotional shots, variety becomes very important otherwise every session would have looked the same. With album and single sessions, Kate always had a very definite idea of what she wanted before she stepped in front of the camera and it was a question of trying to realise that in a photographic context.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011 for Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

In the book, you mention Hounds of Love being a favourite record – it’s the album with perhaps the most iconic artwork of Kate’s career. What is it for you that makes that album / period a particular favourite?

Hounds of Love seems to me to demonstrate the perfect combination of Kate’s power and ability to be able to operate successfully in the world of popular music, and at the same time create something iconic like The Ninth Wave that transcends the throwaway nature of the charts. I also had a lot more involvement with that album executively and creatively, and writing and performing the poetry section on the song Jig of Life meant that I had many happy memories of that time.

There is a big time gap in the book from The Red Shoes to Director’s Cut – eighteen years between photos. How had things changed when you went back to photographing Kate after all those years?

The big difference was that I was photographing her face and not her feet! But, seriously, nothing seemed any different except the machinery I was using; digital and not analogue. And, of course, she now had a son who was popping in to see what was going on, whereas it used to be the other way round.

I loved reading your thoughts on Before The Dawn – it was the sort of thing fans couldn’t really have imagined would ever happen. Do you have any idea where Kate’s headed next? New music, or a continuation of Before The Dawn perhaps?

The silence that usually surrounds Kate between projects in a ‘golden silence’, and out of that ‘golden silence’ always comes a golden nugget of creativity, like Before the Dawn. Let’s wait and see…

Before the Dawn was really the first big opportunity for many Kate Bush fans to interact, to feel part of a community. Have you had much interaction with Kate Bush fans over the years?

There has always been a very active and fertile fan scene around Kate and her music even when there has not been any new product for a few years. Kate fans are very dedicated people, and the depth and originality of her work has allowed them to maintain an ongoing dialogue with each other that is quite unique. Certainly, Before the Dawn was a wonderfully dynamic coming together of that energy, and sitting in the audience I could feel their love for her as an overwhelming presence. Over the years, I have developed some friendships with a few of her fans that I value highly”.

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

I will wrap up soon. We have heard words and perspectives from three incredible photographers. John Carder Bush and Gered Mankowitz working with Kate Bush from 1978 (and before). Although John Carder Bush did not take many promotional photos in 1978, he was involved with the album cover for Lionheart (1978). His pre-1978 photos and what he took of Kate Bush for her album covers and videos from Lionheart onwards are exceptional. Guido Harari came to Kate Bush later but got to chart one of the most important and interesting periods of her career. From The Dreaming through to The Red Shoes and The Line, the Cross and the Curve. John Carder Bush photographing Bush for her most recent album. Although there has been some interaction between the three photographers and each have provided interviews where they spoke about working with Bush and what that was like, it would be great to have all three together. Where they can bring their photobooks and shots. They can dissect and discuss working with Kate Bush. With John Carder Bush the most experienced, he could begin looking through the photos in Cathy. What it was like capturing his sister in the 1960s and beyond. Charting a period where she was unknown but obviously had something special about her. How that perspective and dynamic changed as he was photographing the Hounds of Love cover. Taking us all the way through to 2011, nobody else has the same legacy when it come to committing Kate Bush to film. I would like to hear more from Gered Mankowitz and his take. An experienced photographer by 1978, he has worked with some titans and music greats. It seems he got something from Kate Bush that he did not from any other artist in terms of the looks and magnetism. Some of his shots are truly fascinating and unforgettable. From the pink leotard shot that was going to be used for the Wuthering Heights cover to the black-and-white ‘Hollywood’ portrait, this is someone who shot Kate Bush as she was in her teens and then just in her twenties.

A remarkable series of photos where we can see Kate Bush grow and change. Mixing bold and energetic shots with more sensual, intimate and grounded, his portfolio is well worth exploring. He could also discuss his book and select some of his favourite photos. It would suggest a visual medium. A filmed episode where we could get some examination of these images. Bringing in Guido Harari, who got to photographer Kate Bush too during Hounds of Love. Alongside John Carder Bush, getting some remarkable images of Kate Bush. I especially love his photos from 1989 when The Sensual World was released. John Carder Bush also took some stunning shots then, so the two could swap notes. Those candid and behind-the-scenes images from The Line, the Cross and the Curve. I would also be intrigued to know what it was like on that set. Hearing from John Carder Bush about how the photoshoots unfold. How many notes his sister gives him. We could explore some of the studios and locations where the photos were taken. If there are particular cinematic or visual references that are in the photos. Whilst we examine Kate Bush’s albums and videos, few people take the time to discuss the photography. Images that are as powerful and meaningful as the music and visuals, they not only help to market Kate Bust and chart her evolution; they are also these time capsules and phenomenal images that will live forever. They tell stories and show different sides to Bush that you cannot get from her music, videos or interviews. Getting these experienced photographers together to talk about how it felt capturing Kate Bush at different times. How they feel about the images now. Whether John Carder Bush will take more photos of his sister. Fans old and new alike would benefit from a programme (or filmed podcast) where we hear about Kate Bush’s photographic allure from…

THREE points of view.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from Albums Turning Five in 2025

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Songs from Albums Turning Five in 2025

_________

SOME might say…

that the fifth anniversary of an album is not important. I grant you it is not as significant as a tenth anniversary, though it is still a milestone. I wanted to mark albums turning five next year. 2020 was that strange year when the pandemic began. As such, I think we related to albums released then differently to how we did before or after. We have a new connection and relationship with them in 2024. Artists unable to tour these albums, there were some fantastic works that gave us all a lot of strength and distraction. The final part of this run of features is all about the best albums of 2020. Some wonderful releases that turn five next year. Cast your mind back to that year where we were separated physically but music still kept us bonded. However strange and stressful it was, music was a real source of focus. As such, I think it is important to…

HIGHLIGHT the best of 2020.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from Albums Turning Ten in 2025

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Songs from Albums Turning Ten in 2025

_________

IN the penultimate…

part of this run of features that marks albums celebrating big anniversaries next year, it takes us to 2015. Albums that have tenth anniversaries coming up. Another strong year for music, that decade anniversary is quite big. There will be a few albums in the Digital Mixtape that you might not remember. Some obvious ones too that are modern greats. Make sure that you take a listen to the playlist below. It is packed with hugely memorable albums that arrived in the middle of the 2010s. Because they have big anniversaries coming along, I wanted to salute them. A host of simply brilliant albums, this is the best of the best from 2015. Let’s take a closer look and listen and flip ahead to next year to the finest albums…

TURNING ten.

FEATURE: Before Lifting the Needle… Ranking Kate Bush’s Best Album End of Side A's/Start of Side B's

FEATURE:

 

 

Before Lifting the Needle…

IN THOS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

Ranking Kate Bush’s Best Album End of Side A's/Start of Side B's

_________

THIS Kate Bush feature…

is back to an album rankings. Whereas before I have ranked her best album openers and closers, I don’t recall ever looking at the middle of the album. The best side A ends and side B starts. I think that Bush’s albums really succeed and speak when the tracks are in the right order. How hugely important sequencing is. I do feel like many people overlook this. I have celebrated her great album openers. How she can leave some superb tracks as closers. Now, and hoping I have not repeated myself, I am thinking about the end of the first side and the start of the second. I know that Aerial is a double album so has more than two sides, so I am just concentrating on the A and B side. The same for 50 Words for Snow. Although not a double album, it has two vinyl. It may seem obvious or like Hounds of Love would win. However, we are talking about two specific tracks. The way you end that first side before lifting up the needle to flip the vinyl. What greets you when you drop it back down. Fans will have their own opinions. It has been good to explore her discography for this feature and consider which albums are best when it comes to keeping you hooked. Finishing up the A side with a great track and keeping that momentum going. Maybe one or two albums not great in that respect, though most of them have strong cuts that mean you are exciting to hear what happens when you flip the vinyl. Here is my opinions as to the best side A-ending/side B-opening combinations. It would be good to…

HEAR your thoughts.

_____________

TEN

DIRECTOR’S CUT (2011): Lily (A)/(B) Deeper Understanding

This is harder to rank as Director’s Cut was re-recorded songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Many debate whether the originals are better or the reworked versions. In the case of Director’s Cut, there are a few songs I prefer to the original versions. Lily closed side A. I think that the version on The Red Shoes is stronger. However, the 2011 recording is really interesting and we get to hear Bush’s slightly older voice giving new life and meaning to the song. How she stripped it down and reworked this song. You have to give her credit for that. I hope that it means more people connect with the song and maybe go and listen to The Red Shoes. I feel Director’s Cut gets written off and is never viewed highly when critics rank Bush’s studio albums. Her ninth is not her strongest, though it has a few real gems that need to be celebrated and mentioned.

One of the most controversial reworkings on Director’s Cut is Deeper Understanding. The original is brilliant because it was futuristic when it came to seeing how technology would take over. With stronger production and a more effective vocal on The Sensual World, I am not sure whether Bush should have revisited the song in 2011. She also released the song as a single. The impact of the lyrics not as deep and effective then. The video is also quite weird and messy. Not her finest directing outing. It is a shame. I would have loved to have seen another song from the album released as a single. Maybe Lily or Never Be Mine. I would relish seeing videos for either of those songs.

NINE

THE DREAMING (1982): Leave It Open (A)/(B)The Dreaming

This is a case of sequencing perhaps not being perfect. Closing the first side of The Dreaming is the brilliant Leave It Open. One of the standouts, this was a period when Bush was experimenting more. Producing solo for the first time, I love all the levels and layers on Leave It Open. Another song – alongside Sat in Your Lap – about knowledge and the mind, it is fascinating reading what Bush said about Leave It Open:

“Like cups, we are filled up and emptied with feelings, emotions – vessels breathing in, breathing out. This song is about being open and shut to stimuli at the right times. Often we have closed minds and open mouths when perhaps we should have open minds and shut mouths.

This was the first demo to be recorded, and we used a Revox and the few effects such as a guitar chorus pedal and an analogue delay system. We tried to give the track an Eastern flavour and the finished demo certainly had a distinctive mood.

There are lots of different vocal parts, each portraying a separate character and therefore each demanding an individual sound. When a lot of vocals are being used in contrast rather than “as one”, more emphasis has to go on distinguishing between the different voices, especially if the vocals are coming from one person.

To help the separation we used the effects we had. When we mastered the track, a lot more electronic effects and different kinds of echoes were used, helping to place the vocals and give a greater sense of perspective. Every person who came into the studio was given the “end backing vocals test” to guess what is being sung at the end of the song.

“How many words is it?”

“Five.”

“Does it begin with a ‘W’?”

It is very difficult to guess, but it can be done, especially when you know what the song is about.
I would love to know your answers.

Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982”.

A title track many considered to be her weakest, The Dreaming did divide people when it came out. Released as a single that reached forty-eight in the U.K., many were put off by Bush adopting an Australian accent. Perhaps a little too inaccessible and un-commercial to make an impact, the politics behind the song were also questioned. Whether Kate Bush was qualified to discuss the destruction of Aboriginal homelands by white Australians in their quest for weapons-grade uranium. The fact that the song features Rolf Harris also leaves a bit of a black mark:

“Well, years ago my brother bought ‘Sun Arise’ [by Rolf Harris] and I loved it, it was such a beautiful song. And ever since then I’ve wanted to create something which had that feel of Australia within it. I loved the sound of the traditional aboriginal instruments, and as I grew older, I became much more aware of the actual situation which existed in Australia between the white Australian and the aborigines, who were being wiped out by man’s greed for uranium. Digging up their sacred grounds, just to get plutonium, and eventually make weapons out of it. And I just feel that it’s so wrong: this beautiful culture being destroyed just so that we can build weapons which maybe one day will destroy everything, including us. We should be learning from the aborigines, they’re such a fascinating race. And Australia – there’s something very beautiful about that country.

‘The Dreaming’. Poppix (UK), Summer 1982”.

EIGHT

NEVER FOR EVER (1980): Egypt (A)/(B) The Wedding List

This might be one case of less than brilliant sequencing. I think that Never for Ever is one of Kate Bush’s best albums. However, one of its lesser songs, Egypt, ends side A. I think that a song like All We Ever Look For or The Infant Kiss would have been a stronger way to finish the first side. However, Egypt is a good song. It is one that I like a lot but again divides critics. One of the overlooked tracks from Bush’s early career, we do to listen to it more. This is what Kate Bush said about Egypt and the story behind it:

“The song is very much about someone who has not gone there thinking about Egypt, going: “Oh, Egypt! It’s so romantic… the pyramids!” Then in the breaks, there’s meant to be the reality of Egypt, the conflict. It’s meant to be how blindly we see some things – “Oh, what a beautiful world”, you know, when there’s shit and sewers all around you.

Kris Needs, ‘Fire in the Bush’. Zigzag (UK), 1980”.

One of Kate Bush’s best songs period opens the second side of Never for Ever. Maybe similar in tone and nature to James and the Cold Gun, The Wedding List is much finer. It is a terrifically clever song about a bride who goes on a rampage after her husband-to-be is shot at the altar. It is a song of revenge. One of the highlights from Kate Bush’s 1979 Christmas special, I think it warranted the chance to be released as a single. It would have got a high chart placing for sure. I do think that this deep cut is one of her very best creations. In this interview, Kate Bush talked more about revenge and The Wedding List:

“Revenge is so powerful and futile in the situation in the song. Instead of just one person being killed, it’s three: her husband, the guy who did it – who was right on top of the wedding list with the silver plates – and her, because when she’s done it, there’s nothing left. All her ambition and purpose has all gone into that one guy. She’s dead, there’s nothing there.

Kris Needs, ‘Fire in the Bush’. Zigzag, 1980”.

SEVEN

LIONHEART (1978): Oh Enbgland My Lionheart (A)/(B) Fullhouse

Kate Bush’s second studio album does not have the same strength as her debut when it comes to the end of side A and the start of side B. However, it is still exceptional. With Oh England My Lionheart being a sort of unofficial and almost-title track taking us to the end of the first side, it is a strong and beautiful thing. A song that she performed for 1979’s The Tour of Life, this is a track that needs to be played more. Many think of Kate Bush as being quintessentially English. Even though she is half-Irish, her Englishness is often brought up. Even if she distanced herself from Oh England My Lionheart in years after Lionheart was released, around the time the album came out, she was talking about it as one of her favourites. You can see why. Parodied by Pamela Stephenson on Not the Nine O’Clock News and written by Peter Brewis, this is what Kate Bush said of the stunning Oh England My Lionheart:

“It’s really very much a song about the Old England that we all think about whenever we’re away, you know, “ah, the wonderful England” and how beautiful it is amongst all the rubbish, you know. Like the old buildings we’ve got, the Old English attitudes that are always around. And this sort of very heavy emphasis on nostalgia that is very strong in England. People really do it alot, you know, like “I remember the war and…” You know it’s very much a part of our attitudes to life that we live in the past. And it’s really just a sort of poetical play on the, if you like, the romantic visuals of England, and the second World War… Amazing revolution that happened when it was over and peaceful everything seemed, like the green fields. And it’s really just a exploration of that.

Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978”.

Fullhouse was partly autobiographical. Kate Bush said how it was hard for her to cope with feelings of fear, paranoia and anger. Maybe her getting everything out of her system, it is unsurprising that she was putting this into songs. With two albums released in 1978 and endless promotion, you get a real feeling of how Kate Bush was battling against stress and fatigue. Expected to write new material when she had little time. One of the new songs written for Lionheart, Fullhouse is a standout from the album. Though many critics feel it is one of the weaker numbers. Though for some reason the song has been renamed as Full House, I do prefer the original spelling. A song that deserves more love and is a great example of Kate Bush’s songwriting excellence, it is a brilliant way of opening the second side of Lionheart.

SIX

THE SENSUAL WORLD (1989): Heads We’re Dancing (A)/(B) Deeper Understanding

Many people do not know about Heads We’re Dancing. I do really love the song, though I can understand some people might have found it less appealing or instantly connectable as other tracks through The Sensual World. However, Heads We’re Dancing is a brilliant song to end side A of Bush’s sixth studio album. An underrated jewel that Bush discussed for a 1989 interview:

“It’s a very dark idea, but it’s the idea of this girl who goes to a big ball; very expensive, romantic, exciting, and it’s 1939, before the war starts. And this guy, very charming, very sweet-spoken, comes up and asks her to dance but he does it by throwing a coin and he says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” Even that’s a very attractive ‘come on’, isn’t it? And the idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror. What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening. And I think Hitler is a person who fooled so many people. He fooled nations of people. And I don’t think you can blame those people for being fooled, and maybe it’s these very charming people… maybe evil is not always in the guise you expect it to be.

Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1, 14 October 1989”.

A track not selected as a single first time around but was when it was re-recorded for 2011’s Director’s Cut, Deeper Understanding is another of Bush’s standout songs. Talking about the pull of technology and how it has power of it, this was prescient and spookily forward-thinking. Bush predicting how technology would dominate our lives. Here is some interview archive, where Bush discussed Deeper Understanding:

“Yes, it is emotional disconnection, but then it’s very much connection, but in a way that you would never expect. And that kind of emotion should really come from the human instinctive force, and in this particular case it’s coming from a computer. I really liked the idea of playing with the whole imagery of computers being so cold, so unfeeling. Actually what is happening in the song is that this person conjures up this program that is almost like a visitation of angels. They are suddenly given so much love by this computer – it’s like, you know, just love. There was no other choice. Who else could embody the visitation of angels but the Trio Bulgarka? [laughs]

John Diliberto, ‘Kate Bush’s Theater Of The Senses’. Musician, February 1990”.

FIVE

THE KICK INSIDE (1978): Wuthering Heights (A)/(B) James and the Cold Gun

There is no denying how strong The Kick Inside is. Opening with Moving and ending with the title track, it also boasts a brilliant end to the first side and start of the second. For all the tracklisting and details (what made up the side A and B (C and D for some albums), I have referred to Discogs. This is a single album but one filled with huge intent and unique brilliance. The teenage Kate Bush putting out an album in 1978 unlike anything around it. Perhaps one of the best incidents of album sequencing, we end that first side of the vinyl with the debut single, Wuthering Heights. It could have been the album lead-off track or second or third. Instead, it is the sixth track. Meaning you get this recognisable and very strong end to side A. It is also preceded by The Man with the Child in His Eyes. So both U.K. singles ending the first side. That beautiful duo on side A that means the listener is in a trance before lifting up the needle.

Opening the second side of the vinyl is a song that was considered as the first single for The Kick Inside, James and the Cold Gun. Often seen as one of the most conventional and ‘radio-friendly’ songs on the album, it is a contrast to Wuthering Heights. It provides a rush of energy and rawness. After that, there are love songs and numbers with a different energy. I do admire the sequencing on The Kick Inside. The strongest tracks are well-positioned to create the biggest impact. Even if James and the Cold Gun is not the most admired or strongest track on the album, it does mean you get a rush and something more accessible to open side B – after the strange and beguiling Wuthering Heights. It is a great partnership that means you are hooked as you go through the second half of the album. A song that is often overlooked and rarely played, I feel it is a great one. A track Bush was honing whilst playing with the KT Bush Band in 1977, it ensures that those buying and hearing The Kick Inside in 1978 (and now) had two golden tracks either side of the needle lift.

FOUR

50 WORDS FOR SNOW (2011): Lake Tahoe (A)/(B) Misty

Kate Bush’s latest studio album is seven tracks. Longer songs that allow for more space and light. Tracks that unfold and unfurl. More Chamber Jazz/Pop than conventional Pop or Art Rock, it was a new direction for Kate Bush. I also think that the sequencing on the album is perfect. 50 Words for Snow perfectly organised. We end side A with the wonderful Lake Tahoe. It is one of my absolute favourite songs from 50 Words for Snow. I would love to see a full-length animation for this song. It would be filled with some potent and memorable imagery. This is what Kate Bush said about the dark and haunting Lake Tahoe:

“It was because a friend told me about the story that goes with Lake Tahoe so it had to be set there. Apparently people occasionally see a woman who fell into the lake in the Victorian era who rises up and then disappears again. It is an incredibly cold lake so the idea, as I understand it, is that she fell in and is still kind of preserved. Do you know what I mean?

John Doran, ‘A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed’. The Quietus, 2011”.

Flipping to side B of 50 Words for Snow, after the hypnotic Lake Tahoe, we then get the epic Misty. A song that some people do not like, this is a bit of a cheat, I’ll confess! I would put this as number one when it comes to the best side A-ending/side B-opening combinations, but technically Misty is side B. It is 13:32, so it takes up that entire side, so it has no competition. However, it is a truly special song that does not get the credit it warrants. Another song that I would love to see animated in its entirety, this is what Kate Bush said about the sublime and magical Misty:

“It’s a silly idea. But I hope that what has happened is that there’s almost a sense of tenderness. I think it’s quite a dark song. And so I hope that I’ve made it work. But in a lot of ways it shouldn’t because… It’s ridiculous, isn’t it, the idea of the snowman visiting this woman and climbing into bed with her.
But I took him as a purely symbolic snowman, it was about…
No John, he’s REAL (laughs).

BBC4 Radio, Front Row, 2011”.

THREE

THE RED SHOES (1993): Lily (A)/(B)The Red Shoes

Although it is one of her most opinion-dividing albums, 1993’s The Red Shoes does have its share of exceptional songs. The most obvious example of an album that could have been re-sequenced to make it stronger, it does have a weak second half. However, two stunning tracks are in the middle. Ending side A with Lily, you get this rousing and driving song that was the track Bush opened Before the Dawn with. She also re-recorded it for Director’s Cut. I think that the 1993 recording is the best. Here is a bit of background to the song:

“The song is devoted to Lily Cornford, a noted spiritual healer in London with whom Bush became close friends in the 1990s.

“She was one of those very rare people who are intelligent, intuitive and kind,” Kate has said of Cornford, who believed in mental colour healing—a process whereby patients would be restored to health by seeing various hues. “I was really moved by Lily and impressed with her strength and knowledge, so it led to a song – which she thought was hilarious”.

Keeping the momentum going, The Red Shoes opens its side B with the sublime title track. The Red Shoes was also released as a single by EMI Records in the U.K. on 4th April, 1994. It was the lead track of the movie The Line, the Cross, and the Curve, which was presented on film festival at the time of the single’s release. I think that this is one of the strongest side B-opening songs. There is not a load of information out there about the track. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia gives us some more information about the various releases of The Red Shoes’ title track:

“There are three versions of ‘The Red Shoes’: the album version, which was also used on the single released, and ‘Shoedance’, which is a 10 minute remix by Karl Blagan of ‘The Red Shoes’, featuring excerpts from dialogue from the movie The Line, The Cross & The Curve. Finally, there’s the version from Bush’s album Director’s Cut in 2011”.

TWO

HOUNDS OF LOVE (1985): Cloudbusting (A)/(B) And Dream of Sheep

Kate Bush’s most acclaimed and known album is perfect when it came to tracklisting and the sequencing. Opening with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and ending with The Morning Fog, you can’t really fault it! The end of side A and start of side B have no faults. But is this duo of songs the strongest when compared to other others?! Cloudbusting ends side A wonderfully. A successful single and one of her most loved songs, it was another with a really interesting and compelling story:

“‘Cloudbusting’ is a track that was very much inspired by a book calledA Book Of Dreams. This book is written through a child’s eyes, looking at his father and how much his father means to him in his world – he’s everything. his father has a machine that can make it rain, amongst many other things, and there’s a wonderful sense of magic as he and his father make it rain together on this machine. The book is full of imagery of an innocent child and yet it’s being written by a sad adult, which gives it a strange kind of personal intimacy and magic that is quite extraordinary. The song is really about how much that father meant to the son and how much he misses him now he’s gone.

Conversation Disc Series, ABCD 012, 1985”.

Starting side B of one of the best albums ever is And Dream of Sheep. It begins the concept suite, The Ninth Wave. Bush actually recorded a live video for this song that was used in the 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. One of the best songs on Hounds of Love and this emotional and beautiful moment from Kate Bush, it means that we have two genius songs that form the middle of a masterpiece:

“[The Ninth Wave] is about someone who is in the water alone for the night. ‘And Dream Of Sheep’ is about them fighting sleep. They’re very tired and they’ve been in the water waiting for someone to come and get them, and it’s starting to get dark and it doesn’t look like anyone’s coming and they want to go to sleep. They know that if they go to sleep in the water they could turn over and drown, so they’re trying to keep awake; but they can’t help it, they eventually fall asleep – which takes us into the second song. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 18, 1985)”.

ONE

AERIAL (2005): Mrs. Bartolozzi (A)/(B)How to Be Invisible

Perhaps my favourite side A end and side B opener comes from Aerial. The entrancing and dreaming Mrs. Bartolozzi is a song I feel would have made a perfect single. I am taking the tracklisting on Aerial from the 2005 oriignal release when it comes to what ends side A and starts side B. I think it did change when the album was reissued. It is interesting reading what Kate Bush said about Mrs. Bartolozzi:

“Is it about a washing machine? I think it’s a song about Mrs. Bartolozzi. She’s this lady in the song who…does a lot of washing (laughs). It’s not me, but I wouldn’t have written the song if I didn’t spend a lot of time doing washing. But, um, it’s fictitious. I suppose, as soon as you have a child, the washing suddenly increases. And uh, what I like too is that a lot of people think it’s funny. I think that’s great, because I think that actually, it’s one of the heaviest songs I’ve ever written! (laughs)
Clothes are…very interesting things, aren’t they? Because they say such an enormous amount about the person that wears them. They have a little bit of that person all over them, little bits of skin cells and…what you wear says a lot about who you are, and who you think you are…
So I think clothes, in themselves are very interesting. And then it was the idea of this woman, who’s kind of sitting there looking at all the washing going around, and she’s got this new washing machine, and the idea of these clothes, sort of tumbling around in the water, and then the water becomes the sea and the clothes…and the sea…and the washing machine and the kitchen… I just thought it was an interesting idea to play with.
What I wanted to get was the sense of this journey, where you’re sitting in front of this washing machine, and then almost as if in a daydream, you’re suddenly standing in the sea.

Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 1 November 2005”.

Opening the second side of the first vinyl is the majestic How to Be Invisible. This is a song that not many people discuss but really should. It is filled with so much brilliant and vivid imagery. A song that will stay in the memory and draws you in. It is a perfect way to open side B. I really love it and feel it needs to be played on the radio more. This is my favourite passage from the song: “Eye of Braille/Hem of anorak/Stem of wallflower/Hair of doormat/Is that the wind from the desert song?/Is that an autumn leaf falling?/Or is that you, walking home?/Is that the wind from the desert song?/Is that an autumn leaf falling?/Or is that you, walking home?/Is that a storm in the swimming pool?”.

FEATURE: Access All Areas: Can FLO Kickstart a Girl Group Revival?

FEATURE:

 

 

Access All Areas

PHOTO CREDIT: Thurstan Redding for DAZED

Can FLO Kickstart a Girl Group Revival?

_________

IT is a very exciting time…

for Pop at the moment. In  terms of dominance and who is at the top, it is very much about the solo artist. One can say Charli XCX leads the way. I think that a lot of the sounds and songs we hear on BRAT (her latest studio album) are going to influence artists coming through. An award-nominated album that is among the best-rated of this year, I think that she is going to be headlining festivals next year. She is already booked to headline Primavera Sound. Alongside her are other great Pop queens such as Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Intelligent and innovative Pop that is refreshing the genre. There is still a problem with homogenisation, though there are distinct artists showcasing something both fresh and familiar. Challenging music that is also accessible and instantly classic. In terms of the girl group market, that is not as healthy and prevalent as it was in decades past. With its last peaks being in the 1990s and 2000s, I guess you can say more modern groups like Girls Aloud kept the flame alive. In the 2020s, there has not really been a great charge of girl groups. With other sound and genres being favoured, the once-ruling blend of Pop and R&B the great girl groups used to provide is very much in the shadows. However, there are a couple of acts that could well buck that trend. Where once the U.S. led the way when it came to the best girl groups – I am thinking TLC and Destiny’s Child were up there -, there are some great modern British examples. Say Now are a group with keeping an ear and eye out for. I would also say that FLO are right up there. Perhaps the leading girl group of the moment.

There is definite demand and desire for these groups. Think about the reception Sugababes got when they played Glastonbury last year. Girls Aloud may not be recording any new music, though you feel a some more tour dates are on the cards. They did a tour earlier in the year and there is very much this hope they will put something new out. Spice Girls could well reform one day or perform some gigs. Legends of the scene like TLC are still performing. These queens are giving strength and influence to the modern breed. Even if groups like FLO have their own sound, you can hear links to brilliant U.S. and U.K. girl groups. Perhaps we are not going to get the same sort of wave of girl groups as we had years ago. Their debut album, Access All Areas, has won critical praise. Many have asked whether the trio (Renée Downer, Jorja Douglas and Stella Quaresma) could be the next big thing. Their contemporary take on the R&B-driven sounds of previous girl groups has the potential to be huge. As one or two reviews of their albums mention, perhaps a bit more grit and risk-taking with the sounds. An edge, sense of experimentation and swagger that is perhaps lacking. Not that FLO are playing it safe, though you do feel that they need to be a more daring and look at the girl group history books. That will come with time. It does seem that FLO have the potential to lead a girl group charge for the 2020s. I will come to a couple of reviews for Access All Areas to end things. I do want to bring in a couple of fairly recent interviews. They clearly (and rightfully) have confidence in their talent and future. The first interview I want to source from is from DAZED from September:

“The debut album from FLO, Access All Areas, took the best part of three years to find its direction. The number-switching and lock-changing on the good-for-nothing boys chronicled in their viral debut single “Cardboard Box” was a baby-faced introduction to the girls as they were back then. The lyrics were rough and ready (“Ima put your shit in a cardboard box”), but there was an unmistakable quality to their harmonising that was well beyond their years. Now, nearing five years together, the three young women of FLO are (still) in the throes of growth, but it’s the experiences in the past two-and-a-half years that have informed the album. For Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer, a reintroduction may not be strictly necessary, but there is a story in the journey they have been on – a snapshot behind the scenes of the making of a band, and the breaking of anything (or anyone) that stands in the way of their success.

Seated around a semi-secluded corner table at The Standard’s Decimo restaurant in London, the girls are a few days out from a scheduled performance at Lollapalooza Chicago, but there is little haste. It’s a rare moment of respite they welcome among all the preparations, even though, technically, they’re still at work. After scanning the drinks menu, Jorja opts for a honey and saffron amaretto sour and, when Renée asks for peppermint tea with honey, Stella follows suit. But what will they eat? “Erm…” Renée ponders aloud. “What are we not going to eat?!” Jorja jokes. Our orders are taken and the table is cleared of menus as Jorja circles the table, filling everyone else’s glass with water before pouring her own. “Let’s get it cracking,” Stella prompts as Renée’s signature knotless goddess braids are swept out of her face and she begins to tell me the story behind their naming ceremony.

PHOTO CREDIT: Thurstan Redding

“We were coming up with loads of names like ‘Her Story’, ‘Minx’…” she recalls with a slight cringe. “Minx?!” Jorja and Stella shout incredulously. “Oh my gosh,” Stella drones with subtle embarrassment. “Yeah! Minx was in there! What else?” Renée asks as eyes shift between one another in the silence. “A bunch of stuff that wasn’t memorable, clearly.” Stella interrupts. “Her Story was probably the best but it’s also a bit, like… get a grip,” Jorja finishes. FLO was a placeholder name taken from a mysterious white cat milling around at Island House – a residence set up by the label where the artists could “do whatever, really” – that they decided to name. “Anytime we’d say we were thinking of calling ourselves FLO people would laugh and be like, ‘FLO? Like the period app? You guys can’t be called FLO!’ But it stuck and here we are. We’ve given it meaning, you know… Flo[w], we’re in sync and there are three of us. Everything works!” Renée says, before Jorja inserts cheekily: “Period!”

Jorja has a way with words that leaves little room for one’s own conclusions to be drawn. As the eldest, and self-proclaimed “sassy” one of the group, she can be soft and carries mama bear-like qualities and is a witty conversationalist. “I feel like I’m good at making decisions or sparking thoughts that lead to decisions, if that makes sense?” she says when asked what she brings to the group. Stella, the middle child of FLO, maintains a level of calm throughout our conversation that stands in contrast to Jorja. When she does speak, her contributions are well-timed and considered. “I’m definitely the most level-headed one,” she affirms. “I can see different points of view very easily and I’m one to take a minute to assess the situation. I’m a big assessor. I like to assess the room and situation before I speak.” Renée and Jorja both agree that Stella is also the funny one, whereas Stella describes Renée as “very organised. She keeps us in check but she’s also the baby as well. She’s very sweet and caring.” Renée is both beyond her years and endearingly young. She is the youngest in the group but in no way a liability, as can be the case stereotypically. “I make sure that we don’t miss anything, and discuss and stick to deadlines which is very important because this is a business,” she says. “Stella is like my chill sister that will be on anything and Jorja is like my big sister that will clart me and tell me what I should be doing, but she’ll hold me down and always have my back.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Thurstan Redding

The members of FLO are each their own women, but also a sisterhood in sync. Their journey as a band began in 2019 after being formed by Rob Harrison, an A&R at Island Records on the lookout for singers to form a girl group. At the time, the girls were all posting videos singing covers on Instagram: “You know, that’s what the kids were doing and that’s how he found us,” Renée says of their now ex-manager, with whom they parted company this year. “I got an email from Rob saying, ‘I’m putting together a girl group. I’ve seen your videos, can I come to see you sing somewhere?’” says Stella, recalling how the pieces all fell into place. Fast-forward through a few rounds of group sessions mixing with different girls in different groups, and the three of them were put together, with this year marking their fifth anniversary. In fact, the group came together right before the pandemic, which was something of a blessing in disguise for the girls. “With the pandemic came so much conflict, whether it be [with] the label or management, so we had the chance to get totally on the same page with each other and battle through all these issues,” Jorja explains. “We were thrown into the deep end as far as being in business with a bunch of strangers goes. The pandemic allowed us not only to bond with each other but to make our bond unbreakable.”

I also notice how fans, or ‘FLO Lifers’ as the band has dubbed them, can be very opinionated. In fact, generally speaking, fandoms nowadays tally stream numbers and critique era-rollout plans and creative direction more rigorously than the people paid to do so. The girls aren’t blind; they see it all. In fact, they often agree with their assessments. “We kind of agree because of the journey we’ve been on,” says Jorja. “We’ve seen first-hand the flaws and holes where A&R and marketing are concerned. To be honest, it’s kind of refreshing to see that people see what we see. It’s nice to have the majority appreciate and enjoy what we’re doing because we are trying really hard, but it also reminds us that we’re not crazy and that the grievances we have behind the scenes are valid, because other people were noticing them too.

It feels like we’re circling a part of their journey that holds great significance here. When I ask them to go into these grievances, there’s an unspoken resistance as knowing glances are exchanged. When they do speak it’s with a palpable sense of caution, the only time in our conversation you can feel them holding back. There are clear frustrations, but seemingly none great enough to take our talk to a place where past burdens hold weight in their present. “We feel like we’ve been surrounded by a lot of yes-men and people who don’t know what to do with us, which is understandable,” says Jorja. “It’s taken a long time for us to find people we are happy with and want on our team. We love constructive criticism because that’s something we don’t feel we’ve received a lot of, but [the people who] have given us constructive criticism [in the past] weren’t necessarily the right audience or the best deliverers. They didn’t understand FLO and that’s something we struggled with, growing our team – having people who know us, know the music we create and that scene.” However, they all agree that their boyfriends offer great support. “They don’t shy away from us,” says Jorja. “They will tell us all of their opinions, sometimes unprovoked.” “Mainly unprovoked,” Renée confirms with a subtle side-eye.

Clearly, finding people who not only understand them individually but as a group of young women with a vision has been a point of contention for FLO. Even their style has taken a hit as they’ve worked through trial and error with different stylists and creative teams – so what exactly is their vision? “I think it’s ever-changing, to be honest, and we’re gonna keep evolving so people either grow with us or they don’t,” says Stella. “I’m kind of like, I think it’s us? As in, not that we’re the problem, just that we should just do it ourselves,” Jorja continues, before Renée adds: “I think there are people out there that will, like, guide and help us because at the end of the day, we’re still growing, but something which we’ve always done is be involved. So as we learn more and find people who will help us grow and develop, there definitely will come a time where we can do it and we’ll be confident and able to run the ship ourselves”.

It is encouraging that FLO’s brilliance and buzz has reached the U.S. An interview/profile from The New York Times earlier this month heralded FLO as a group matching ambition with nostalgia. How they are reinventing the girl group for modern times. Quite high plaudit for the quite new group. I think that they do have the foundations to be one of the greats. Hopefully lead a revival that could see a range of girl groups rise up. Make a challenge to the mainstream Pop titans:

“From the start, the group was a high-concept project. In 2019, Flo’s initial manager, Rob Harrison, and its label, Island, set out to create an R&B girl group that would revive and update the sound and attitude of acts from the 1990s and 2000s. While that era’s R&B has been a key ingredient in the rise of K-pop, American and British R&B have lately favored solo acts rather than groups. “A girl group was missing from the industry,” Douglas said.

The label auditioned teenage R&B singers, seeking individual and collective chemistry, after it “basically found us all on Instagram,” Downer said.

Flo’s three members were ready. They had grown up in an era of professionalized pop training, youth talent competitions and social-media self-promotion. Quaresma recalled that even when she was in elementary school in Devon, England, she was determined to become a pop performer. “I was 12 and I was, like ‘Mom, I’m behind my schedule,’” she said. “‘Everyone in London is already starting their careers. I’m behind them all, I’ve got to do something.’ So every day after school, I went to dance class and worked on singing.”

Quaresma and Downer met as students at the Sylvia Young Theater School in London, whose alumni include Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora and Emma Bunton, a.k.a. Baby Spice of the Spice Girls. Douglas was 14 when she won a televised singing competition on CBBC, the BBC’s channel for children, and she continued to post songs online. Downer and Douglas had befriended each other on Instagram, only to meet in person for the first time during the auditions for Flo.

Part of the audition process assigned singers to work up cover versions as a group. Downer, Douglas and Quaresma quickly found that their tastes aligned; they arranged a mash-up of Frank Ocean and Jazmine Sullivan.

Once chosen, the members of Flo began an intense process of self-invention. The lingering girl-group stereotype of Svengali producers controlling naïve singers was not for them. But they welcomed hard work, and they spent two years in preparation — songwriting, recording, costumes, chorography — before unveiling Flo.

“We were like, ‘We want boot camp,’” Downer recalled. “We want to be ready, we want to rehearse and practice. We started doing sessions: learning each other’s voices, and learning about our blend and how we were going to be unique as a girl group. Figuring out what we all liked, what we could bond over.” She said they did write a lot of songs, and wanted to release music earlier. “But looking back, the development time was very necessary because we were very young.”

Holding back their debut album was not a decision to be taken lightly. Flo persisted.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

They found a steady collaborator in the English songwriter and producer Uzoechi Osisioma Emenike, who records as MNEK (pronounced like his last name) and has worked with Beyoncé, Dua Lipa and Madonna. “Cardboard Box” was one of their first collaborations, back in 2020. In a telephone interview, MNEK said, “They were all like 16, 17, and just figuring it out and learning how to be a group and learning how to harmonize together and how to write together.”

Although Flo tried songwriting sessions via Zoom during the height of the pandemic, the group strongly prefers gathering together in one studio. “It’s just all about conversation,” Quaresma said. “You know, what we’re going through. Sometimes we’re not even going through it, we just want to write a story, make something up. Then we’ll do melodies — either on the mic or on the phone or in the room. And then we write to those melodies.”

Holding back their debut album was not a decision to be taken lightly. Flo persisted.

“They really care about their craft,” MNEK said. “In the 1990s they would have released an album they weren’t really happy with — and got dropped. The girls did have the luxury of just being, like, ‘This album isn’t right. We need to improve it. We care about this album and we don’t feel that we have to release music that is subpar — because we haven’t yet.’ They’re all really involved and nothing’s coming out unless they’re happy with it. They are very strong-willed women and they have good instincts.”

While their early material relied on British producers, Flo brought in American collaborators for “Access All Areas,” a way to experiment that could also broaden their audience. “Caught Up,” a single from the album, was co-produced by Pop Wansel; it suavely incorporates the jazz guitarist Joe Pass’s solo acoustic version of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.”

“Cardboard Box” and other songs on “The Lead” had little mercy for errant boyfriends. The lyrics on “Access All Areas” allow more room for affection, juggling self-assurance and vulnerability, independence and lusty attachment. (The title song is not about a backstage pass.) “‘The Lead’ was about shifty men,” Douglas said. “And then ‘Access All Areas’ is a lot more positive, because that reflects where we’re all in our lives.”

The new album also includes an unexpected hard-rock blast — mockingly titled “I’m Just a Girl” — that taunts anyone who underestimates Flo’s ambition or success: “How many Black girls do you see on center stage now?” they sing.

“I think authority is the magic key to Flo,” Douglas said. “It’s just making sure that we always say what we’re thinking. We don’t believe in beating around bushes. And then always making sure our voices are heard. That is one thing that we’ve done from the start, and it’s definitely something that we’ll continue to do.”

She smiled. “It got us this far”.

I do think that all the signs are good. FLO are here to stay. Even though contemporaries like Say Now suggest it is quite a growing market, I think that it will take time before we see more girl groups come through. With FLO gathering a lot of love and spotlight, it is a very exciting time. Even though The Guardian were looking for a bit more risk from Access All Areas, they did have praise and positivity from an excellent debut album:

“Access All Areas makes you abundantly aware that the charts would be a better place with Flo in them. The songs are punchy and well written, as on the poppy Nocturnal, or Check, which has a faint but noticeable UK garage skip to its beat. The trio bring thick, satisfying harmony vocals without indulging in showy over-singing, and an impressive quantity of attitude to sagas of useless boyfriends and relationships gone wrong: you really wouldn’t mess with the girls singing IWH2BMX, or commanding over the stammering rhythm and rock guitar of closer I’m Just a Girl. They can do slow jams, both of the straightforward bedroom-bound variety (Soft), or the kind that traverse more complicated emotional terrain: How Does It Feel marries its measured pulse to a wrathful, vengeance-shall-be-mine mood.

But Access All Areas also demonstrates why Flo haven’t quite exploded. There are plenty of good tracks here, but no undeniable no-further-questions smash hit: you get the link to SWV or Writing’s on the Wall-era Destiny’s Child, but at present, they’re an SWV without a Right Here or a Weak; they’re a LaTavia and LeToya-era Destiny’s Child without a No, No, No or a Jumpin’, Jumpin’.

In addition, the one period detail Access All Areas’ production misses is that R&B in the era it celebrates thrived on sonic risk-taking and adventure. Quite aside from the songs, the big hits frequently worked by snagging listeners with novelty – even the poppiest of their avowed influences, Sugababes, weren’t above throwing the odd spanner into the works, as on the Gary Numan-sampling Freak Like Me. That sense of innovation is lacking here. It’s great to get Missy Elliott to drop a verse on your single; it would be better still to incorporate some of the head-turning surprise that Timbaland brought to Aaliyah’s We Need a Resolution – or indeed, that the Neptunes brought to Kelis, or Rodney Jerkins to Brandy. It comes close on Bending My Rules, which marries a scrabbly guitar sample to a lurching beat, but it feels like a simulacrum of early 00s oddness, rather than a fresh embodiment of its spirit.

Without that – or the aforementioned killer hit – their debut seems more like a solid start than an obvious smash, a good idea that needs fleshing out before it really comes into its own. There’s a spark about it that suggests Flo deserve the space, time and opportunity to do just that: they’re in touching distance of being genuinely great, but their debut album is a stop on a journey rather than an end in itself”.

I am going to end with a four-star review from NME. They were very much behind the wonder of FLO’s Access All Areas. It should rank alongside the best debut albums of this year. A statement of intent from a trio who are very much set on longevity and success. Make sure you follow them and listen to everything they put out:

“It’s been a moment since girl groups have commanded the hearts, minds and radiowaves of music lovers – at least, that’s the case in the West. Gone are the days of Xscape, TLC, All Saints, Spice Girls and many, many more. Fortunately, the time has come for a much needed “bad bitch replenishment”, as Wicked star Cynthia Erivo announces on record opener ‘Intro’: that’s British trio FLO and their debut album, ‘Access All Areas’.

Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma cleverly tap into their reverence for the ’90s, with many of the record’s tracks sounding like they were ripped right out of that moment in time. Their angelic melodies on ‘Bending My Rules’ evoke ‘Runaway Love’-era En Vogue, the soulful ‘On & On’ would be right at home in SWV’s discography, while album highlight ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ brings to mind Destiny’s Child’s seminal ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ album.

FLO aren’t one-trick ponies, though. ‘Access All Areas’ ventures beyond the promised R&B girl group formula, such as on certified trap banger ‘In My Bag’, featuring a standout verse from Memphis rapper GloRilla. But not all of their risks pan out as well as that track. ‘How Does It Feel’, for example, is as generic as contemporary R&B comes, while grungy album closer ‘I’m Just a Girl’, despite the strong message of representation behind it, is an overproduced mess that flattens the hell out of the trio’s selling point: their voices.

Thankfully, there are plenty of anthemic, showstopping vocal moments (‘AAA’, ‘Check’ and ‘Walk Like This’) to offset the duds, and even a few ballads (‘Soft’ and ‘Trustworthy’) to really complete the throwback experience – truly a “feast for our ears”, as Erivo puts it in beginning. Throughout the album, the trio are comfortable and in their zone, and this gives them space to imbue the recordings with almost-magical levels of confidence and attitude.

On ‘Access All Areas’, FLO have it all down pat: the talent, charisma and star power are all on display. Riding on the wave of nostalgia has gotten the trio this far, and now it feels as if they’ve within striking distance of a true breakthrough. Even if ‘Access All Areas’ doesn’t overwhelmingly herald the return of R&B girl group dominance, the massive momentum FLO have built over the past two years hint that the dam is about to break”.

I do think FLO will ignite a charge of girl groups. Even if it make take some time to fully materialise, we could see something big. I don’t think it pure nostalgia that Girls Aloud, Sugarbabes and their peers are still very much in people’s hearts. It is their connection and sound that you don’t get with solo artists. Something extra. Even if modern Pop especially is defined by solo artists, we are seeing flashes of brilliance from groups. It is time for a new and exciting period of girl groups. Perhaps on the fringes slightly at the moment, as FLO know, it will soon be a case of…

ACCESS all areas.