Kate Bush - Never for Ever

Wow wow wow wow

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3AU94CXVGBV9B My name is Jeremy Gloff. I am a musician (check me out on Amazon!) and retro music enthusiast. If you enjoyed this review make sure to check out my Amazon user profile to check out my other reviews. I am always up for making new friends and discussing the music I love!!! July 11, 2008

The turning point in her career

After her first two albums, which were relatively conventional by comparison, this one had to be a real shocker. Especially with her second release, "Lionheart", it must have seemed like she was headed down the safe and uninteresting road of record company chanteuse. But, with this album, Kate evidently said "Thanks for getting me started, but I'll take it from here", and didn't look back. From the artwork alone, you knew you were in for something different: On the front, there's all manner of beasties and monsters emanating from her nether-regions, and, on the back, we're terrorized by several Kate-bats in flight. Inside, the music is markedly different as well, with much greater diversity in style, structure, and theme. Even though her best was yet to come, this may be her most important album in that it really laid the groundbreaking groundwork for her future masterpieces. Here is where we first hear her really exercising those legendary pipes of hers, and develop the unique vocal stylings for which she would become most renowned. Also, there seems to be much more attention given to the overall flow of the album, with one song often dovetailing into the next. This is, of course, something she would completely master on "Hounds of Love". This is also where she started making really interesting (if amateurish, by even mid-80's standards) videos for the singles off an album (which, here, would include "Babooshka", "Army Dreamers", and "Breathing"), another key element in her road to success. Aside from the singles, I also really like "Delius" (one of my favorite songs of all time), "Blow Away", and "All We Ever Look For". Not everything works completely here, but, hey, that's what happens when you experiment and take chances. And, because of the lessons learned here, she would go on to make two of the absolute best albums of the 80's. For her videos, be sure to get a hold of either "The Whole Story" or "The Single File" compilations. July 31, 2007

WOW!!

There are no words to describe how I feel about her music. Her albums are amazing. She's a great storyteller, musician, dancer, and singer all rolled into one. This is really timeless work. I can listen to it over and over and always find something new. July 1, 2007

Kate-Bush-ka, Kate-Bush-ka, Kate-Bush-ka, ya, ya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



December 6, 2006

Greatgreatgreat!

The first REAL Kate Bush album (actually the third, the first two were great also)the one where she finally came closer to her vision of what her music should sound like and it's brilliant, original, experimental and fun! Faves are Babooshka, All We Ever Look For, Wedding List, Violin, Infant kiss, Night Scented Stock, Army Dreamers and Breathing! Well, 98% of the album, actually. But it's all wonderful! September 19, 2006

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