So having returned to some level of activity here on the DV, I\u2019m poking around, reading some of my own reviews. (Some of these are 21 years old, gang, and since then I\u2019ve had a brain tumor and chemotherapy. I\u2019m lucky I remember the English language at all.)<\/p>\n
I will admit, though, the biggest surprise that I\u2019ve found so far is that somehow I missed reviewing this CD. Kate Bush\u2019s The Sensual World<\/i> is in my personal musical hagiography a Completely Essential Disc. While longtime readers of the Vault know that Kate\u2019s 1985 release The Hounds Of Love<\/i> got a high rating from me (and in the background I hear The Editor grumbling that I give a lot of those\u2026), The Sensual World<\/i> is a high-water mark she would not reach again until 2005\u2019s Aerial<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And now, the standard Kate Bush Vocal Disclaimer: like Geddy Lee, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, and many other musicians of yore, Kate\u2019s voice is unique. The best documentation I could find for her vocal range is C\u00e2\u2122\u00af3 – E\u00e2\u2122\u00ad7; if I remember my music theory correctly, that makes her range four octaves and some change. On the high end, it\u2019s a hyper-soprano dog whistle; on the lowest, it\u2019s a whimsical, warbling alto. You may not like her voice. That\u2019s OK. I do.<\/p>\n
And damn<\/u>, but The Sensual World<\/i> is a great disc.<\/p>\n
Few discs kick off with the title track. Few title tracks take as their inspiration Molly Bloom\u2019s speech from the end of James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses;<\/i> originally, Kate wanted to use the speech verbatim, but couldn\u2019t secure the rights. \u201cSensual World\u201d is a dreamy, rich, frankly sexual piece of music, accented with Davy Spillane\u2019s uilleann pipes. And just when you\u2019re in that vibe, the gears shift radically into \u201cLove And Anger,\u201d one of her more upbeat \u2013 dare I say rocking? \u2013 songs. <\/p>\n
The tonal variance continues throughout The Sensual World<\/i>. The bright, almost triumphant \u201cReaching Out\u201d leads straight into the dark and ominous \u201cHeads We\u2019re Dancing\u201d \u2013 which, by the way, is the best thing on the disc. The wistful and sad \u201cDeeper Understanding\u201d (which predicted the plot of the movie Her<\/i> long before it came out) contrasts with the quiet and somehow defiant \u201cThis Woman\u2019s Work.\u201d Bush varies her palette on Sensual<\/i> more than, perhaps, any of her other albums, and it shows. I confess not caring for \u201cRocket\u2019s Tail\u201d, but to me that\u2019s the only miscue.<\/p>\n
There are three great Kate Bush albums; Hounds Of Love, Aerial, <\/i>and The Sensual World<\/i>. All three are must-listens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6100],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45829","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kate-bush","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45829"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}