review by thomas

Kate Bush debuted with this album, a clever pop/rock album with enjoyable songs. Not really as progressive or sonically experimental as her later albums, but here’s nevertheless a certain aura, a progressive feeling that floats around the songs. The album is a mishmash of piano centred calm songs like “Feel It”, “L’Amour Looks Something Like You”, “The Kick Inside”, “The Man With the Child in His Eyes”; up-tempo rockers like “James and the Cold Gun”, “The Saxophone Song”, “Kite”, “Them Heavy People” and songs in-between. And let’s not forget the haunting smash hit “Wuthering Heights” with orchestration, celeste and gorgeous guitar.

Bush has a very light voice, sometimes used to sound childish and a little naïve, but she uses her enormous vocal span to display different moods and to become different characters – she can certainly sing very deep and thick when she wants to, this was a trick that would become more prominent on albums to come. The piano playing from Bush is always present, sometimes in the background and other times more at the front and it always sounds good and quite fitting.

While I find the first side of the album to be extremely good the second side can’t quite follow the strong A side. Maybe thirteen tracks all in all were one or two songs too much. Anyway this is a strong debut from a multi-talented artist and stronger albums were still to come.