 | Lionheart (1978)Genres: rock, pop, progressive pop |
review by thomas
Released in the same year as her debut ”Lionheart” often get criticism for being a rushed release of leftover material. Some of the songs actually sound like they could have been leftovers or hastily written but on the other hand Bush deliver strong songs too like “Coffee Homeground”, were she shows of her voice span singing with a German accent, a little like when actress Madeline Kahn does her parody of Marlene Dietrich in the movie “Blazing Saddles”. Then we have the epic and scary rocker “Hammer Horror” and the amazing “Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake” which again demonstrates her vocal capacities.
Besides those few filler songs and the real highlights the album is full of good and solid tunes: “Symphony in Blue” and “In Search of Peter Pan” to name two. The album’s relative low status in the Bush catalogue – or rather its tendency to be overlooked – may have something to do with the lack of a single to follow “Wuthering Heights”, at least back then.
Apart from the reoccurring Kate Bush Band musicians – Stuart Elliot (drums), David Paton (bass), Ian Bairnson (guitars), Duncan Mackay (keyboards) and Paddy Bush (numerous instrument) – ex Curved Air member Francis Monkman appears on several songs. “Lionheart” is a record in the same field as “The Kick Inside” and though it doesn’t comes out as good as said album it’s a good record.
 | The Kick Inside (1978)Genres: rock, pop, progressive pop |
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.
