And almost out of nowhere, Kate Bush emerged with The Dreaming, an album that far surpasses her previous
work, even her debut, and stands as one of my top 20 personal favorite albums. Never for Ever pointed the way,
but this one is so far beyond what Never was striving for, it still
staggers me. Basically, The Dreaming takes her flights of fantasy to their full potential,
with Kate changing roles and characters from song to song. But where Never
showed her starting to expand her sonic palette, yet still chained a bit by her
previous style, The Dreaming has that rare Beatle-esque quality where
the songs are all like their own independent worlds. The general feel is the
same in some regards, but stylistically, I don’t think it is a stretch to say
that some of the songs here have no adequate comparison in her first three albums. So musically, it’s her most diverse and adventurous album by
quite some margin. Vocally, she is at her most diverse as well, as she now uses
her ultra-high range for emotional effect and contrast rather than simply as
the default. And what brings it all together is that the songs are uniformly
excellent, and the best songs here put me in an ecstatic reverie when I listen to them.
The best example of what The
Dreaming is able to accomplish comes on “Pull Out the Pin” which is, albeit
narrowly, my pick for best song on the album. For this track, Kate sings from the perspective of a
Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War, where pulling out the pin of course
refers to grenades. It almost sounds silly writing about
it, but I see it as Beatle-esque (there's that word again) in that
it fully develops a fantasy world, both musically, vocally and lyrically, yet like a great John Lennon track, it is tinged with a sad realism. This song
isn’t really about Kate Bush is any sense, but you wouldn’t know it from
listening to her sing it. The haunting keyboard introduction puts the listener
in the mood of hiding in the jungle, watching helicopters descend. The verse
melody is tense as sirens blare in the background. The chorus starts as a
simple call and response between Bush and guest vocalist David Gilmour but then
suddenly escalates into a full-bodied screame. On paper, I still don’t know how it works so
effectively, but in terms of performance, it’s incredible, especially later in
the song where she simply screams again and again “I LOVE LIFE” over Gilmour’s
backing vocals. And I would argue that even if you stripped out all the effects
and sang it in a normal voice, it would still be a powerful song. But all the
accoutrements turn it into an unforgettable venture into Bush’s fantasy world.
And who says that fantasy is anything less than reality? Well, I listen to prog
rock, so not me!
Amazingly, there are several other
songs here that accomplish a similar effect as “Pull Out the Pin” yet with
nearly completely different styles. The title track may be the most far-out song on the whole album,
with its chanted backing vocals and incomprehensible lyrics ("Bang! Goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van"). The feel
of the song is very cold and remote, almost as if she’s singing about an alien
race rather than a human race. At any rate, it took me a few listens to fathom
it, but once it struck me, it hasn’t let go. The closing “Get Out of My
House” is inspired by the Shining, and in true Kate fashion, her
character is not Danny or Jack Nicholson, but the house itself. At any rate,
it’s insane all the way through, starting with her best unhinged voice in the
verses, to her adopting a French accent and imitating a concierge, then
screaming “Get out of my house!” Again, I feel like it’s difficult to capture
the way it all sounds with words (cue Zappa and dancing about architecture) and
that it reads a lot more gimmicky than it actually is. Because the reason I
like it so much is not really because of the concepts, but because when the
song is on, I am fully immersed and feeling the passion Kate brings
to her singing - the concepts come to life.
The other highlights are plentiful
– my second-favorite song here might be “Suspended in Gaffa,” a demented waltz
with more piercing/gorgeous shrieking and no particular concept that I can
identify, but its piano breaks with Kate whispering sweet nothings are so oddly
beautiful that I can’t really complain. The second side has the only halfway
conventional songs, all right in a row (“Night of the Swallow” through
“Houdini”) and this is probably the only aspect I could possibly consider a
weakness, because although all three songs hit the mark individually, they
can’t help feeling slightly passé compared to the fantastic tracks that
bookend the side (the title track and “Get Out of My House”). I do want to
comment on “Houdini” for although from a musical perspective, it might be my
least favorite on the album (still excellent, mind you!), the concept gives me
the chills – apparently it’s based on an urban legend that Houdini gave his
wife a secret code word so that when he died, if she ever encountered the word,
she would know that he had communicated with her from the afterlife – his
ultimate escape. Kate plays Houdini’s wife, of course, and to excellent effect.
So there’s at least a brief look at
The Dreaming, one of the most wondrous albums I’ve recently had the
pleasure of encountering. But I can’t really do justice to it with a four
paragraph review. That said, I must warn again that it
seems to encourage bipolar reactions and wasn’t even particularly well received
by critics because it’s so non-commercial and decidedly odd. Normally, I take
the middle ground in these types of cases, but as seemingly inaccessible as it
might be, I was swept away on the very first listen. To me, the success of an
album as experimental as this one is whether the artist remembers the founding
principles of good music: memorable songwriting and emotional resonance. When
the two combine with the range of novelty and experimentation shown here, then
you’re really onto something. I understand that for some, the surface aspects
(Kate’s screaming, the radical shifts of tone both in the middle of songs and
between songs) may preclude emotional resonance, but I feel the passion and
commitment is palpable: as much as this is a highly theatrical album, I have no
doubt that it was also deeply personal for Bush, and it shows.
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