Artist: Kate Bush
Album: Before The Dawn
Label: Fish People/Concord
Release Date: 12/02/2016
For the scores of unfortunates who have never experienced Kate Bush in any of her chosen medium – music, film, video, stage – feel free to start with this brilliantly conceived 3CD, 2014 live set (her first full length concerts in 35 years) and work backwards.
‘Twas Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour who arranged for the 15 year old Bush to record her first demos and get her signed to EMI. “Wuthering Heights” was the soaring, near maniacal, ’78 single that threw her to the toppermost of the poppermost in England and began her cult following everywhere else. Long before many of our more established icons took credit for the innovations, her first tour in ’79, incorporated film, dance, costume changes, theatrical lighting and wireless microphones. Exhausted and pretty much financially broke, she dedicated herself to her music and produced such startling and sustained works of originality as The Dreaming (’82) The Hounds of Love (’85) The Sensual World (’89) and 2004’s return, Aerial. (And lest ye forget, Bush was the emotional center of Peter Gabriel’s soulfully anthemic “Don’t Give Up”)
Before The Dawn envelopes all that and more. Drawn from her now legendary, 22 date London Hammersmith Apollo residency, each disc a third of the show. Disc one, seven thematic songs, including a scorching “Lily” and hypnotic “Running Up That Hill.” Disc two, an inspirational, complete rendering of The Ninth Wave (Side Two of The Hounds of Love album, featuring moody, dreamlike “And Dream of Sheep,” “Watching You Without Me” and “Under Ice.” A Sky of Honey completes Disc three with supreme meditation, “Sunset,” “Among Angels.” Then a rousing, roof rocking “Cloudbusting” closes out a truly once-in-a-lifetime event.
-Mike Jurkovic
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