release date: Sep. 13, 1982
format: vinyl / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Kate Bush
label: EMI - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Sat in Your Lap" - 2. "There Goes a Tenner" - 3. "Pull Out the Pin" (4 / 5) - 4. "Suspended in Gaffa" - 5. "Leave It Open" - 6. "The Dreaming" (4 / 5) - 8. "All the Love" - 9. "Houdini"
4th studio album by Kate Bush is the first to be exclusively produced by herself, which would prove to be standard from hereon. Nowadays, two years in the making of a new album isn't a strange thing but considering the early 80s when artists often had a record contract obligation to release a new studio album each year, and the fact that Bush already started recording new songs upon her third album's release, two years was a long time in the studio then. The style is pretty much a continued journey from the predecessor Never for Ever (1980) and mostly art pop. The album may lack great single hits. "Sat in Your Lap" was released as the first single and reached #11 on the single charts but the remaining single releases from the album "The Dreaming", "There Goes a Tenner", and "Suspended in Gaffa" made much worse commercially.
Being familiar with her previous releases, it was, however, the first vinyl album I ever purchased by Kate Bush. I recall it as being less interesting than the predecessor and I didn't play it much. At least not until the 90s and after the new millennium. Listening to it today, I understand why artists like Björk and Suzanne Vega consider it a favourite 80s album. The production and the sound is quite unique of its time and she almost makes use of sampling in the multi-layered sound. The album has an Asian tone both heard on "Pull Out the Pin", "Suspended in Gaffa", and "The Dreaming". The album went to number #3 on the UK album chart list and its enlisted in "1001 Album You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ almusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]
