release date: Sep. 13, 1982
format: vinyl / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,90]
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 follows two years after Never for Ever (Sep. 1980) and it's her 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 and is mostly based on art pop. The album may lack absolute bangers. "Sat in Your Lap" was released as first single and paekd at number #11 on the singles chart but the following single releases from the album: "The Dreaming", "There Goes a Tenner", and "Suspended in Gaffa" made didn't perform as her previous singles.
Being familiar with her former albums, this was, however, the first vinyl album I ever purchased with music by Kate Bush. I recall it as being less interesting than the predecessor and I didn't play it a great deal. That is, not up until the 90s and again after the new millennium. Listening to The Dreaming today, I understand why artists like Björk and Suzanne Vega list it among their favourites of the 80s. 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 on the title track. The album made it to number #3 on the UK albums chart list and its deservedly enlisted in "1001 Album You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ almusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]
