release date: Nov. 10, 1978
format: cd / cd (2018 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Andrew Powell with Kate Bush
label: EMI - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Symphony in Blue" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "In Search of Peter Pan" - 3. "Wow" (5 / 5) - 4. "Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake" - 5. "Oh England My Lionheart" - 6. "Fullhouse" - 8. "Kashka From Baghdad" - 9. "Coffee Homeground" - 10. "Hammer Horror"
2nd studio album by Kate Bush released only 9 months after her fantastic debut. The record label quickly understood what a treasure they had signed with and basically wanted to get most of it. Like on most of her works, she has composed all tracks on her own, and here she is credited as assistant to producer Andrew Powell. Musically, the album is close to the debut, only this is generally more quiet with stronger elements from progressive rock.
"Hammer Horror" was chosen as the first single from the album, which I don't really get. "Symphony in Blue", and "Wow" are easily the two most outstanding tracks on an album that fared well in the UK but wasn't released in the US until '84 because her debut album simply didn't sell.
The A-side is quite good and almost on par with the debut, but the B-side simply lacks great songs. It's far from a lesser album, I just find it lesser in comparison with her great masterpiece from earlier this very year. Bush herself has later admitted that she was pursuaded to release the album, although, she didn't have enough time to make it a satisfying follow-up. The experience, however, taught her to gain control of her own music, which in retrospect was the right thing to do at a time when labels only had profit in mind.
Kate Bush initiated her only ever live tour in the spring of '79 to promote her first two albums - the experience on the road apparently was so negative that she never toured again.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
