FEATURE:
This Woman’s Work
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty
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ON 16th October, it will be thirty years…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
since Kate Bush’s The Sensual World came into the world. In some ways, it was a bit of an odd album. Four years after her defining moment, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World came out. It is a very different record and one that did not receive the same sort of praise as its predecessor. There are a few things that define The Sensual World and its beauty. Backing vocals on Never Be Mine, Rocket’s Tail and Deeper Understanding feature the Trio Bulgarka, and I think The Sensual World features some of Bush’s most affecting work. I think there was a bit of disappointment due to the fact The Sensual World does not have the same stride as Hounds of Love. There are relatively few standout singles on the album – The Sensual World and This Woman’s Work are exceptional tracks but are very different to Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). If Hounds of Love was a more instant, commercial album – albeit it, one whose second side is a conceptual suite -, The Sensual World is, in some ways, more romantic and deep. There is a definite tonal shift between the albums and I think a lot of people overlook The Sensual World. It is not her best album, but it is one that sounds brilliant thirty years later; so many fantastic moments that highlight why Kate Bush is one of the greatest songwriters ever. Hounds of Love set such a high benchmark and was a real peak for her.
Not willing to stand still and produce the same album, The Sensual World took her music forward. If Hounds of Love’s tracks are more instant and accessible, I think The Sensual World’s tracks unfurl over time and reward great investigation. The Sensual World is thirty very soon and I do think it deserves to find a new audience. Maybe, in 1993, Bush’s golden touch was starting to fade a little – The Red Shoes is considered one of her weaker albums. The Sensual World, far from being weak or inferior to Hounds of Love, in fact, is a hugely nuanced album. Yes, there are a few weaker tracks but the best moments – such as The Sensual World and Deeper Understanding – are among her very best. In this article from Classic Album Sundays, it is clear Bush was in a league of her own in the 1980s:
“By the middle of the 1980s Kate Bush had reached the apex of her career with Hounds of Love. The album featured the most powerful and intriguing songs of her discography thus far, demonstrating just how incredible her sonic storytelling had become. Resisting the frenetic pace of a typical major label release schedule, Bush would spend another four years crafting her followup, with only sporadic singles and collaborations bridging the commercial gap. She found inspiration in the literary world again, scouring the pages of James Joyce’s landmark 1920s novel Ulysses to find Molly Bloom’s closing monologue, in which the character steps from the pages of the book and revels in the real world. Bush was delighted to find that the rhythm and sound of the words fit perfectly with the music she had been working on.
This revelation was frustrated by the intractability of Joyce’s estate, which repeatedly refused Bush permission to use the words as her lyrics on ‘The Sensual World’. She was forced to rebuild from the ground-up, writing new passages that captured the same breathless energy as Bloom’s soliloquy.
Unlike previous albums, The Sensual World did not follow a single conceptual arc. Instead each track illustrated a vignette, written from the perspectives of far more ordinary people than had previously featured in her songs. The allegories were still vivid and fantastical but at the heart of each story was the existential crises that we all face at some point in our lives. On songs such as ‘Heads We’re Dancing’, Bush deploys her dark sense of humour to imagine a young girl who is charmed onto the dance floor by a man she later learns is Adolf Hitler. The song was inspired by a friend who had spent the evening in the company of a captivating man they later found out to be “father of the atomic bomb” Robert Oppenheimer. Although somewhat ridiculous on the surface, the song speaks to something very real: can you ever really trust your own judgement? And if not, what does that say about you?”.
I love all of Kate Bush’s albums but there is something about The Sensual World that digs deep and hits the heart. Listen to a track such as The Fog and all the expressions and things happening. It is grand, beguiling and busy; Reaching Out is emphatic and passionate whilst Rocket’s Tail sweeps you up and takes your mind somewhere else.
The Sensual World has some truly sensual, raw and extraordinary moments. This feature we get a track-by-track guide from Bush and some truth about the album:
“"On this album there's more of me in there in a more honest way than before and yet, although some of it is me, the songs aren't about me. It's this kind of vague mish-mash of other people and yourself, bits of films, things you've heard, all put together in a mood that says a lot about me at this time.
"A lot of people will think these songs are about me. I've always had that and like, with 'Deeper Understanding', people react immediately saying, 'Is this autobographical? So you're into computers now? So you spend all night on computers?' People immediately switch on to the mechanicalness. It's a song about computes so she must be into computers!"
I think all the great albums deserve attention on big anniversaries. The Sensual World, I feel, is overlooked and does not get the same applause as albums like Hounds of Love and The Dreaming. If you have not bought a copy of the album then grab one and let the songs take you away. When the album was released, The Sensual World got praise. As I said, there was a sense of disappointment and doubt. Retrospective reviews have been ore effusive and, perhaps, we needed to see the years pass before The Sensual World truly sunk in. Pitchfork’s recent review is balanced and gets to the heart of the songs:
“There’s no Hounds-style grand narrative thread on The Sensual World. Bush likened it to a volume of short stories, with its subjects frequently wrestling with who they were, who they are, and who they want to be. She was able to pour some of her own frustrations into these knotty tussles: She found it more difficult than ever to write songs, couldn’t work out what she wanted them to say, and hit roadblock after roadblock.
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
The 12 months she spent pestering Joyce’s grandson were surpassed by the maddening two years she spent on “Love and Anger,” which, fittingly, finds her tormented by an old trauma she can’t bring herself to talk about. But by the end, she banishes the evil spirits by leading her band in something that sounds like a raucous exorcism, chanting, “Don’t ever think you can’t change the past and the future” over squalling guitars.
Even its most surreal songs are rooted in self-examination. “Heads We’re Dancing” seems like a dark joke—a young girl is charmed on to the dancefloor by a man she later learns is Adolf Hitler—but poses a troubling question: What does it say about you, if you couldn’t see through the devil’s disguise? Its discordant, skronky rhythms make it feel like a formal ball taking place in a fever dream, and Bush’s voice grows increasingly panicky as she realizes how badly she’s been duped. As far-fetched as its premise was, its inspiration lay close to home: A family friend had told Bush how shaken they’d been after they’d taken a shine to a dashing stranger at a dinner party, only to find out they’d been chatting to Robert Oppenheimer.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
She didn’t need to prove her own steeliness to anyone, especially the male journalists who patronized her and harped on her childishness as a way of cutting her down to size. Instead, The Sensual World is the sound of someone deciding for themselves what growing up and grown-up pop should be, without being beholden to anyone else’s tedious definitions.
It gave her a new template for the next two decades, inspiring both the smooth, stylish art-rock of 1993’s The Red Shoes and the picturesque beauty of 2005’s Aerial. Like Molly Bloom, Bush had set herself free into a world that wasn’t mundane, but alive with new, fertile possibility”.
I am excited by the upcoming anniversary of The Sensual World and I hope radio stations dig deep and play some of the lesser-heard tracks from the album…in addition to the more popular tracks like This Woman’s Work. After thirty years, The Sensual World…
STILL sounds completely amazing.