FEATURE:
The Trailer Before the Feature…
Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut at Thirteen: One of Two Gifts in 2011
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THERE are a couple of things…
that I want to highlight with this feature. Kate Bush’s ninth studio album, Director’s Cut, turns twelve on 16th May. It was one of two unexpected releases in 2011. I am going to come to some reviews for the album. I have dropped some in already in my previous feature about the album’s upcoming anniversary. What I also want to do is explore how Director’s Cut was designed, in part, to make way for an album of new material for Kate Bush. 50 Words for Snow arrived in November 2011. This was the first major project where Kate Bush was looking back at her older material. I know The Whole Story, the only greatest hits album, came out in 1986. This is the only time when Bush reworked an album of songs. She took selections from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes. I know she would have had no issues with 2005’s Aerial. Nothing on Hounds of Love (1985) that she would want to revisit. I can imagine there are things on 1982’s The Dreaming she might have wanted to strip back and remodel. Perhaps the reason she chose The Sensual World and The Red Shoes is because they followed such a masterpiece album and were maybe not as she heard them in her head. Perhaps a little too cluttered or dense, this was a chance for her to select particular songs that maybe were not as strong on the original albums. In this new setting they come to life. Even if some fans are divided as to whether Director’s Cut was necessary or not, one cannot argue against the fact it was nice to hear Kate Bush back. Doing promotion and speaking about her work.
Prior to 2011, there had been some activity here and there. After Aerial came out in 2005, there was a bit of promotion for that. The period between 2005 and 2011 is fascinating. There was a single, Lyra, released in 2007. That was used in the film, The Golden Compass. After that double album, one can understand how Bush wanted to take some time out. Given it was twelve years after The Red Shoes when Aerial came, many might have hoped for an album sooner than 2011. That said, as she returned with two in 2011, we can sort of average it out to an album every three years. I will discuss 50 Words for Snow briefly to end. Nobody expected anything in May 2011. Bush normally put out studio albums between September and November. With the exception of The Kick Inside (February 1978), her albums come out in the autumn or winter. A spring release was a nice treat for fans. We got more context when she did put out 50 Words for Snow. At the time of Director’s Cut coming out, I guess Kate Bush had to be secretive about a new studio album. I think the main reason why Director’s Cut came out was the opportunity to correct some past unhappiness. Something that was in her mind a while. There would have been trepidation around revisiting her older music. She is more revisionist now but, in 2011, she was not really. Recorded between 2009 and 2011, it was this project that had to be wrapped up and done early enough so that she could record and finish 50 Words for Snow and release that before the end of the year – as it is a winter album and she did not want to wait another year to put that out.
I can only imagine the sort of juggling that was being done leading to 2011. Having to get these albums done and scheduled so that they both came out in 2011. Few would have guessed we’d get two Kate Bush albums in 2011! I think that the period between 2005 and 2009 was more about family and getting another gap. That impetus and desire to start another project saw her return to songs that many either did not hear the first time around or consider to be perfectly fine on the original albums. I am curious how she decided which tracks to include on Director’s Cut. If you narrow to The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, there might be other tracks that could have made the cut. Maybe query why Deeper Understanding was chosen. Did Rubberband Girl sound better with a new pace and setting? Two of the best reworkings and re-recordings come from The Sensual World. This Woman’s Work takes on a whole new weight and meaning. An older artist singing this song almost redefines the lyrics. Also, and I suspect the main catalyst for Director’s Cut was Kate Bush finally having permission from the James Joyce estate to use Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses. Not available when she recorded The Sensual World, with its new title of Flower of the Mountain, this freedom would have inspired her to reapproach that song and then think about other tracks she would like to revisit. An important album and moment for her, I do feel it is not talked about enough by Kate Bush fans. I am, as a I said, coming back to some promotion that may be familiar to some. I will also finish up by talking about 2011 ending with ‘the main feature’ about Director’s Cut – and how different 50 Words for Snow is in terms of its sound and length.
There are some reviews that I will bring in to illustrate how Director’s Cut was perceived. It is unique in terms of her reworking existing songs. I don’t think it is all that common in music, so it was a big and brave decision. The world got a lovely shock in 2011 when it was announced Director’s Cut would arrive in May. The promotional images for the album are particularly pleasing and striking. I think most of the best were taken by her brother, John Carder Bush. Before getting to that interview, it is interesting looking at the chart positions for Director’s Cut. Number two in the U.K., it did well in the Dutch, Scottish and Irish charts. It was a bit of a miss for Spanish and Japanese fans. Interesting how various nations reacted to a new Kate Bush album. One that was unlike anything she had done before. Most of the reviews for Director’s Cut were very positive. There were some that are more constructive. I want to bring in Super Deluxe Edition and their view on the tracks Kate Bush selected to rework/re-record:
“This week sees the release of Kate Bush’s new album Director’s Cut. Six years on from 2005’s Aerial, this album revisits tracks from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes.
Kate – seemingly unhappy with the ‘sound’ of some of these original tracks – has gone back to the multi-tracks and removed certain elements and augmented the original performance with new instrumentation. Drums and Bass are the most prominent changes, with legendary session drummer Steve Gadd behind the kit for most tracks, and the songs all have a new vocal performance, with Kate changing the key to many of them to suit her vocal range of 2011. A few tracks have been re-recorded completely, including the much-loved This Woman’s Work.
Reworking these old tracks is a suitably perverse decision from Kate Bush. Aerial was received as a minor masterpiece, which you would have thought would have encouraged her to move forward relatively quickly, with another album of new material. But instead we are served-up tracks from the two albums that preceded Aerial, rather than anything new. And what is wrong with The Sensual World and The Red Shoes anyway?
As far as The Sensual World goes, not much. Yes, there is a lot going on in most of the tracks, with Kate layering many sounds together as she had done with 1982’s The Dreaming and 1985’s seminal Hounds of Love. And true, it does sound like an album recorded in the 1980s, but there is nothing wrong with that. Would Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F be ‘better’ if it was re-recorded with a piano and a real drummer instead of a synth and drum machine?
The Red Shoes is another beast altogether. It’s widely regarded by fans as one of her weakest albums. This is partly down to some below-par songs (by her own high standards) and because it lacks that unworldly Kate-factor. With guest performers including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Prince and Lenny Henry (!) here was just another rock star making just another album. The rumour at the time was that Kate was going for something more straightforward in preparation for a live tour. Regardless, the tour never happened and the album was viewed as a disappointment.
Let’s take a detailed look at the tracks on Director’s Cut.
Flower of the Mountain
This track was originally titled The Sensual World and was the lead single from that album in 1989. Kate had originally wanted to use the words of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, but his estate had refused permission and she was forced to rethink her approach to the song. Kate contacted them again recently, and to her surprise they finally granted permission – this new version is track one on Director’s Cut.
Maybe it’s a case of ‘watch what you wish for’ since now Kate has finally got the words she wanted, the song suffers for it. It doesn’t help that the backing to The Sensual World has quite a bass-heavy production. Kate’s old vocal cut through this nicely, but the deeper tones of 2011 do not. The vocal delivery is also quite uncertain. It sounds like someone had shoved an A4 sheet of paper with new, unfamiliar words in front of Kate, and asked her to sing along to an instrumental version of The Sensual World. The vocal is far too high in the mix and feels completely detached from the music. It’s possible that this was the intention – a half-spoken, half-sung ‘soliloquy’ over music. Either way, one of highlights of The Sensual Word album is, frankly, a mess, and amongst the weaker tracks on Director’s Cut.
Song of Solomon
This is a big improvement from the version on The Red Shoes. It’s has a much warmer, sweeter tone and the instrumentation is stripped back, with more room for the various elements to breath. Kate’s voice sounds great on this track too.
Lily
Another track from The Red Shoes, Kate again puts in a good vocal performance, and it does indeed have a nicer, more ‘analogue’ sound to it than the original. However, this song is no classic waiting to be rediscovered. Ultimately an average track, improved a little bit.
Deeper Understanding
This track was released as a (digital-only) single to support the album and Kate went to the trouble to make a video for it starring Robbie Coltrane. If you’ve heard it, you will know Kate has controversially used an ‘autotune’ effect on the chorus to represent the sound of the computer communicating. If you can get used to this (and it is a challenge) this track is actually very successful. Steve Gadd does his best ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’ drumming and there’s some lovely bass and harmonica interplay in the extended ‘outro’, which is reminiscent of Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up.
The Red Shoes
Like Lily, this track is undoubtedly improved by the new vocal and new mix but it has never been a particularly engaging song. Very skippable.
This Woman’s Work
A rock-solid classic from The Sensual World, that shamefully peaked at only #25 in the UK charts back in 1989. What on earth is Kate thinking of, mucking around with this one, you might ask? Well, she approaches this track with great intelligence and opts for a completely new recording. It’s very minimal – a twinkly delight, as Kate sings beautifully over an electric piano and an ethereal chorus of backing vocals. Imagine lying on your back looking up at the night sky, and falling into sleep as you sing the melody. Outstanding.
Moments of Pleasure
Also a completely new recording, this track from The Red Shoes is another highlight from Director’s Cut. Kate does away with the strings of the ’93 version and keeps things simple again with piano, voice and choir. More meditative than the original, the melody is tweaked slightly and everything feels much more intimate. A very good track just got even better.
Never Be Mine
This track from The Sensual World strips away much of the original production. Kate voice again sounds much nicer here than on the rather shrill original. She takes a few liberties with the melody and the Trio Bulgarka play a smaller role, not coming in until near the end.
A definite improvement, Never Be Mine 2011 feels more intimate and can be rightly regarded as a success.
Top of the City
Another track from The Red Shoes that is an aural improvement, but none of this improves the actual song, which isn’t really very good, then or now.
And So Is Love
A single from The Red Shoes, this track features prominent guitar work from Eric Clapton. The guitar remains, albeit slightly lower in the mix. This song was never Kate at her best and nothing has changed in that respect.
Rubberband Girl
After a couple of average tracks, the album ends on a high, with Kate mumbling her way through this completely unrecognisable version of Rubberband Girl. It sounds a bit like a Rolling Stones outtake from 1971. This footloose and fancy-free version is great fun and seems to be Kate letting her hair down a bit. A good track to end the experiment that is Director’s Cut.
Verdict
It’s difficult to know how to judge Director’s Cut. One thing this exercise does prove is that no amount of knob-twiddling is going to magically transform an average song into a great song, but by the same token, a great song can be stretched and twisted out of shape quite radically and it will still remain a great song. To that end, This Woman’s Work is the shining beacon of this set and Moments of Pleasure is not far behind.
As a compilation of songs it’s obviously very narrow, taking in, as it does, only songs released within a four year period. The Red Shoes represents over 60 percent of Director’s Cut, so if you were not overly keen on that album do not come to the party expecting miracles. It would have been a more interesting exercise for the listener if Kate had revisited tracks from across her entire output, rather than just from the two albums chosen. Her only compilation album was released 25 years ago, so a greatest hits of sorts is long overdue.
However, you get the feeling that Kate wasn’t too bothered about what people wanted to hear. Director’s Cut is the sound of Kate Bush satisfying her own artistic curiosity and taking us along for the ride”.
Prior to moving to 50 Words for Snow and how the two are interlinked, there is another review I am mentioning. I like what Dig! wrote about Director’s Cut in 2021. How it was as much of a showcase of how Kate Bush has developed as an artist. It gave new angles and interpretations that have given me more reasons to appreciate and respect what she did with Director’s Cut. An album worthy of much more attention and writing:
“With hindsight, the move looks like a warm-up for Bush’s next album proper, 50 Words For Snow, which followed Director’s Cut’s in November. Revamping her old material also gave Bush the opportunity to right some creative wrongs from her past. Since originally releasing them, she’d grown dissatisfied with the production of both The Sensual World and The Red Shoes.
“I just kind of felt like there were songs on those two albums that were quite interesting but that they could really benefit from having new life breathed into them,” she told Dimitri Ehrlich for Interview magazine. “There was generally a bit of an edgy sound to it, which was mainly due to the digital equipment that we were using, which was state-of-the-art at the time – and I think everyone felt pressured to be working that way. But I still remain a huge fan of [analogue]. There were elements of the production that I felt were either a little bit dated or a bit cluttered. So, what I wanted to do was empty them out and let the songs breathe more.”
RICHLY REWARDING, EMOTIONALLY OVERWHELMING
Three of the songs (This Woman’s Work, Moments Of Pleasure, Rubberband Girl) were re-recorded completely for Director’s Cut, while the drums on all of the tracks were replaced by studio ace Steve Gadd (Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan). Danny Thompson was brought in on bass, and new backing vocals were provided by Mica Paris, Jacob Thorn and Kate’s son, Bertie McIntosh. Most importantly, Bush herself re-recorded her lead vocals for each of the song. Taken together, the overhauls give a new perspective on the material – the studio sheen associated with the late 80s and early 90s is stripped back, and the songs feel warmer and more welcoming. What’s more, they better suit Bush’s more mature, less dramatic vocals, bringing out new meaning in her lyrics.
The only song with “new” lyrics was Flower Of The Mountain (originally recorded as The Sensual World’s title track), which, in place of her original lyrics, now used an extract from James Joyce’s Ulysses – just as Bush has originally conceived the song. While the writer’s estate had blocked her from using his text back in 1989, come the recording of Director’s Cut, she was finally granted permission. Joyce’s words – drawn from the novel’s closing soliloquy by Molly Bloom – helped transform the track from a glossy, radio-friendly single into something more considered and languid. A similar effect was achieved on much of the rest of Director’s Cut, notably with a moving take on Moments Of Pleasure which, once an ecstatic celebration of friends and family who had passed away, had been transformed into a hushed elegy.
Meanwhile, Bush saved the most radical reinvention for one of her most-loved songs, This Woman’s Work. Recast as an ethereal ambient ballad, with Bush’s lower vocal range and thoughtful delivery lending it an air of tangible vulnerability, the re-recording also demonstrated Bush’s artistic confidence – at this point in her career, she was free to follow her muse without considering a song’s hit potential. The results led to some glorious music.
Released on 16 May 2011, Director’s Cut may at first have seemed like a curio, but a closer listen reveals a richly rewarding, often emotionally overwhelming set that emphasises how creative and headstrong Bush remained as a writer, musician and producer at the top of her game”.
It is important that we salute Director’s Cut. Many fans still dismiss it or question its worth. I hope, through these anniversary features, it is clearer why Bush approached this album and its importance. I guess she was not immune to re-recording vocals. She did for Wuthering Heights. On The Whole Story, a new vocal was recorded. Maybe wanting to mature the vocal and tone down some its wilder edges, she may have been in a similar mindset regarding particular cuts from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Not happy with the production. Periods of her life where there was change, loss and upheaval. From revelatory new versions – Flower of the Mountain, This Woman’s Work and The Song of Solomon – to ones that are not as strong as the original album versions – Deeper Understanding and Rubberband Girl -, there is a lot to discuss and love about the album. It did sort of clear the road for what was coming ahead. Bush’s tenth (and most recent) studio album, 50 Words for Snow, was another shock for fans. Not since 1978 had she released two albums in a year. Unlike then, the situation was very different. Releasing through her own Fish People label, 50 Words for Snow had none of the pressure of her early albums. She could have waited until 2012 but, determined to have it out in 2011, she worked so hard to get the album done.
What resulted was one of her strongest album. Such different headspace and routines needed for both albums. Whereas Director’s Cut was a case of taking existing songs and making them into new songs, Bush started from scratch for 50 Words for Snow. Which was the harder process?! Each provided its own challenges and headaches. It is testament to Kate Bush that 50 Words for Snow is this natural-sounding and magnificent album. Almost like suites of music rather than conventional songs. Director’s Cut, in contrast, is taking known tracks and making them updated and new. Balancing and perfecting both would have taken so much patience and commitment! This is a reason why I wanted to mark Director’s Cut’s thirteenth anniversary. It is more than a revisit or reversion. I sort of think about artists like Taylor Swift recording their own albums. Some found that odd. The situations are different, though it is not far-fetched or strange for an artist to go back to various albums and re-record them. We all hope that the thirteenth anniversary of Director’s Cut makes Kate Bush. think about that time and why she released the album. She was keen to sort of right wrongs so that she could move along. I have said it before, but could her recent reissuing other studio albums and some revisionism mean she has cleared some space for new material. We can only hope but never know. On 16th May, 2011, we received the brilliant and fascinating Director’s Cut. I think that it is an album that we need to…
SHOW love to.