I'm not sure any other order would have made much difference. It was a combination of factors: people had to come to expect a certain style from Kate and this certainly wasn't it. Charts were moving on, synths were dominant and this sounded like nothing else. Sometimes things simply don't have mass appeal and this [brilliant, brilliant] album is one of them. In further extreme nerd news, I just scrobbled my 20,000th Kate Bush track on LastFM. I gave the honour to Running...
To be perfectly honest, it is probably the one discography I can't put in order. I find myself drawn to different albums at different times depending on the season, or what's going on in my life at that particular moment. I've had deep phases with each album, and with specific tracks, but I can't place any sort of hierarchy on it at all.
Argh!! Had a work call come in which made me miss the end of the interview! Was there anything else asked after the question about Bertie? If there was no question about new music I imagine Kate probably asked Radio 4 not to ask her that.
I knew that would be the case, I bet it was a condition of the interview, she only ever reveals when she is ready but I think the presumption is she is constantly working on music, it'll just be ready to be shared when she says so.
No surprises that there were no revelations in that interview. At times she gave quite short (though polite) answers. Almost certainly they’d been briefed not to ask her about new music, but even the lockdown question only got a “gardening” answer. For someone that, in the past, was at the cutting edge of technology, to have a very old phone and be calling in from a landline suggests she’s actually become very old-fashioned. Why sit with a laptop if she could do most of it on a phone?
I feel like for the reasons she said? Not to be always instantly contactable and accessible. I listened to it on my daily get my ice latte walk and it was a delight. There’s such joy in how bemusedly and touchingly low key overwhelmed by it all. It’s also so fun to hear how normal she sounds because the enigma and mystique conjures up such a contrasting character. I laughed out loud when she got asked about ‘witchtok’ and called it ridiculous.
In an interview for Director’s Cut she said “With Red Shoes, I think there was a rather edgy sound, mainly due to the digital equipment that we were using at the time, which then everybody was working with digital because it was state of the art and I’ve always been a huge fan of the analogue sound. So, that was one of the things that was part of the main process with making this record, was to transfer everything back to analogue so that the sound would be warmer and fuller.” So she’s already been in a position where she’s said not all the technological advances were great for her work. Maybe not hugely surprising for a woman in her 60s to not keep up with every new technology in her personal life too.
I adore her so much and how unbothered (but grateful) she is with everything. "I never listen to my old stuff..."
This really confused me, I instantly thought "not even in 2018 when you remastered your entire back catalogue??"
I always feel sorry for Lionheart, Kate was basically ahead of the times (as per) because these days she'd just put out a deluxe edition of The Kick Inside with ten new songs. But back then the label just wanted another album out.
Hounds of Love The Dreaming Aerial (for Sky of Honey alone) The Kick Inside Never For Ever The Sensual World The Red Shoes Lionheart Directors Cut 50 Words
I love all her albums so much, for different reasons. The top three is pretty dead set, but the others are interchangeable: Hounds of Love The Dreaming Aerial The Sensual World The Red Shoes Lionheart The Kick Inside Never for Ever 50 Words for Snow
Lovely to hear her interviewed again. Stunned they didn’t ask about upcoming projects BUT realistically it’ll have been a condition of the interview. The interview suggested there was a little bit left on the cutting room floor at the end there.
