A tale of demonic possession, obsession, and erotic fruit

OK, first of all I should admit to being a Kate Bush obsessive of almost Alan Partridge proportions (listen to his tribute to Kate ). If anyone wants to hear my warbling rendition of Wuthering Heights, then just buy me lots of drinks. So the fact that it has taken me 11 years to really start liking and understanding this CD is significant. That's almost as long as the gaps between her recordings.

Some of the tracks just work straight away. Eat The Music, as has been documented elsewhere , is a witty and bouncy song about the way in which music and desire opens people up, no matter who they are. The fruit metaphors are amusing, and make for a quite stunning video. It's also about the vulnerability of the performer as they let themselves be opened to the audience. And that's a theme that punctuates the rest of the CD.

Recently, whilst reading Deleuze's book on Francis Bacon, I really understood for the first time that there is something quite interesting about dance. It sits uncomfortably and excitedly between two quite different aesthetic orders: painting and music. These two powerful forces both possess and animate the dancer. The title track, The Red Shoes, is about that fulcrum of forces. She should know about that, having been trained to dance by Lindsay Kemp. The hour long movie that accompanies the CD (The Line, The Cross And The Curve) stars Kemp alongside Kate and Miranda Richardson, and itself captures the position of the dancer with both comic and tragic effect.

So finally after 11 years what do I think? It is a really great CD. It takes a bit of work to appreciate it. But is worth the effort. And furthermore, both Prince and Lenny Henry sing on one of the tracks, so that's worth it in itself.

Of course being a true obsessive I can't give this anything less than 5 stars!

Robert O'Toole : 19 Jun 2004 07:28 |  Tags: Kate Bush |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem