Emily: Hello again! It's been quite a while since we last posted, which is mostly my fault. You see, Zack and I have started grad school and law school, respectively, and said at the beginning of the semester we would try to get through 20 albums by the end. But then the crushing amount of work that comes along with graduate studies took hold, and I started to slack on my album listening. Zack decided to stop too, so he wouldn't get ridiculously far ahead of me. Now here we are, 3 months since our last post and 2 days from our last finals, and with renewed vigor and a significant increase in free time we return to our humble blogging pursuits. We start back on a somewhat obscure note with Kate Bush. As is the case with a lot of the early-80's alternative on this list, Bush was big in England but less so stateside. Her sound is certainly unique and borders on strange, which may explain why it failed to take off in a country still weaning itself off disco. I thought it was a good kind of strange though, not off-putting like a Captain Beefheart, but an engaging kind of strange that made me pay attention and listen closely. Bush takes dreamy art-pop and twists it into something experimental and new, with sounds ranging from spacey synths to a rolling didgeridoo. Sounds weird, but it makes total sense once you take notice.
Favorite Tracks: Sat in Your Lap; The Dreaming; All the Love
Zack: If both Bjork and Big Boi cite an album as one
of their favorites of all time, you know it must be good. And, yeah, The Dreaming is definitely worthy
of both of their appreciations. From start to finish, it finds inventive ways
to combine a sort of ethereal, swirling feel (a la Bjork) with some early
alternative sentiments. You can tell it’s a true artist feeling out her ability
to experiment. In a way, it almost reminds me of the last few Kanye album;
someone trying to push the boundaries of a genre they’ve been placed in as far
as they can. I don’t know much (anything, really) about Kate Bush’s music
beyond this one album I’ve listened to. But if the rest of her stuff is as
ambitious as this, then I’ve got some catching up to do.
Favorite Tracks: Night of the Swallow; Sat in Your Lap; The
Dreaming
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