Kate Bush - The Red Shoes

Released: 1995

Purchased: Stole it from my dad a couple years ago.

Playthrough:

Rubberband Girl is Kate doing fun pop, which is unusual, so I love it just for that. It's a catchy, sing-along song; I just wish it didn't have the damn saxophone.

And So Is Love is typical Kate Bush - haunting, gorgeous ballad that works really well for winter.

Eat the Music is another fun pop song, and I don't understand why it came dead last in the singles rate. Now granted, the lyrics don't make a lot of sense - I saw someone on here say that they're about oral sex, and Wikipedia says they're "about opening up in relationships to reveal who we really are inside," but I don't know how well either of those interpretations holds up (especially the latter). I don't really care, though. It's not as though I Love It makes a lot of sense, but it's still a solid pop tune. Same goes here.

Moments of Pleasure is maybe my favorite Kate song. Definitely top three with Running Up That Hill and Sat in Your Lap. It's absolutely beautiful musically, mostly with lyrics to match. It sounds so dreamlike.

The Song of Solomon is basically filler, but it's still very pleasant. "Don't want your bullshit, just want your sexuality" is a classic Kate line.

Lily sounds more like Never for Ever-/The Dreaming-era Kate than probably anything else here, and though I'm not very fond of either of those albums, I do really like it. The chorus is oddly infectious.

The Red Shoes' lyrics don't really make sense without the plot of The Line, The Cross, and the Curve, but it's a fun little ditty nonetheless.

Top of the City comes off as a lesser Moments of Pleasure. It doesn't reach me in quite the same way, but it's similarly calming and wintry. It would be a really nice song to fall asleep to (no, no, no shade).

Constellation of the Heart feels, lyrically, like where Kate was trying to head with the whole damn album. Not something I'd choose to listen to, though.

Big Stripey Lie is the worst thing on the album. It's noise.

Why Should I Love You? is pretty fillery, but no less enjoyable for it. P'Nut probably stans for it.

You're the One is a fairly straightforward love song, which is unusual for Kate. Too bad it's boring.

Verdict: It's far from perfect, but it definitely doesn't deserve its poor reputation; I like it more than any of Kate's other albums. It would make a really good starting point for getting into Kate, given that it's more exoteric than most of her material. It's just too bad it falls apart at the end. 7/10.

Standout: Moments of Pleasure