NEVER FOR EVER

Never For Ever is the third album from Kate Bush and it´s been a couple of years since Lionheart came out. It was a wise decision to take a break from recording and gather inspiration. The Kick Inside and Lionheart are both wonderful albums but they were both released in 1978 and with such a tight schedule you might fear that Kate Bush would run dry. That didn´t happen. Never For Ever is an equally wonderful and memorable album and doesn´t leave any doubt that Kate Bush was still the queen of intricate and innovative pop music.

The album starts with Babooshka which is a very special song to me. Despite the lyrics about infidelity and the despair of love this is me and my wife´s song and we both love it as we also both love Kate Bush. There are very few artists that we share our love for so Babooshka is very special to us. Whenever we put this album on and Babooshka comes out of the speakers we both sing and shout along. Delius (Song Of Summer) is the next song and it´s very quit song following the full on pop assault that was Babooshka. Delius (Song Of Summer) is the song here that points most towards the eighties with the electronic drums/ sequenced drums/ drum machine. It´s a very beautiful song and it reminds me of some of the quiter moments on Hounds of Love.

There are lots of other memorable songs here but I´ll mention Blow Away (For Bill), Violin and Breathing for standing out a bit. There are only excellent songs on Never For Ever though.

The musicians are great as usual and Kate Bush is in top form and sings both like an angel and like a femme fatale at times ( Wedding List). The lady is outstanding.

The production is a bit more eighties sounding than the two previous albums but it still has a somewhat soft seventies sound.

So this is the third in a row of beautiful and excellent albums from Kate Bush. This might not be very progressive but on the other hand it´s innovative enough to be called semi-progressive IMO. Kate Bush is without a doubt my favorite female artist and with Never For Ever she proves herself again. This one is highly recommendable as are her first two albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart. I will rate Never For Ever 4 stars for being another excellent album from a very special lady.