THE DREAMING

Off comes the gloves, the nice and melodic Kate Bush has grown up and become a strange flower. The first three albums from Kate Bush The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never For Ever are all beautiful slightly progressive pop albums. All three are pretty easily accessible and very melodic. With The Dreaming starts the second phase of Kate Bush career and this period is much more experimental. In fact The Dreaming might be Kate Bush most strange and progressive album. It´s a bit inaccessible and for newcomers I wouldn´t start here. It´s taken me a long time to appreciate The Dreaming and I was sure I wouldn´t give it a very high rating, but when I listened to it again for a couple of times to make this review it was like the years since I listened to it the last time had been good for The Dreaming and I finally solved the mystery and understood the album.

Like the three previous albums the music is build around Kate Bush phenominal vocal melodies and unique voice. This time around the instrumentation is very different from the previous albums pretty basic guitar, bass, drums and piano/ keyboard standard rock formula. The year is 1982 and it´s very clear that we are in the eighties as synths play a big role on The Dreaming. It´s not big synth chords though, the synths are more used to make effects and strange things. Kate Bush vocals are also heavily effect laden in some of the songs especially on the opening song Sat In Your Lap and Leave It Open, which are also some of the most experimental songs on The Dreaming. Another thing Kate Bush uses lots of times on The Dreaming are some brilliant harmony and background vocals which sounds really atmospheric. There are lots on moaning and grunting from Kate Bush on The Dreaming and I know it´s an aquired taste if you think that´s annoying or brilliant. It´s one of the things that took me a while to appreciate, but now I think it´s one of the things that sets The Dreaming apart from any other album Kate Bush ever made and makes it unique. The music is not as beautiful and melodic as on previous albums. It´s like Kate Bush subdues the melodies on purpose and it works well IMO. It´s always nice that you have to dig a bit deeper to find the melodies in music. That way the music last longer. At least for me. I quickly tire of music I understand and appreciate the first time I listen to it.

As always Kate Bush is in good shape vocally on The Dreaming. She never disappoints. She is my favorite female singer. What she does with her voice on The Dreaming borders schizophenia as she can sing both in the high and in the low register, moan, scream, grunt. The Dreaming might be her crowning achivement vocally.

The production is pretty fantastic too. Kate Bush has clearly entered the eighties and all sounds have a harder edged sound than on her previous more seventies sounding albums. The very synth dominated soundscape profits from the hard sound. The production on Kate Bush voice is excellent. It helps bring out every emotion she wants.

The excellence of The Dreaming has come as a complete surprise to me, and a pleasant suprise indeed. The CD had actually collected dust on my shelf for a couple of years, but now I see that was a big mistake. The Dreaming will be played much more from now on in my house. I´ll give this excellent album 4 stars. It comes highly recommended.