THE DREAMING

I still remember when KATE BUSH was added to Prog Archives, I felt it was an odd decision,because there's no reason to include her in a Progressive Rock database, except maybe because she released a song with PETER GABRIEL, but she's here and the only thing left to do is review one of her albums.

Lets be honest, she's beautiful, has a great voice, a strong personality and charisma, but I can't find the slightest connection between her weird POP music and the genre we're here for, and believe me, I tried to find any relation, but no, it's not possible for me.

So started with "The Dreaming", considered by many as her most progressive release, I will accept it's weird for a POP artist, her multi layered vocals and use of exotic instruments makes the music richer, but this is nothing more than unusual melodic POP, of high quality but out of place in our beloved site.

The real problem is that in the attempt to sound experimental, she looses her strongest attribute, and that's her soft and beautiful voice, the strange sounds, the Cabaret like music, hardly reaches the climax and gets lost in the search for an original sound that never finds.

But extreme weirdness is not the only problem, there's a point in which all the songs sound absolutely predictable and repetitive, after two tracks I find nothing new or fresh, just sounds, shouts and dissonances without coherence, and that's sad, because she's a fantastic artist, but she goes way over the fence with the cacophonic excesses.

But not everything is boring, the closing section of "The Dreaming" and the instrumentation in "The Night of the Swallow" are exquisite, but not enough to save the album, she should stay with simple music for her pristine voice, because that's what she does best in my opinion.

Sorry, but I don't like the album at all, if it wasn't for her fantastic voice, I would go with one star, but that would be unfair, so I stay with 2.