Steps Backwards...

[hantsbear]

You may recall earlier in the week, I was excited about the imminent release of the new Kate Bush album "Ariel". Well, now I have my grubby little mitts on a copy and having listened to it a couple of times, I can't help feeling a little disappointed. Normally, I find each new Kate Bush album a movement forwards; sounding quite unlike its predecessors. This time, after the promising start of "King of the Mountain" and "π", I'm sat thinking that some of the album sounds very much like some of the piano solos on either "A Kick Inside" or "Lionheart". And the whole of the second disc reminds me of the slower parts of "The Ninth Wave" from "The Hounds of Love".

It doesn't help that I felt let down by the new Mike Oldfield album "Light and Shade", which lacks some of the punchier tracks of the past...

Comments

[winstonthriller.livejournal.com]

I have to agree. A stronger producer could've helped her focus more. ANd I'm sorry--π sounds like second rate Laurie Anderson. Sigh...I still Love Kate Bush.

[albadger.livejournal.com]

That's why I focus my appreciative energies on long-dead artists. Puccini and Brahms never disappoint with new releases.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sibelius and Shostakovich, here.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

I generally find, darling Koala, that if my old faves get two lemon albums in a row, its time to look around for something new. Not completely abandon the old artist, just find somehting new. Experiment a little, y'know.

[progbear.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kind of reminds me of my reaction to Prefab Sprout’s Andromeda Heights. I really, really tried to like it (particularly because I paid an insanely high import price for it), but in the end I couldn’t help but think, “Seven years of waiting for this?!?!!” I wonder if my positive reaction to The Gunman and Other Stories has more to do with the fact that I paid $5 for it than the fact that it’s appreciably better.

Scratch that, it is better. Hard to believe someone with such a high standard of perfection as Paddy McAloon could let something as lame as Andromeda Heights escape.

As for Kate, my expectations were lowered after the lameness (IMO) that was The Sensual World. I was so let down by it that I never bothered with The Red Shoes (which is, by most accounts, supposed to be even worse).

[kaoskrew.livejournal.com]

Yes I got the new album on Monday and have given it a few listens and it's quite mellow for our Kate. Still a few more listens before I make a definative comment I think.