The Kick Inside

The Kate Bush fanatic who doesn’t own Wuthering Heights keeps it quiet. In anticipation of 50 Words for Snow, I recently rectified the problem and bought her debut album, The Kick Inside (along with The Red Shoes, reviewed here).

The Kick Inside (1978)

Now I have Wuthering Heights. This is a song which could barely be more familiar, after so much exposure and dancing along (we’ve all done it). What strikes me now is that it still sounds so strange. Even in the context of this album, that weird voice seems to come from a totally different place. Coupled with an undeniably wonderful and inspired lyric, the song continues to entrance and leap. Mainstream the rock arrangement may be, with a banal guitar solo tacked on the end, but without this grounding it perhaps would never have been a number one smash. It couldn’t help but knock everyone sideways on Top of the Pops.

Let me in

That rock presentation characterizes the album and is handled perfectly well, with piano leading alongside occasional strings, synthesizers and so on. This is the mid-70s, with Elton John and Roxy Music each coming to mind at times. But even the most straightforward tracks have their quirks and one should never be complacent about Kate’s singing. Listen to her playful backing vocals in the otherwise unsurprising James and the Cold Gun, or imagine how much power would be lost if L’Amour Looks Something Like You were stripped of her voice.

And sometimes there is liberation from the safety of four-square guitar-and-drums nestled in the mix. Featuring primarily Kate and her piano, these are the quieter and more exposed songs, such as Feel It and The Kick Inside. These tracks show better what later albums would hold. We are drawn more to the songwriting and remember with awe that Kate Bush was nineteen years old when this was released. In fact, the most famous of these calmer tracks, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, was recorded when she was only sixteen. It is a fascinating song, and the only one I previously knew besides Wuthering Heights.

Most of the rest of the album was completely new to me. The Saxophone Song and Strange Phenomena are exciting; Them Heavy People and Oh to Be in Love are fun. My favourite discovery is Moving, the opening song. Swooning and wheeling, Kate woos with a sensual lyric. The arrangement works well too, built around sparkling piano. Moving gives us the best of Kate Bush’s early work, before she grabbed hold of the production reins and went batshit with a Fairlight. Also, this is great:

There was much to come, but The Kick Inside still endures as a remarkable debut. The teenaged Kate had talent ready to explode.

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