9. Kate BushThe Sensual World
What I love about The Sensual World brings us back to domesticity. Kate is such an all-encompassing artist, but I love that her Irish influences are really being embraced on this al-bum. It’s fascinating that she is able to go beyond Protestant and Catholic thinking, back to a mystic, spiritual Ireland. Even though James Joyce’s Ulysses is obviously an influence on The Sensual World, I think Kate Bush has an ancient spirituality about herself and her music.
I also like how mid-tempo the album is. It makes me think of the flat upstairs, above my child-hood flat, which had weed dealers in it. I remember going up there and it being full of house-plants, smoke, and a Kate Bush poster. For some reason, I think that The Sensual World was playing. I remember thinking, “so this is the world that Kate Bush fits into…” it’s green and smoky and people are in another dimension.
The Sensual World is a calmer album in many ways, and I think that she’s really taking pride in a lot of music outside Anglo-American circles. You really feel like she’s acknowledg-ing her whole family on this album; you’re in her house and everyone’s around. But there’s al-so a womanly sensuality as there always is with Kate Bush, only here, it’s more confident.
I just really enjoy the sound as well. There are a lot of acoustic elements and it doesn’t have an icy, ‘80s dimension. Sonically, it’s less angular and more earthy. I can’t imagine that there are many subjects that Kate Bush hasn’t written a song about. This album is just so intelligent and emotive, and we’re just very lucky to be living in the same time as her.
