Album review: Kate Bush - The Kick Inside (1978)

[Guybrush]

Rummaging old backups, I found this review from 15 years ago or so. Edited slightly and reposted for your pleasure, I bring you my old review of:


Kate Bush - The Kick Inside (1978)

• Moving – 3:01
• The Saxophone Song – 3:51
• Strange Phenomena – 2:57
• Kite – 2:56
• The Man with the Child in His Eyes – 2:39
• Wuthering Heights – 4:28
• James and the Cold Gun – 3:34
• Feel It – 3:02
• Oh to Be in Love – 3:18
• L'Amour Looks Something Like You – 2:27
• Them Heavy People – 3:04
• Room for the Life – 4:03
• The Kick Inside – 3:30

Introduction :

Me and Kate go a relatively long way back. My parents were fans during my early years. I wasn't consciously aware of this when I later (re)discovered her in my teens, but perhaps this explains a strange feeling of familiarity.

When me and a mate was at a nachspiel (after-party) at another one of my female friend's place, I was sitting on the couch while her overly high & drunk boyfriend was feeding me cold rice-stew with a ladle. As I was being fed, we were listening to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. The song made a lingering impression and, sometime later, I decided to check out this strange creature. This was long before you could look stuff up on youtube, but I managed to download some of her music videos. Watching them, the weirdness of Kate Bush really opened up to me. The girl seemed utterly crazy with her high pitched voice, wild eyes and sometimes strange dance moves. Somehow I found it all immensely and strangely appealing. Sometimes weird, oftentimes amazing, she's always unique. I quickly became a fan of her early works and got the T-Shirt. This didn't impress my friends at the time who have generally been more interested in Turbonegro, Misfits or Dimmu Borgir, but me and Kate were now inseparable.

So who is Kate Bush? Well, when she was little, she studied the violin and the piano. She also quickly started writing her own songs and was a bit of a prodigy. In her early teens, she was discovered by none other than David Gilmour. With his influence and recommendations, she signed a contract with EMI at a mere 16 years of age. She would spend the time between the contract and her debut album writing more than 200 songs as well as getting dancing lessons and finishing school. According to Kate Bush, recording her own album was a childhood dream and The Kick Inside supposedly contains songwriting material that she wrote all the way down to 12 years of age. The album spawned many singles and she became the first female UK artist to reach Nr. 1 on the charts, immediately catapulting her into stardom. As her musical career developed, she became a shy celebrity who preferred to do her own stuff without being a public figure. Her latest work, released rarely, has moved into a more ambient and avantgarde direction.


Album review

The two first tracks, Moving and The Saxophone Song are beautiful, fragile, feminine and sometimes haunting songs. Strange Phenomena (which is appearantly about menstruation) and particularly Kite lightens the mood of the album with a more playful, youthful and in the latter, whimsical sound at times. Kite also features Kate doing very extensive backing vocals in her own song, much to my pleasure. The Man With The Child in his Eyes is a beautiful ballad written by her at the age of 16. The recording of the song was done under the supervision of David Gilmour and it's also the second single from this album. As such, they made a music video for it.

The Man.. is immediately followed up by her first single from the album which is possibly Kate Bush's most famous song ever, Wuthering Heights. As I wrote earlier, it was the first single by a female artist to reach nr. 1 in the UK, making it a historical and unique pop song. Although I've heard it hundreds of times, it still has great replay value and I think it's a quite hard song not to like. The lyrics are inspired by a movie adaptation of Emily Bronte's book by the same name in which the ghost of Kathy is standing outside Heathcliff's window, begging to be let in.

After Wuthering Heights, we enter the second half of the album. Feel it, although it sounds like a melancholic love song dominated by Kate's voice and her piano, sounds like its about sex. Oh, to be in Love is another fun track that has male backing vocals in the chorus and Them Heavy People is another whimsical tune about being remade to realize your potential. Or something like that. The album finishes with the title track The Kick Inside which, despite its incestuous theme about romantic siblings, is a lovely song and definitely one of my favourites from this album.


Review Summary

So why should you want to listen to this album? For one, it is absolutely wonderful. There's not a bad song on it. Second, it is so unique in style and substance. If you're like me and like artists that stand out from the rest, you will find that here.

When they discovered Kate Bush as a teenager, they saw her potential. Instead of forcing her talent then and there, they nurtured it and gave it time to grow. When she bloomed, The Kick Inside was the first fruit of many from Kate Bush. It may also be the sweetest. Producer Andy Powell has done a great job lifting teenage girl Kate Bush's amazing talent and capturing her essence at that moment. As such, the album captures the spirit of this teenage girl from the late 70s.

Knowing where these songs come from and appreciating its amazing history as well as the music found within, I can't help think of it as anything less than a treasure for the ages.

My score :

Favourite tracks : Moving, The Saxophone Song, Kite, The Man With the Child in his Eyes, Wuthering Heights, The Kick Inside.

Added trivia: That trove of 200 or so songs she wrote also served as a fount of creative material for her second and third albums. Pre-Kick Inside demos of a very young KB playing many of these songs exist and can be found on youtube and elsewhere. They are great.

[jimmy jazz]

Loved this album.

[Guybrush]

Loved this album.

I guess you also like her second and third albums too then? They're similar in style 

[jimmy jazz]

I do like the third but the second felt like an inferior version of the first one.

[Guybrush]

I do like the third but the second felt like an inferior version of the first one.

Yes, it came out like what.. 8 months after her debut? It was definitely a rush to grab some more easy cash after the success of her debut, something that's also clear from reading her biography.

Still good, though

[jadis]

A perfect debut album. L'Amour Looks Something Like You rarely gets singled out but it's one of my favorite songs

[Guybrush]

Yes, there are no duds to be found 🙂 L'Amour is indeed exquisite. Reviewing my old list of favorites above, I could probably swap it for the title track, maybe. Or just add it to the list.

Even the weaker songs are great imo.

[Trollheart]

Great review. I'm not necessarily a fan of a lot of Kate's stuff - you can see in the albums I reviewed when I undertook her discography (never finished it) - but you write very well. You should do more reviews.

[Lexi Darling]

I'm a bigger fan of her 80s era (Hounds of Love would be an easy top 100 album of all time for me) but this album is quite charming as well.

Love Kate in general though, she was doing stuff 40 years ago that paved the way for modern arty popsters and did it better than most of them.