A Love Letter to Kate Bush

I discovered Kate Bush on yet another of my late night TV Tropes binges. I was looking to see if harsh vocals existed outside of metal when I came upon a description of Waking the Witch : “Kate Bush used it in 1985 with “Waking The Witch”. In this case, she provided both voices: one track is her natural voice, the other is a drastically slowed down demonic growl.".

Now I’ve listened to weird and heavy music before but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer insanity and creativity that lied ahead. The pretty intro, the unexpected vocal glitches, the thick distortion on the growls, and all of this in the ’80s before death metal was even born and before EDM became the force it did. The ending helicopter sample intrigued me too, was this song part of a larger concept album? (It is and it’s glorious )

I had to listen to more, Running Up That Hill was next. This was much more poppy but not the kind of pop I was used to hearing. The subtle arty touches in the background, the gated reverb on the drums, the slow development and crescendo, all wrapped up with that catchy, catchy chorus. This was almost…progressive pop? I never realized such a thing existed.

The addict in me couldn’t stop *click* Wuthering Heights , a dreamy goth masterpiece sung with a very unique vocal tone, not to mention the key changing wizardry Kate manages to pull off throughout the entire piece. *click* Sat in Your Lap Prog rock in a pop package. Also what the hell are these vocals? *click*Get Out Of My House Is that Konnakol? *click* *click* *click* I was a methhead and Kate was Heisenberg.

Over the years I’ve come to identify some key artists who got me hooked to their genres. Varien got me into electronic, John Zorn showed me jazz could be fun, Shostakovich demonstrated how heavy classical could get. Kate showed me pop was much more than the ghost written, creatively bankrupt crap that I assumed it was and for that I love her.