Customer Reviews

Kick Inside

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hard to believe this gem is 27 years old. For you Kate collectors, the cover art of this CD (not illustrated by Amazon) is the "Red Socks" or "Kate in a crate" cover that was used on the first EMI-U.S. release (not the Harvest "Vogue" cover). Buy this CD! Kate is a creative genius. [This review is only for the Amazon listing; if it is bounced to other sites the cover art comment may not apply.]

I heard the song "Moving" when I was only 8 years old, and it
burned into my heart for nearly 20 years. I'd downloaded it
once, and the indescribably solitary beauty let me bought this
CD last week irresistibly. It doesn't disappoint me, it's great!
I play this CD almost everyday.

This is what I call CLASSIC.

Fun, quirky and maybe just a little too twee, Kate Bush's debut is full of starry eyed romantic wonder. Given that the album doesn't get even close to the complex maturity of later albums, there are some quite humerous and even insightful observations within her lyrics here. Her music is unlike anything heard before or since: a sort of cross between modern musical theatrics and traditional folk presented with a late 70s rock vibe. Once being accustomed to the unusual stylings, there are some very catchy and infectuous offerings here.
Best Tracks: Moving, Wuthering Heights, The Kick Inside.

Very surprised no one has yet mentioned the fact that 'saxophone song' and 'the man with the child in his eyes' were recorded(at least the vocals were) a couple of years before the other tracks. The differences in Kate's vocals are stark, I love it when she sings in her 'pure' style like these two tracks. I'm not so keen on the strange vocal style she must have developed in the intervening period, just listen to 'feel it' and compare the vocals with 'the man with the child in his eyes'.
My other two favourite Kate Bush tracks are also sung in her 'pure' voice - 'This Woman's Work' and 'Moments Of Pleasure'. I just wish she had stuck with this style throughout her career.

If I could give this album 6 stars I would.

Recorded at a mere 18 years of age, "The Kick Inside" proves what absolute talent Kate Bush had. Yet this is her finest hour, never to be repeated. Yes, she had some okay moments after this (eg. Babooshka, Army Dreamers) but no other Bush album matches the magic of "The Kick Inside".

You will fall in love with:

- Oh, to be in love
- Wuthering heights
- The Man with the child in his eyes
- Room for the life
- The dolphin song
- Moving

Import it, steal it, borrow it ... do what you must to get hold of it!

I've yet to hear a Kate Bush album that I could not listen to, but this one tops all her other efforts. We get the keen balance of her beautifully loopy voice and her most moving songs. Beginning with, appropriately, "Moving" and drifting right into "The Saxophone Song," an intense dreamy mode scoops you up immediately. Yeah, I know I'm going out on a histrionic limb here, but "The Kick Inside" can mellow and soothe me in record time!

Whether she belts out an eccentric "Wuthering Heights" or a sweet "Man With the Child In His Eyes," Kate Bush really hits the mark throughout this album. If you have never heard Kate Bush before, forget compilations and hold off on her other works; I think you will enjoy this particular CD immensely.

Kate Bush is one of the most talented humans to grace this mundane mudball and I'd like to encourage more people to actually LISTEN to every aspect of every song she puts out.
Comparing her talent to the likes of tori amos is an insult
to Kate Bush. Kate Bush stands far above---STILL---in the
realm of progressive thinking, creative music, outfits, dance, movements, playing on words without missing a breath...I could go on forever, but I know America has a short attention span. So:
Lose tori amos, et al.
Buy Kate Bush.
Hey--you'll learn a lot...and may find a few smiles in between.

No Apologies,
ari

The Kick Inside was Kate Bush debut album and became a huge hit in the UK and around the world except in the US. It may not be perhaps her most mature or best album but it is indeed very good album. All the tracks are well composed and produced and Kate's vocal style and range is spetacular. Lyrically this album is merely about love and relationships and she does not explore as much on this one like the next releases. Some of the songs are simple but manage to bring something fresh. The Kick Inside is however a bit dated and many songs may not be as accesable as others. However this is a impressive debut my a huge talent that is one of the greatest artist of all time.

This album, released way back in 1978, is one of the best debuts ever. In my opinion, Kate only topped this album with The Dreaming and Hounds Of Love. This album includes some of her earliest compositions, some she wrote when still in her early teens. The Man With The Child In His Eyes is one of the most beautiful songs ever; Moving and the title track are way up with the best of the best as well, as far as I am concerned. It even includes some love songs (Oh To Be In Love, L'Amour Looks Something Like You), which are gorgeous. Her lyrical subjects matters are sometimes unexpected and of shock-value to some, but I think hers are so well crafted.... also, the instruments used on this album are unusual if some cases, but to great effect. I don't like every song on this album (Kite and Feel It don't do it for me), but the inclusion of the best pop song EVER makes up for that: Wuthering Heights. I have never heard anything better since. As for her voice: you either like it or you don't. And I love it.....

Released while still in her teens, this debut by Kate Bush is deceptively simple. One would not expect tons of musical sophistication in the structures of her songs. And, if the truth be told, the emotional palette of the album is fairly limited as well--that is to say, compared to her later work, there is a romantic dreaminess suffusing Bush's vocals throughout that is of unparalleled beauty, and even naivete.

Behind the simplicity of the verse-chorus song structures is a ferocious imagination. The vocal line of the opening song, "Moving" is more than enough to sound like some kind of complete reinvention of all singing. It is one of the most beautiful (and moving) things that Bush has ever recorded. And, as throughout all of her career, the musicians she has playing for her are genuine masters of tact, taste and musicianship. The bass player, in particular, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for his playing.

There is no doubt that this is a first album by a first-rate artist. One song, one of the disc's stand-outs, "The Man with a Child in his Eyes" was apparently recorded when she was sixteen. Again, compared to her later work, there is a very dominant style of piano-bass-drum music over which Bush's sensuous vocals sail. The attempt at a more rock orchestration on "James and the Cold Gun", while musically lush in performance, seems a bit forced and is one of the weaker spots on the album. Basically, if the opening song grabs you by the soul and makes you sit up, then the whole thing is a banquet of similar delights.

Lastly, the album also features the (now) signature Kate Bush song, "Wuthering Heights". One of those rare kinds of song that deserves every bit of admiration that Bush's devoted fans lavish on it. Newcomers should be warned not to overread the meaning in the lyrics, here or anywhere else. Bush's lyrics seem to be very private, on the one hand, or are imaginative projections of the person in her song. In other words, and as Bush has asserted in interviews, the artist should not be mistaken for her subject.

Over the course of her career, one can actually hear the young woman who is singing on this album growing up--songs about broken hearts, rather than romantic idylls about Prince Charmings. The freshness, even the innocence, captured on this disk is truly remarkable. The singing, often in the very high range, is almost painfully moving--a truly amazing musical experience if you can be open to it without irony.