MB Classics: Kate Bush - Never for Ever
 

Next album is Kate Bush's Never for Ever.
https://e.snmc.io/lk/o/l/0ba51483c75...a6/1329380.jpg

Your vote only counts if you say something about the album. It doesn't need to be a paragraph, just a couple sentences about the album.

Also, I'll ask mods to delete Votes this time. Just a couple of sentences, that's all.

Why nominate an album that's not even the artist's top 3?

1. Hounds of Love
2. The Sensual World
3. The Dreaming

Because the artist's top 3 is

1. Never for Ever
2. The Kick Inside
3. The Dreaming

;)

Beautiful yet weird, dark yet joyful, explosive yet subtle, dated yet fresh, and throughout it all, entertaining as hell. Though her voice and style will always be contentious, you've gotta admit that Kate Bush knew what she wanted and went in firing both barrels (literally, in the case of her televised Xmas special performance of The Wedding List).

A perfectly flawed album from a perfectly flawed performer, and I wouldn't have it, or her, any other way. 10/10

I would have assumed The Dreaming and the Kick Inside would have been more superior albums. Kate Bush is another one I'll have to listen to a lot more later as I calculate my top albums of each year. I don't think Never For Ever is going to quite make 1980's list, but I did like the album. It's consistent and a good listen if you don't have anything better to do. But I don't see anything classic in it so I gave it a seven. Basically it's good but not great.

Although I like that song, "Babooshka" sounds so ****ing retarded to someone who speaks Russian.

Great album this one, bounced back well after the disappointing (imo) Lionheart.

It starts off really well, Babooshka is a great pop track and really good concept. Delius is one of my favourite songs by her, it's such a cute and pleasant track and makes me feel summery when I hear it. I often listen to it in summer. It's even got the sound of a buzzing bee at the end of it, what more do you want?

Strongest part of the album is imo the end with Army Dreamers and Breathing. Army Dreamers is another great, well written song, where she is singing in an Oirish accent. Breathing as I said in the other thread might be her best song.

So overall it's very strong and for me it's an 8/10.

Plus, the music videos for the singles are great. And with an artist like Kate Bush, seeing her perform is almost as important as hearing her.

Looks stunning in Army Dreamers.

And I know it's not on this album but There Goes a Tenner is :D:D

:beer:

Great review Ori

I had a Kate Bush phase when I was younger. This reminded me her music shouldn’t be a phase but a regular part of my life. She’s back in rotation!

Me too. Fanboyed her for a bit. Still sort of do.

Moving
Saxophone Song
Wuthering Heights
Symphony in Blue
Babooshka
Delius
Blow Away
All We Ever Look For
Violin
Army Dreamers
Breathing
Pull Out The Pin
Night of the Swallow
*Hounds of Love whole album*

Some of my favourite Kate songs.

Haven't heard much past HOL but did like Aerial.

https://media.giphy.com/media/Q8iRJ1rU8sVGg/giphy.gif

Rotating.

Kate Bush is adorable. So is this album.

Wot, no "The Man With the Child in His Eyes?" :yikes:

Since this was my pick, it's no surprise that I love it to death.

I just love the atmosphere of this record, as well as the inventiveness and variety of these songs. A lot of them just sound so... Kate Bushy. I have yet to find any other artist that really feels anything like "Blow Away", "All We Ever Look For", "Egypt" or "Delius".

There's no bad tracks here. It's just a tightly constructed, nearly perfect journey through exactly the kind of thing Kate does best. I know that this album isn't widely considered her best, but to me, it probably is - although, frankly, most of her early albums are very, very close on my personal ranking.

Kate Bush didn't really **** up until she made her 1993 album, The Red Shoes. Her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow is widely underrated because people didn't really expect her to do anything super vital again so late in her career, but in my eyes, it's a classic that belongs right next to The Hounds of Love and The Sensual World. Anyway, this was about Never for Ever, and that album is very, very , very good.

Favorite songs: "Egypt", "The Wedding List" and "Breathing".

10/10

I don't really like that one tbh. Not sure why.

Breathing is such an incredible song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlofSthVwc

Great album. Quality-wise comparable with Joni Mitchell's late 70's stuff, though her influences are perhaps a bit more eclectic on Never For Ever than, say, Hounds Of Love. This was also the first female singer-songwriter album to top the U.K. charts, so it's notable for that as well.

While most of the singles came from Side 2, my favorite stuff is on Side 1. 'Egypt' in particular is very well put together, going into an almost Camel-esque progressive rock exploration in it's middle section where the synths take center stage.

More of an 8 out of 10 for me, but even if I don't think every track is a winner its still very good.

A lot of these tracks are kind of Fleetwood Mac-y, kind of Joni Mitchell-y, kind of Joanna Newsom-y, all of which are artists I enjoy. But the smarmy 80s instrumentation kills a lot of the emotional depth of this record for me. And it's just connect the dots from this stuff to the uber-smarmy new age crap you hear in elevators. Please just go learn to play some of these actual instruments so it's not Far Side Virtual anymore. But of course, it's thirty-eight years too late for me to be saying that. Some tracks the songwriting comes through more, other tracks the smarminess comes through. Notably the final two tracks were my favorites and Egypt and Night Scented Stock were the smarmiest. Okay I've given enough of my time to this "review". 7/10

I love Kate Bush, but this isn't the Kate Bush album I expected to see nominated for Classic status, nor do I think it should qualify over Hounds of Love or The Dreaming. This one isn't a bad album. It's interesting, in a medieval-pop sort of way. However, I think it pales in comparison to some of her other work. This album doesn't have any standout, timeless tracks like Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love, or Suspended in Gaffa. To its credit, Egypt is a nice and intense little song. The Wedding List has a great attitude to it... but I'm always going to be drawn to a different record if I want to hear Kate Bush.

EDIT: I am now listening to Hounds of Love, because the album in question made me just want to hear Kate Bush at her best instead.

I nominated Hounds of Love btw.

#js

But this is one of her best for me.

Breathing/Babooshka are the closest to this imo.

Breathing was probably the best track, but I'm not going to listen to a whole album for one track when Hounds of Love has only a couple that aren't brilliant.

I pretty much love every track on Never for Ever. Among the first 5 albums, it's only Lionheart that's a bit inconsistent for me. Still, I probably like that album more than most.

I've never listened to The Sensual World so I'm going to.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1DDndY0FLI

:D

I need to listen to that on more as well. Deeper Understanding and Rocket's Tail are two really good songs from that album.

Given that I don't have the time to listen to this through again, I've had to refer back to when I reviewed it in my journal as part of her discography, and I see that I liked it, but was not, to use my own words, blown away by it. Nevertheless, it contains three big hit singles alongside some experimental stuff, one of her few duets with a male in Ian Bairnson, and some nice ballads. So overall, being no Kate expert, and still having Hounds of Love as my favourite (after The Whole Story) I've rated this as an eight. I do think there are probably better Kate albums that would rate as classics, and I'm one of those who thinks or agrees that 50 Words For Snow is criminally underrated, as is Aerial, but there you go. Take what you want from that I guess.

So I'm not alone on that :beer:
It's a slow and quiet album, but I learned to love it after a few listens.

Aerial never really grabbed me, but I haven't given it another chance for years either, admittedly.

I love that, on Aerial, she wasn't afraid to go for the outdated and mostly hated second-side-is-a-concept thing, and I feel it worked really well, though probably wouldn't have worked for any other artist. I admire the way she gives two slim, perfectly manicured fingers to the conventions of rock and pop music.

It's a good album, but not something I'd go out of my way to listen too. Maybe give it a few more listens in the distant future but not anytime soon. 6/10

Did this get in, or no?

I forgot about this. Give me a minute.

It looks like it got in. Travesty.

I'm calling it. Album made it with an average of 8.09

Something is wrong when the 5th or 6th best Kate Bush album beats Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.

Whateverrrrrrrrrrr though.

It really is. If this was Hounds of Love I'd understand but this album isn't that good.

Lack of perspective from the masses.

In general terms, unless you're a jazz fan, Kate >>>>>> Miles

Can you imagine how much better off the world be if people who don’t like jazz died?

It's like you people don't even remember that it's MB classics, not the general consensus in the world of music at large.
If it doesn't lead to some unexpected results, what's even the point then?