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Full length version of Deeper Understanding on Youtube!

Well, straight after the radio premiere, Kate’s official Facebook site has provided us with a link to hear the FULL version of the song. More official updates coming also!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5UsjqXXcZ4[/youtube]

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30 Comments

  1. Ronald Sterckx

    It sounds way better on youtube than the radio snippet.

    I was worried for a good 2 minutes 😉

  2. Michael Guth

    WHY DOESN’T IT WORK IN GERMANY????????? EVERY SINGLE KATE BUSH VIDEO IS LOCKED FOR GERMAN VIEWERS!!!!

  3. Chris

    I have the same question s Michael… I find it quite sad that German fans always seem to be left out on stuff like this… It most likely is not on purpose, but it is a known problem and should be fixed by now!

  4. I see the agenda:

    1) Kate doesn’t just re-master, she re-imagines and re-interprets

    2) “You love my old stuff – well I don’t!” This the woman who told an open-mouted Stuart Maconie that she couldn’t bear ‘Oh England My Lioheart’!

    3) “Vocoders are for auto-tune? Er, no – why would I need that? You can do some other fab stuff with them too…”

  5. Michael Guth

    OPEN THE LINK FOR THE GERMAN FANS!!!! WE CAN’T HEAR OR SEE NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Greg

    OK, now I have the full picture for this re-imagined song. I still think the chorus is horrendous and like fingernails on a chalkboard. I really like the new mix. The bass sounds wonderful, the piano, too. I like the groove. But the vocoder/computer effect is plain awful. I understand her intent: Kate sings the verse and the computer sings a greeting back to her. I get it. But it doesn’t work, narratively, maybe, but not as a song. I really hope a similar butchering does not befall the other tracks.

    • A strange choice for a single but I can imagine it working better within the framework of the album.

    • Tom

      I have to agree. I do not think this song is an improvement on the original. And yeah, now I am a bit worried about the rest of the album.

      “Re-interpretations” and tweaking things do not always work. I think the new vocal of Wuthering Heights was superior to the first, but more often than not when someone goes back to “improve” the product they mess up something that was not broken to begin with (i.e. Spielberg’s ET).

  7. Rob

    I thought (hoped) the chorus snippet leaked last week was a fake. It sounded horribly amateur, but it does sound much better in full than in a three-minute version on Radio 2. It has certainly grown on me on several listens (the vocoder bit does have a bit of charm about it; I think I like the fact that it does sound a bit dated, a bit mid-1980s), and you do need to separate it from the original version. If I was hearing it for the first time, I would think it was a fantastic album track. Not especially convinced it makes a great single choice or teaser for the album, though.

  8. John

    Kate’s on good form. After the sublime Aerial we get something more akin to the uniqueness of The Dreaming.

    The computer speak (is that Bertie doing the autotuned stuff then?) is a bit off putting, but then this is a woman who once ended an album screaming like a donkey! Also the vocals have a real live quality about them I felt.

    I’m not sure if I prefer it to the original, but I dare say that’s the point. It’s an alternative version and the original will still be there, alongside this in the delux package. Roll on May!

  9. I agree with Greg (above), and I hope that some of the die-hard fans have the maturity to say “I’ve just been disappointed with something Kate Bush has released”.
    I’m not saying people are forbidden to like it – far from it.
    I’ve just heard too much “You can’t not like this, you just didn’t understand it yet” crap.

    • I don’t know why anyone should feel apprehensive about liking one Kate track more than another, or saying so. As I’ve said on a number of occasions, I never got on with most of side one of Never for Ever, or a few tracks on The Sensual World, and I applied the usual test of listening and waiting and listening again. However there was always stuff by Kate which was certifiably glorious. That’s what I listen to, that’s what I have on my mp3 player.

  10. julian

    This sounds brilliant.
    really interesting.
    can not wait for the album now.
    I love the ways in which the song changes dramatically throughout. The ending is Genius.
    And I love the Broken up voices.
    I prefer it to the original.

  11. mats

    It sounds like Kate has a medical talking problem in the chorus but maybe it was purpose.The track is rather good though

  12. Harry Horton

    Kate Bush’s voice and temperment in A Deeper Understanding sounds mellifluous
    and more relaxed in comparison to songs from her earlier career. Such earlier songs as The Dreaming, WOW, and Morning Fog have more of an acerbic edge, rawer in conception and delivery and as with Morning Fog a pungent punctuation of the notes relating a youthful vitality. Signs of such a more laid back creation here–hate to say it–a creation of seemingly of an older Kate Bush; as such a style seemed to emerge with showing signs in Aerial intermittently. And the style appears in and once again prevades A Deeper Understanding. It’ll be interesting to see what the subsequent pieces are going to be like. I tend to like the youthful Kate Bush better, and I’m happy the earlier pieces are out there on You tube. Nevertheless listeners may be listening to two Kate Bushs in the future perhaps. Not necessarily a bad thing though.
    One other peripheral tid bit; The you tube web site: “CMT superbowl warmup Chrissie Hynde Faith Hill Middle of the Road ” relates The 60 year old Chrissie Hynde in concert with Faith Hill doing the full throttle Pretenders piece. Chrissie Hynde and Kate Bush’s musical careers began in England, and both of them kicked off their careers in and around 1978. Its an interesting contrast between the two singers in their present day performances to see how their styles are in comparison to each other as CHrissie Hynde still retains her early career punch in her songs.

  13. David Rubin

    I think this is a new direction and I will be there to explore in wonderment and amazement at how beautiful the landscapes she paints really are. If some do not like this new reworking of Deeper Understanding that is ok. You have the right. Not everything by an artist is to be loved. I for one do not care for Violin but I am thankful she has given it to us to hear and have the opinion to like or dislike at our discretion.
    She is and always will be a wonderfully talented and amazing artist that I will always listen to.
    I THINK SHE IS WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!

  14. Sam

    I must admit at first it was a little disappointing, but the second half after three minutes or so redeems it so much in my opinion.

  15. This new release should be free to all who have paid for Kate Bush on vinyl or cassette, then cd and now,once again without choice,as a download.
    I expect more from a genius.This will be the first time I wont buy her work to give as presents(yes I bought over 20 copies of Aerial,I dont even want to consider how much Ive given EMI and Kate Bush since 1978 either!!!).What a disappointment.I really love her music.

  16. BSB

    I’ve just bought the download and the subtleties in the layers and the overall mix are sublime – i really like it, whereas on first listen on radio it sounded like a rough demo. But hearing the full download I get it now – others may not, and that’s ok, we all have our opinions. Yes, it’s hard not to compare it to the original, which was densely layered, melodic, and fused studio wizardry successfully with the otherwordly Bulgarian voices. But this new version does similar, in a different way – the computerised chorus, the cut-up and mutated vocal effects towards the end, and the earthy, breathy harmonica – it’s been decontructed, rebuilt. It’s different to the original in so many ways, and different enough to warrant repeated listening to understand what’s been achieved. There’s a lot more air in the track, less competition between the instruments. And the vocal sounds as though it’s been freed from the constraints of seeking the ‘perfect take’ – it’s raw, and full of emotion – it’s an incredible instrument. Lovely to hear it again, doing something new, pushing us out of our comfort zone. It’s a surprising and brave choice of single, but this is what she’s always done. Sat In Your Lap, The Dreaming, even Wuthering Heights didn’t sit well with anything that was released at the time. This is a grower, like much of her material, and the production is a sure sign of an artist continually evolving. I’m excited to hear what’s been done with the other tracks on the album – it’s a risky strategy which may alienate some fans, but there is plenty in this new version of Deeper Understanding to reel in new listeners, enough to challenge existing fans to hear familiar songs in a new light, and the opportunity for Kate to continue what she always has done well – to innovate, to challenge, to inspire.

  17. Johnsen

    This is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes, I love it.

  18. Hey y’all, this is my first time commenting, but I’ve lurked for many years!

    As far as I can tell, Kate used a Vocaloid (voice synthesizer) for the chorus of this song–possibly a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isRZjlxdeXw”>Sweet Ann. Very cool, unique choice. I LOVE THIS NEW VERSION, YOU GUYS.

  19. Argh, first comment and I write my HTML incorrectly!

    Sweet Ann.

  20. Erin

    It is just like our Kate to make her fans go discussing, despairing or go overboard with excitement. She’s never been predictable which is one of the reasons why I fell in love with her work in the first place, some thirty years ago.

    I love the old Deeper Understanding and I love the new one!
    The more I listen to it, the more I find the autotune just right for the track, it works wonderfully within the context of the song. I think it is hauntingly beautiful.
    Thank you, Kate!

  21. I’ve had a go at marrying the two versions – please tell me what you all think:

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

  22. Harry Horton

    The more I listen to a Deeper Understanding the more it does grow on me. Yet, if one compared for example the 5:00 to 6:00 minute mark with the opening two minutes of, say
    Jig of Life, the contrast in style and content is wide and discernable. The Deeper Understanding segment is more attuned to easy listening, a format one would come across on a F.M. station at two in the morning. Thus as such evidnetly reflects a growing jazz influence and embodiment of the musical piece.and leaves the issue of is this what the fans are going to be getting in the future predominantly with Kate Bush’s future songs. Jig of Life’s opening on the other hand, which I really get into, and like, is more reminiscent of a wild frenzied Irish or Celtic like dance, something of an ancient ecastical ritual dance. The whole temperment of the opening is like a release and burst of frenetic energy. Sort of remarkable, to have such a wide range of variation. Its very interesting that the more laid back jazz essence motifs in her present works are emerging and predominating and could hearld a more laid back, mellower sound of Kate Bush from here on. Yet have to wait to see what the future peices sound like though, could be wrong on that. In any case it seems she possesses a closet knack and inclination for jazz rifts and styles, something that was not present in any overriding fashion in her earlier pieces and career. And yet this jazz format seems to appear with more prevalence. A new Kate Bush for the present times, the jazzier Kate Bush, perhaps, as such could be in the offing, in some respects.

  23. Owen McGhee

    OH MY WORD. This is amazzzzzzzing.Im in tears of joy right now. WELL DONE KATE AND LOVE TO ALL THAT LOVE THIS WOMANS WORK

  24. Emma

    Oh dear oh dear! The end of the track (which the radio plays miss as it is post -ocal) is interesting in a “Sky of Honey” jazz instrumental kind of way, but the first 3 minutes just aint good enough! Kate please stop messing about in your studio with old material and get cracking on some new stuff. I love your music but this track infuriates me!!

  25. Harry Horton

    The main thing I love about Kate Bush’s music, is that I suffer paranoid schizophrenia, and am afflicted at times with overwhelming paranoia and anxiety, delusions of grandeur and raging thoughts of all this dark dysregulated psychic energy. Her musical pieces are great for setting all that dark stormy maladjusted mental energy into some favourable sunnier currents and energy. One day I listened to The Man with the Child in His Eyes fifty to sixty times in one day. I had ‘co mental health friend’ who suffers the same condition –which is ironically the milder form of schizophrenia and he listens to ten hours of music a day. I would push her music as a therapeutic mode, a music therapy of sorts, amongst Psychologists, becuase there seems to be some magic about her pieces for converting the darker currents of psychic energy to a more favourable line of mental energy with imagery and thought.
    For example with Jig Of Life, I get this conjuered up imagery of scenes back in the middle ages, in an ancient church yard, with the late afternnon sun sun bursting through the trees off in the west. Two young Irish teenage girls, red haired and freckeled, flail about in a manic dance, with their arms thrown up in the breeze, twirling in circles, vowing their committment to their friendship as they face the coming terrors and pitfalls of life ahead . I could spend all day listening to Jig of Life with this type of psychic imagery billowing up in my mind. This is one reason I think the music is psychologically and therapeutically significant.

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