Pictures and reports on the Director’s Cut album launch party in Amsterdam here.
Ben Cardew in Music Week doesn’t quite know how to react to Directors Cut:
“On its own merits, then, Director’s Cut is a strong album. But it’s hard to know exactly who it will appeal to: if you don’t know the original songs, it is impossible to appreciate the subtle re-work that Bush has done; if you do know them, you might not necessarily want an update …“
A tonne of reviews are in, and more to come today, no doubt. As fans in Ireland, Australia, Japan and many other European countries already have the album we’re starting to see the reviews coming in thick and fast. Alan Corr gives an online review for RTE: “Bush’s gone ahead and reworked other songs, bringing a singing voice of a lower key, something that comes with age, and the benefits of updated and improved production techniques to the party.” Will Hodgkinsin in The Times gives the album 3/5, raving about Flower of The Mountain, The Red Shoes and Lily, but concluding that the album is “interesting, but not easy to lose yourself in“
Four star review in Friday’s Daily Mail by Adrian Thrills:
“I won’t beat about the Bush, Kate’s still great!
Now deeper and more sultry than when she was dominating the charts with singles such as Babooshka and Man With The Child In His Eyes, it relies less on spectacular, soaring whoops and more on a natural richness and sensuality.
As a singer, Kate is growing old gracefully, but she retains plenty of her unusual mannerisms and a compelling lack of inhibition …“
Paul Callan gives Director’s Cut full marks in Friday’s Daily Express:
“She dances to her own tune, that Kate Bush. Having taken a more or less two-decade break from recording before coming back with Ariel a few years back she’s now revisiting two of her albums from the Nineties in what she’s calling a “director’s cut”, even though she had full control of both albums first time round. But who cares?“
Excellent review of Director’s Cut by Andy Gill in Friday’s Independent:
“Despite its being comprised of reworked versions of songs that originally appeared around two decades ago, Kate Bush regards her Director’s Cut as a new album in and of itself. And she’s right to: There’s a consistency and homogeneity about the 11 tracks (seven from The Red Shoes, four from The Sensual World) which echoes her work on Aerial, and which lends the project a character entirely its own …“
Once again this event aims to celebrate the work of Kate Bush and James Joyce with an afternoon meet-up at the summit of Howth Head for some music, peaches and seed-cake, followed by a leisurely cliff-walk down into the village of Howth for refreshments. The evening part of the event will be held in Odessa in Dublin City Centre, where the music and craic will continue till late.
This event is an excuse for fans of Kate Bush, James Joyce or otherwise to celebrate Bloomsday with a stroll in one of Dublin’s most spectacular landscapes. It will be the fourth time it has taken place and it is inspired by the song ‘The Sensual World’ by Kate Bush in which the character of Molly Bloom from Joyce’s Ulysses is brought to life by Kate. In 2011, remarkably, Kate releases a new version of her 1989 recording, now re-named ‘Flower of the Mountain’, in which she will use the actual words from Joyce’s Ulysses for the first time – the Joyce estate have finally granted her permission. It adds a nice extra layer of significance to our day. In previous events we have featured many incredible Irish and international musicians, along with unique Joyce recitations from Kate’s brother John.
THE WALK – please join us, at the summit car-park on Howth Head at 2pm, Saturday, June 18th 2011. THE EVENING – after the cliff walk, and refreshments down in Howth village we’re heading into the centre of Dublin City to the Odessa private members club for 7.30pm, 13 Dame Court, D2 (right beside the Stags Head Pub) A night of music and Kate / Joyce / Dublin type things are promised. And beer. ALL ARE WELCOME – FEEL FREE TO PASS ON THIS INFO! Any questions please email me sean@katebushnews.com Hope to see you there!
If you can tear yourself away from that NPR album stream, Alex Petridis gives a four star review to Director’s Cut in today’s Guardian. You can read it The US website for the NPR radio station is offering it’s listeners a first listen to the tracks from Director’s Cut. You can find the songs here. Quite a coup! Thanks to Donna for pointing this out.
Read another great review of Director’s Cut at The Vine website here. “There remains an ageless quality to her voice, occupying everything from childhood to middle age (and older) with authority.”
“Radical reinvention and unfettered weirdness.” Graeme Thomson has written an enthusiastic review of Director’s Cut for Word Magazine. He has provided a scan of the article at his blog here. Graeme wrote the well-received 2010 biography of Kate, ‘Under The Ivy‘. He calls the album a “vibrant act of restoration.” Very nice read. UPDATE: 12th May Graeme Thomson also writes a new article on Kate in the Telegraph here.
Some excellent news for the week of release of Directors Cut. BBC Radio 2 have added the album to their B List, which starts this coming Saturday, following it being album of the week this week (hence all these track premiers we’ve been enjoying!) BBC 6 Music will have Director’s Cut as the album of the day on 20th May, with a track played on every show. National commercial station Smooth FM have it as album of the week next week, at least two tracks played each day, lunchtime and evening shows.
Vinyl version of Director’s Cut delayed by one week – out Monday 23rd May
The double vinyl version of Director’s Cut will not be released on the same day as the two different CD versions, we have officially been told. It will now be released one week later on Monday 23rd May. This applies to in-store copies and those ordered on-line. We suspect that this will apply to all territories. So, please don’t panic when it doesn’t arrive on Monday. We know the sumptuous large-format artwork will make this extra wait well worth it.
Ken Bruce played Kate’s new version of ‘And So is Love‘ from Director’s Cut on his BBC Radio 2 show today. You can listen again by going to 1 hour 55 minutes into the iPlayer stream here.
Thanks to JustinX for the heads up: Nadine O’Regan, who interviewed Kate for the Sunday Business Post will be talking to Kate on Saturday (11am-12am Irish time) on her Phantom FM show, The Kiosk. Nadine writes: “Hi folks, just a little update to let you know that the fabulous Kate Bush will be on The Kiosk this weekend. I’ll be talking to her about her new album Director’s Cut, a new take on some of her older material, and plenty more besides.” Listen live on Saturday at the Phantom FM site.
New German interview is here. Read the comments of this post to see translations from our German friends – thanks!