• Home /
• Search /
• Charts /
  • Overall
  • Rock
  • Pop
  • Punk
  • Metal
  • Alternative
  • Miscellaneous
• Videos /
• Add Artist / 
• Login / 
• Signup / 
• About / 

Pure  >>

Comparisons with Charlotte Church are inevitable, yet 16-year-old New Zealand singer Hayley Westenra has her own distinctive sound. She has impeccably clear diction coupled with a gorgeous voice with a very wide range: her high notes in the Kate Bush hit "Wuthering Heights" are especially striking, and like Bush she is also a dancer, having performed with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. If there's a problem, it's that Pure doesn't have a focus to match Westenra's talent, the tracks spanning everything from "Amazing Grace" to a Maori lullaby ("Hine e Hine") to hybrid pieces adapted from Ravel ("Never Say Goodbye") and Vivaldi's Four Seasons ("River of Dreams"). Ultimately what this set does demonstrate is that whatever direction Westenra finally settles on, she has the ability to go to the very top. For now she is a young artist finding her way, and for many listeners the result is Pure magic. --Gary S Dalkin

The Whole Story  >>

Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.

Aerial  >>

It's often said that a musician's debut represents the culmination of a lifetime's worth of experiences, but their sophomore effort is usually derived from just the intervening year. By waiting 12 years between The Red Shoes and her new double CD, Aerial, Kate Bush has tried to regain that lifetime. It's a remarkably coherent recording, reflecting the unique world of sound and spirit Bush has inhabited since her debut. The first disc, subtitled A Sea of Honey, is a suite of personal reveries. It ranges from "King of the Mountain," a contemplation of unbridled celebrity and its isolation that references Elvis and Citizen Kane, to the piano-and-voice study "Mrs. Bartolozzi," an ode to household chores whose chorus is "Sloshy sloshy sloshy sloshy, get that dirty shirty clean." With its Depeche Mode-influenced synth pads, electro pulses, and lyric cadences, "King of the Mountain" is vintage Bush pop. But many of the songs attain more epic proportions, like the dynamic "Joanni," a hymn to Joan of Arc. It's the second disc--a suite called A Sky of Honey--on which Bush really comes into her own. Using metaphors of the turning of the day and the flight of birds, she orchestrates a meditation on the cycles of life. Musically expansive, she weaves her compositions out of birdsong, subtle orchestrations, and jazz trios, showing herself at her experimental best. Embracing her relatively new motherhood, as well as the death of her mother, Aerial is a deeply personal album, and a welcome return from one of pop music's true icons and vocal wonders. --John Diliberto

More Kate Bush

The Kick Inside	Lionheart	Never for Ever
The Dreaming	Hounds of Love	The Sensual World

The Kick Inside  >>

Out of print in the U.S., this is the debut album by the highly acclaimed British pop vocalist. Contains all 13 of the tracks from when EMI first released it for her in 1978, including the international smash 'Wuthering Heights' and the U.S. chart hit 'Man With The Child In His Eyes'. Also contains the original European cover art. The All-Music Guide gave 'The Kick Inside' four & a half stars (out of five possible). An EMI release.

The Sensual World  >>

Hounds of Love  >>

Few women have expanded the vocabulary of rock as bewitchingly as Kate Bush; among male stars, only Prince may have taken as many risks. Hounds of Love saw Bush reining in the kookier aspects of The Dreaming, channelling them into epic electro-pop that tackled big issues of life and death and God with gripping drama and intensity. "Running Up That Hill" was one of the great singles of the '80s; "Cloudbusting" was string-driven, magically pretty; "Jig of Life" showed that Bush is one of the few pop artists who can flirt with Celtic mysticism without sounding twee or trite. Forget the riot grrrls: Bush is the real thing. --Barney Hoskyns

Hounds of Love  >>

Digitally remastered edition of Ms. Bush's masterpiece, originally released in 1985. The album was self-produced and primarily recorded on her Fairlight keyboard. Bush weaves intricate tapestries of sound and imagery with songs that span the range of all emotion, from the most intimate to the most frightening. This special edition adds 6 bonus tracks of 12 inch mixes and single b-sides released in conjunction with the album, including "Big Sky (Meterorogical Mix)", "Running Up That Hill (12" Mix)", "Be Kind to My Mistakes", "Under the Ivy", "Burning Bridge" & "My Lagan Love".

The Dreaming  >>

Out of print in the U.S., this is the acclaimed British pop vocalist's fourth album. Contains all 10 of the tracks from when she first released it in 1982, including 'Houdini' and the singles 'The Dreaming' and 'Sat In Your Lap'. Also contains the original cover art. An EMI release.

Never for Ever  >>

Golden Compass: Original Soundtrack  >>

"The Golden Compass" is an exciting fantasy adventure, similar to "Harry Potter" and "The Lord Of The Rings", set in an alternative world where human souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. Based on author Philip Pullman's best selling and award-winning novel. Features musical score by award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (Golden Globe - Best Original Score for "The Painted Veil" 2007, Golden Globe nominee - Best Original Score for "Syriana" 2006 and "Girl With A Pearl Earring" 2004, Academy Award Nominee - Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score for "The Queen" 2007). End title song written and performed by Kate Bush.