Kate Bush – “The Kick Inside” (1978)

Why not let Kate Bush's first album be the theme of this blogg’s first post? I discovered Kate Bush in 1989 when her album The Sensual World was released, as quickly as possible I bought her other records so I probably bought this one when I was around 18 years old.

Kate made The Kick Inside when she was only 19 years old, which is impressive considering the songs' quality. Kate's first song on her first album starts with 20 seconds of whale song, in other words - she rides into the music business on one of the giant mammals of the sea. I don’t know what that says about Kate or her future career, but it turned out good. This song Moving is a fantastic start to her career and is one of my favorite songs with Kate. The first time I heard it I was extremely happy because I realized that I had bought a really good album, at that time a record purchase was a big deal, especially as the private economy at the age of 18 didn’t allow too many excesses.

The big hit from this album, and one of Kate's biggest hits at of all time, is Wuthering Heights. This song can still be heard on the radio and is side A’s last song. Personally, I like this song with a quite bombastic chorus. I think she a few years later re-recorded it with a new voice track. The song went number one. Kate was just 13 years old when she wrote this song and I must sadly admit that it makes me wonder whether I really ought to like it. Can I as a 38-year-old man like music and lyrics a 13 year old girl has written? Apparently I can.

The B-side starts with the rockier James And The Cold Gun. This song has never been a favorite of mine but was the song EMI wanted to be the single. It was probably lucky that Kate was so stubborn and strong willed that she pushed for Wuthering Heights as a single instead.
My favorite song on the B-side is Them Heavy People, which apparently bears some inspiration from the teachings of Gurdjieff.
The album also contains some other great tracks, many of them should probably be called ballads. At the same time there are some tracks that I feel is rather dull, for example, Man With The Child In His Eyes or L'amour looks something like you.

Many of us know that David Gilmour gave Kate a helping hand at the beginning of her career, and he also participates on this album (guitar solo on Wuthering Heights). Producer of the album is David Gilmour's friend Andrew Powell.

Favorite Tracks
Moving
Wuthering Heights
Them Heavy People

Tracklist:
Side A
1 "Moving" - 3:01
2 "The Saxophone Song" - 3:51
3 "Strange Phenomena" - 2:57
4. "Kite" - 2:56
5. “The Man With The Child in His Eyes "- 2:39
6 "Wuthering Heights" - 4:28

Side B
1. “James And The Cold Gun "- 3:34
2 "Feel It" - 3:02
3 "Oh to Be in Love" - 3:18
4 "L'Amour Looks Something Like You" - 2:27
5 "Them Heavy People" - 3:04
6 'Room for the Life "- 4:03
7 “The Kick Inside "- 3:30