Having started to compose her first songs at thirteen, Kate Bush was spotted at sixteen by David Gilmour who took her under his wing, introduced her to Andrew Powell who produced her first two albums and got her a contract with EMI. The young girl will nevertheless wait to become a young woman to see her first record released, on which she will have worked for three years.
Listening to the result, we can think that this delay will have been taken advantage of by the artist, on whose cradle benevolent fairies have obviously bent. Because if some people wait for the second or third album to find maturity and success, for Kate Bush, the first try is the good one. She asserts an endearing and slightly eccentric personality, a falsely naive child-woman handling the art of seduction as well as an unbridled fantasy.
However, at the beginning, nothing very original in these thirteen compositions with a couplet/chorus format and melodies more pop than rock. Except for the extraordinary personality of Kate Bush who transforms the most banal song into a pure moment of wonder by a vocal interpretation whose originality is matched only by its accuracy. Endowed with an impressive amplitude allowing her to plunge in the low notes as well as to rise with a disconcerting ease in surreal high notes, which she does not deprive herself of, the singer masters moreover the art of the modulation, bewitching the listener as surely as a siren would do it of an imprudent sailor. Whether she is sensual, mischievous or melancholic, her interpretation is always right. Moreover, her slightly acidic tone when it reaches the highest notes allows Kate Bush to be identified from the rest of the rock world.
To surround the artist and his faithful piano, Andrew Powell invited some musicians officiating within the Alan Parsons Project (for which he arranged several titles on "Tales of Mystery and Imagination") and an orchestra (not credited on the cover). This profusion of contributors allows to enrich the record, the playing of the musicians being anything but linear, and to avoid any boredom.
The moments of bravery are not lacking, between a 'Wuthering Heights' whose extraordinary vocal performance (in the first sense of the word) already registers Kate Bush in the legend, 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes', very beautiful melancholic ballad or the very romantic 'The Kick Inside' which closes the album superbly. The sinuosities of 'Moving' or 'Strange Phenomena', the delicacy of 'Feel It' or 'L'Amour Looks Something Like You' are all timeless moments that rock and surprise the listener at the same time. Even the more banal compositions ('Kite', 'James And The Cold Gun', 'Room For The Life') are saved by an always original interpretation.
Refinement, fantasy, romanticism, surprise are the key words of this album. While remaining close to the framework of a song, Kate Bush introduces a universe of fantasy and delicacy which charms the listener, very far from the usual criteria of simple rock songs. A wonderful artist is born!