The Sensual World, released in 1989 through EMI in the UK and Columbia Records in the US, is the sixth studio album by English art pop musician Kate Bush. The eagerly-awaited follow-up to her 1985 blockbuster Hounds of Love, it continues its predecessor's mix of artsy experimentation and mainstream accessibility, while simultaneously introducing a much greater degree of personal lyricism than previous records; Bush herself described it as more "honest" and "personal" than anything she had put out before or since. At the same time however, it still maintains Bush's trademark affection for character-driven songs, conveying aspects about her own self as the core thread intertwining a variety of stories, some of her own creation, others borrowed and reinterpreted from other works.
The album also notably marked a shift for Bush in another way: this was the first album of hers to be released in the United States on Columbia Records (but remaining on EMI America's parent label Capitol Records in Canada) rather than on EMI America Records, who had distributed all of her previous releases in North America (barring the original North American release of The Kick Inside, which was handled by Harvest Records). While Bush was never vocal about why she decided to shift over to Columbia west of the Atlantic, the fact that EMI America held off releasing Never for Ever until after The Dreaming proved to be a minor American hit might've at least played some level of influence in the decision. This did have the knock-on effect of keeping her 1990 Boxed Set This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978-1990 from seeing release in North America, thanks to it including both this album and its associated B-sides, though Bush wasn't deterred by it. Incidentally, the move brought Bush under a similar situation to Pink Floyd (themselves an EMI act who hopped from Capitol Records to Columbia stateside), whose guitarist David Gilmour first discovered her; fittingly, Gilmour plays guitar on two of the album's tracks.
The end result was another major commercial success for Bush, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Albums chart and at No. 43 on the Billboard 200, later going on to become the 45th best-selling album of 1989 in the UK and being certified platinum in the UK and gold in the US, Canada, and France. To this day, it remains Bush's highest-selling album in the United States, spending 26 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts and seeing its gold certification by the RIAA (her only sales certification in the United States) within just four years of its release.
The Sensual World was supported by three singles: the Title Track, "This Woman's Work", and "Love and Anger". In 2011, Bush included re-recorded versions of the title track, "Deeper Understanding", and "This Woman's Work" on her ninth studio album, Director's Cut, together with re-recorded songs from The Red Shoes.
Tracklist:
Side One- "The Sensual World" (3:57)
- "Love and Anger" (4:42)
- "The Fog" (5:04)
- "Reaching Out" (3:11)
- "Heads We're Dancing" (5:17)
Side Two
- "Deeper Understanding" (4:46)
- "Between a Man and a Woman" (3:29)
- "Never Be Mine" (3:43)
- "Rocket's Tail" (4:06)
- "This Woman's Work" (3:32)
Bonus track on the original CD and cassette releases:
- "Walk Straight Down the Middle" (3:48)
I know you have a little trope in you yet:
- Black Comedy: "Heads We're Dancing" features the narrator spending all night with a handsome stranger after a bet, only to find out the next morning that he was Adolf Hitler. All of this is played more for the sake of amusement than horror.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Not actually done on this album in the traditional sense, but this trope serves as the central plot of the Title Track, in which the narrator steps out from the pages of the book she's written in and enters the real world, experiencing all the senses of reality for the first time (hence the title "The Sensual World").
- Brief Accent Imitation: Bush affects a southern American accent when reciting the phrase "going deep south" in the Title Track.
- Concept Video: The music video for "This Woman's Work" retells the story of She's Having a Baby, for which it was originally written.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Sensual World" invokes both the sexual meaning of sensual and the literal meaning, tying in with its lyrics that use a sexual encounter as a metaphor for Molly Bloom's journey into the real world.
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: "Deeper Understanding" sees the narrator form a romantic bond with a computer program they downloaded as a replacement for the real world, with real people having only grown colder over the years. The narrator eventually becomes addicted to the program, refusing to eat or sleep for fear of losing time with it, leading their family to step in and intervene, only for the narrator to step around this by calling the program on the phone.
- Lighter and Softer: This album is an even further step in this direction than Hounds of Love, which still had its darker moments on it (particularly with its side-long concept suite The Ninth Wave). The Sensual World, by comparison, is much more wistful, with its darkest material being relegated to the Black Comedy piece "Heads We're Dancing" and the childbirth drama of "This Woman's Work".
- Lonely Piano Piece: "This Woman's Work", a piano-driven piece about the feelings of crisis that surround a traumatic and life-endangering childbirth, with string embellishments arriving only in the latter portion of the song.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The computer program in "Deeper Understanding" entrances the narrator so much that they start neglecting food and sleep.
- Ms. Fanservice: Invoked throughout this album, where Bush felt that she could be sexually expressive through her work on her own terms for the first time in her career, having previously taken measures to avoid being objectified too early.
- New Sound Album: Compared to The Dreaming and Hounds of Love, The Sensual World tones down the percussion and ramps up the symphonic elements (barring "Heads We're Dancing", which wouldn't sound out-of-place on The Dreaming), leading to a more atmospheric and less aggressive sound than the former two albums while still being distinct from the Baroque Pop of The Kick Inside and Lionheart.
- Rearrange the Song:
- "This Woman's Work" was originally recorded for the 1988 John Hughes film She's Having a Baby; it was later included on this album in a remixed form.
- Re-recorded versions of the Title Track, "Deeper Understanding", and "This Woman's World" would be included on Bush's 2011 album Director's Cut.
- Screw the War, We're Partying: Inverted with "Heads We're Dancing", where the party acts as the direct prelude to World War II.
- Shout-Out: The line "and then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech" in the Title Track nod to the line "and my arrows of desire rewrite the speech" from William Blake's Jerusalem. The repeated use of the word "yes" in the same track references Molly Bloom's soliloquy in the final chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses.
- Sibling Team: Bush's brother Paddy provides backing vocals on "Love and Anger".
- Special Guest:
- Longtime collaborator and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour provides guitar on "Love and Anger" and "Rocket's Tail".
- Former Japan bassist Mick Karn plays on "Heads We're Dancing".
- Bulgarian vocal group the Trio Bulgarka feature on several songs on the album, with member Yanka Rupkina providing additional solo vocals on "Deeper Understanding" and "Rocket's Tail".
- Celtic harp master Alan Stivell performs the instrument on "The Fog" and "Between a Man and a Woman" and provides backing vocals on the latter.
- Spoken Word in Music: "The Fog" opens with Kate Bush saying "You see, I'm all grown up now." Then her father says "Just put your feet down, child, 'cause you're all grown up now."
- Stock Sound Effects: The church bells that open the title track and the album, similar to those heard in the opening to Pink Floyd's "Fat Old Sun".
- Title Track: It opens the album.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: "Never Be Mine":I want you as the dream
Not the reality
That clumsy goodbye kiss could fool me
But looking back over my shoulder
At you happy without me - Whole-Plot Reference:
- The Title Track is one to Ulysses, specifically being an extended homage to Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy. Bush had attempted to make the song the actual passage set to music, but the estate of James Joyce declined; she later got permission in time for Director's Cut in 2011, which features a re-recording of the song with the Ulysses quotation as intended under the new title of "Flower of the Mountain".
- "This Woman's Work" and its Concept Video are this to She's Having a Baby, the film for which it was originally written. The song itself specifically focuses on the climax, in which Jake learns that Kristy's childbirth has become traumatic to the point of endangering the lives of both her and her soon-to-be-born child and has an epiphany that his own selfishness and immaturity was the reason why his life felt so unsatisfactory.
