MUSIC ZONE
Kate Bush — Director’s Cut (EMI Records)
Saurabh & Gaurav

Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut revisits tracks from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes. The collection should really be enjoyed as a rare, live performance from an artist, who hasn’t toured since 1979. The lead vocals and drums have all been re-recorded, allowing us to hear how Bush sounds in 2011. She’s stripped back the digital crunch of the production, giving the instrumentation more breathing space and creating a more intimate, organic feel. All of the lead vocals and drums have been re-recorded, along with various other changes, and the results range from the subtle to radical. The opening track Flower of the Mountain pretty much sets the tenor: it’s the seductive Celtic lushness of The Sensual World’s title track, only with Bush’s lyrics replaced with the extract from Joyce’s Ulysses that she’d been denied permission to use in 1989. Deeper Understanding features major processing of Bush’s vocals to give them an eerie, chopped up vibe. This Woman’s Work, one of Bush’s masterpieces, is three minutes longer, slower, lower-pitched in places, and the backing vocals and orchestration are mostly muted. On Lily, the spoken word intro sounds even more pronounced, and the guitar is richly evocative, capturing a Johnny Marr-like quality, rippling around the composition like a musical bee. Moments of Pleasure is very fascinating, because when it was first imagined in 1993, it was full of nostalgia and heartache for lost people and yet was graceful.

Best track: This Woman’s Work

Worst track: Never Be Mine

Rating: ***

Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore’s third solo record is a laidback, submissive affair where lilting acoustic guitars are skillfully complemented by gently wandering strings and dreamlike harp work. Beck’s production is actually as essential and interesting as these tunes. He stretches Moore’s songs without polishing them, giving them a pop number’s scope and ambition without seeming palpable or obscure. Demolished Thoughts is distinctly Moore. Notably, while his lyricism remains amorphous, his language has softened; it’s clear that most of these are love jams, however tightly knotted. "I know better than to let you go," he nearly whispers on the opening track Benediction. Circulation pits an unending guitar strum beside flecked violin patterns and the occasional explosions of colour, with Moore’s quiet threatening vocal producing a claustrophobic atmosphere. As the songs move back and forth from drifting cuts like Blood Never Lies to the sinister shadows of Orchard Street, Moore’s lyrics move from love to worry, sometimes in the same line. Some distant piano play introduces In Silver Rain With A Paper Key, which is an otherwise pretty guitar track that adheres to Demolished Thoughts’ purposes. Mina Loy’s opening notes standout and Space is close to Sonic Youth, Moore’s tone and repetition familiar enough to those fluent in his output.

Best track: Benediction

Worst track: January

Rating: **

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon has come a long way since his curiously beautiful debut, 2007’s For Emma, Forever Ago, emerged as both a modern folk masterpiece and the one of the best breakup records of all time. His second full-length album, Bon Iver, is the result of his past experiences. A more confident and trusting Vernon is present here, as he is armed with a remarkably talented full band instead of the minimalist approach he used on the debut. Perth is a muscular opener, built around an escalating guitar shape, spectral vocals, a sharp snare and a central lyric: "Still alive, who you love." The promising dalliance of Towers sounds like it could be the most upbeat, up-tempo shuffler in the Bon Iver canon, but it goes and finds its own graceful, reserved pace. Lyrically, it is a pretty confounding and pastel affair, and it becomes apparent that Vernon has left the overtly topical meditations behind for something more esoteric and impressionistic. Minnesota, WI shifts from those gauzy layers to a leaner rock-crunch. The subtle but powerful use of strings and horns throughout the record is perhaps its best unifying element. The standout tracks on the album, Holocene, Michicant, and our favourite, Wash, move beyond the romance of Vernon the fragile singer-songwriter and become songs in their own right, acts of creation, organic and vital.

Best track: Wash

Worst track: Beth/Rest

Rating: **