Every time a solo female artist debuts who even VAGUELY whiffs of what music journalists love to call 'quirk', she is immediately compared to or held up next to Kate Bush. This isn't the collective fault of these artists - many of them only know Ms. Bush a little (some aren't fans, some are but aren't musically influenced). In fact, not one of them actually sounds anything like Queen Kate. Even Tori Amos and Regina Spektor (the two most successful female singer/songwriter/pianists to emerge since Kate Bush) sound absolutely nothing like The Ethereal KT either. So when these female artists are called 'the new Kate Bush' or described as sounding even a little bit like her, it is simply sexist journalistic laziness: there is very rarely even a grain of truth to it.
Over the past two years we've had to endure endless comparisons: Florence and the Machine was compared because she sings loudly in a pseudo-folk-pop style about stars and rabbit hearts, Little Boots, too (because she plays the piano and even embraced it by covering "Running Up That Hill"). Ellie Goulding who has almost nothing in common with the Goddess was also supposedly sharing in Kate's "quivering intensity". Marina, whose fondness for a silly mockney accent and swaggering oom-pah beat, was actually the most Bush thing about any solo female star of the past 10 years, was also hailed as Kate incarnate, although she also admitted she wasn't overly familiar with her work and the comparisons died down when she didn't achieve "Wuthering Heights" style chart success with her material.
One new artist hailed for great things in 2011 is Clare Maguire. Her brooding incantation-like debut single "Ain't Nobody" has been 'out there' for a while and is dark and captivating (although we worry it wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the breathtaking video). We know very little about Ms. Maguire, whose face seems to be covered more often than not, and who apparently was whisked off to be signed years ago after posting some internet demos - being in development ever since. But we do know that this, above - Clare Maguire's proper debut single "The Last Dance" - is stunning.
Stunning it may be, but it also sounds suspiciously like Kate Bush. No, really: those repeated synth-pad-and-strings chords, all lush and beguiling; that mature and rounded quivering voice; the over-enunciated ends of phrases; the syncopated rhythm, swaying and delicate; the lyrics, detailing the minutiae of emotion - not just how one feels but what one doesn't feel like doing. If you told me this was Kate Bush's new single, or even a very talented impersonator I would totally believe you. It's that startling and uncanny. Even our very own Jozobolla who is the most obsessed and knowledgeable Kate Bush STAN at Shiny & New HQ agrees that the similarities are remarkable (although she also added that their voices weren't identical and in fact Clare sounds more like Amy MacDonald !!!!!!).
So there you have it: a beautiful pop song that should and probably will SLAY in 2011, but also sounds suspiciously like the Grand High Priestess of Pop. Does this matter? Well, not really. We've heard two of Clare's other songs ("You're Electric" and "Strangest Thing") and neither of them sound remotely... erm... Bush. So in the long run, as long as it doesn't become her thing, it shan't matter - she seems talented enough to make a decent stab at success in the long-term. And depressingly, even if she continues to sound like Kate, most people probably won't notice, so. There's always that too.
4.1.11
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Men are the ones who create evil on Earth. It is the choices they make which enslave their souls to hell.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why you are continually reincarnated. Welcome to the Matrix.
7 billion in 2011. Only 1 billion in 1800 and 2 billion in 1900.
Population explosion is a clue::::The gods are sending everyone back for The End.
There must be some purgatory-like place. Or individual. Like an animal.
Now the gods have sent everyone back to try for one final time to fix their problems and ascend into heaven. Avoiding an animal would have been a big positive because those thrust into this decayed enviornment have less of a chance than those who enjoyed the god's generosity of a slowly decaying enviornment with frightening clues, like the Depression, the Holocaust, etc.
Anything that can get the poeple frightened and praying is a good. thing. Contentment never motivated anyone.
As we approach the Apocalypse the gods are removing "wrath of god" material from xtian dogma.
As we see wickedness spread throughout the country, like preditory behavior, godlessness, socialo changes, etc, using cable TV and the spread of "Californication" as justification, they changed xtianity, appropriatly with Catholicism first.
xtianity has changed radically in the 20th century, and everyone should be mindful of the way it was, because the people are in a process of slipping out of god's favor into a state of Damnation, from which the vast majority will never survive.
They used to scare people and make them too afraid to make mistakes. Now people aren't afraid of anything and don't think twice about doing something wicked and evil which will hurt their chances.
Employment charity:::Was W able to do his job as President?
I suspect there are many frat-boy types who couldn't or wouldn't study nor do the work necessary so they gained this "benefit" telepathically. This could have been extended to their professional life as well::In most of these cases they don't have what it takes to do their jobs.
I think employment charity is FAR more common than people may believe.
Another example how they tempted people in this manner is the procurement of sexual relations.
Keep raping these poor girls. You're going to end up as one in your next life.
If people only understood the importance of good parents. You won't be going anywhere without them. And it won't happen unless you are one first.
Good god says a ceiling on time for everyone (see below). Evil god still gives hope for immortality to people who subscribed to preditory behavior:::Immortality if you are right versus a couple centuries partying at best even if you change now.
Occems Razor.
Due to institutional evil the closer we get to The End the more evil everyone incurrs (with some variation due to behavior) which limits the time for everyone.
Probably the children who fix their problems and ascend into heaven as well. Experiencing the evil of modern life in the 20th century costed them, for which limits are placed. They are not the same as their innocent peasantry ancestors from the Old World.
You people have fucked up bad by not getting out before the 20th century.
Just because the gods have to break some eggs doesn't mean they are evil. As management there are hard decisions that must be made. But they used this omelette and sold it to people as temptation, who went out and did things they shouldn't have done thinking being preditory was the way to "earn" their way into heaven.
Another feature which the Gods offer as a clue is very foreboading and ominous. Mt. Zion is a mountain to the north of Diablo (the eye of The Beast) and one which has a working quarry at its base. Consistant with the decay we experience in society, Mt. Zion is being eaten away, slowly stripped of its resources, until one day paradise will be gone forever.