Kate Bush To Bring December Magic

Kate Bush will be releasing a live album on December 2nd, recorded during her unprecedented run of 22 sold-out shows at London’s Hammersmith Apollo theater in 2014, her first full live concerts since 1979.

Titled after the name given by Bush to the elaborate stage performance itself, Before the Dawn [Concord Records] will be available in both a 3-CD package and a 4-LP 180-gram vinyl edition. The CD edition actually better reflects the conceptual intent of the full performance: the first disc contains the show’s comparatively conventional seven-song opening, a carefully chosen mix of cuts from her albums Hounds of Love, The Red Shoes and Aerial; the second disc consists of an entire performance of “The Ninth Wave,” the conceptual suite which made up side two of Hounds of Love, expanded with dialog and a new song; and the third disc is the complete performance of “A Sky of Honey,” aka disc two of Aerial, plus the “Cloudbusting” encore.

For those of us scratching our heads wondering why a DVD of the dazzlingly visual performance isn’t part of this release (the shows were as much musical theater as concert), one has to assume it’s forthcoming. In fact, the show I personally attended (Sept. 16th, 2014) was professionally filmed and recorded, with the clear intent to release to the public. Trust me, this one-of-a-kind performance needs to be seen as well as heard to be fully appreciated.