A salient lesson from my recent experience for all obsessive record buyers. If you chance upon an album you're interested in at a reasonable price, it's probably best to buy it. I found a vinyl copy of this going for a fiver at a newly opened local cafe round the corner from me with its own record section. There's a lot of that nowadays. A few similar establishments have opened up in Newcastle recently. Vinyl has acquired a strange, hipster quotient over the last few years.
I didn't buy it but then listened to the album for the first time ever in full on Spotify a couple of days ago at work. I was entranced. I've always admired Kate Bush without ever finding an album to truly love. This was the one. I thought it a masterpiece. Luxuriant, deep, fearless and textured. Like an incredible collection of diverse short stories of the type Angela Carter or Ian McEwan were publishing at round about the same time as Bush released this. Quite magnificent! Of course going back to the cafe after work, it was no longer there.
Strange, because it was a record that came out when I first started buying records myself. In 1982 to be exact. I was 16. Quite a wonderful year for pop records. Simple Minds', New Gold Dream, Associates, Sulk, ABC's Lexicon of Love for example all came out in that year. That was just the tip of the iceberg.
I passed on The Dreaming at the time and haven't really thought of it since though in the meantime I've bought and enjoyed a number of Bush albums. This had a poor critical reception and was actually mocked at the time of its release. It's been generally re-evaluated since. I listened to the nearest equivalent record I did buy at the time, Siouxsie & the Banshees A Kiss in the Dreamhouse today, a similarly arty, ambitious and vivid album and it paled by comparison to my ears. I still like many of the early Banshees records but this one sounded hollow and mannered next to Bush's album.
As for The Dreaming, I'll hunt down another copy and hopefully a reasonably priced one and write more about it on here. Meanwhile, lessons to be learned!
Post Script - It's a couple of days later and you'll be delighted to know I've tracked down and bought myself a vinyl copy. A load off your mind I'm sure.
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