THE DREAMING

Definitely one of the more interesting tracks (especially as a single) is "The Dreaming", uncharacteristically un-English (despite the put-on accent) and sung for the most part in her lower register. I most love the refrain, for sure, but the song overall isn't one of her finest, despite being the title track of, in my opinion, her absolute strongest album. In the music video, uhhh.... reanimated [space?!] mummies(?) dance along with Kate, striding a beam of light, as though it were a horizontal metal pole in a dance studio. They dance in front of a rather creepy, beating sun. A dove leaves a cave (someone's soul departing?), and the dancers are found dead and dying therein, eventually being covered by sand and dust. Pretty cool video, to say the least, even if I have no clue what in the hell happened in it. The lyrics, which allude to some kind of future race-war (or governmental subjugation of "the other"), imply this may be space. Like a new Mars? And with that, too, it feels my suspicions about a possible visual homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey were warranted. Interesting.

Our B-side is the more-than-thematically-similar "Dreamtime", which actually picks up with the sound and tribal drumming of our A-side; effectively the backing track. Really very interesting choice. I certainly wasn't expecting this (like an anti-80s-Dance-version-B-side). It's basically the pre-chorus of "See the light ram through the gaps in the land" repeated over and over, as the rhythm shifts slightly and intensifies. I guess I haven't really thought about it before, but that's a didgeridoo, right?! [Oh, wow, and please believe me, I spelled that right on the first try?!]. Since it's basically the same song as the first, though simplified, I don't feel any which way about it, really.

A rounding up from a True Rate of 2.5/5.0