DECEMBER WILL BE MAGIC AGAIN

Just a little bit late for being right on time with this review, unless the Christmas season lasts till Twelfth Night. :) Shortly after the release of her third album Never For Ever, KATE BUSH released a single for Christmas. Containing two very pleasant non-album tracks, this really is a single I appreciate a lot. [I have the songs in my copy of "This Woman's Work" compilation CD.]

'December Will Be Magic Again' (4:51) sounds very much like the aforementioned studio album. There are moments in it that distantly remind me of the songs 'Blow Away' and 'The Wedding List', although this song is completely individual. It is dreamy, soft and romantic, full of her distinctive magic. Unlike with most season songs, I don't get tired of it even with multiple listenings, and one actually don't need a Christmas season for listening to it. My most negative remark is the difficulty to hear the lyrics right, due to her unique singing style. For example, I don't think she sings anything about Humphrey Bogart, but that's how I hear the two most repeated words. Of course I might find the lyrics from the Internet but I'm too lazy to try right now.

'Warm and Soothing' (2:43) is a tender and minor key piano-centred song. It has a near-twin in Kate's output: the erotically coloured ballad 'In the Warm Room' from Lionheart (1978). Well, this is melodically not quite that simply structured or as easy to follow textually. "Warm and soothing, that's how I remember home", it begins, and it seems that the lyrics go forward all through the song without having any repeated refrains or choruses. This fact naturally only helps the song not to wear off easily.

Christmas Kate?! Alright! Sorry I'm a month early to be celebrating Kate Bush's July Will Be Magic Again. I much appreciated in user Matti's review their contextualization of this single, as it was released just following Never For Ever (1980).

And indeed, she really captures that classic Christmas sound from the get-go on "December Will Be Magic Again". It's 1980 and she's of course still sporting her swelling dramatic soprano. With little trills of synthesizer, the main of the track is guitar (or is it mandolin) with piano. In a great compliment from me, the grand refrain, now with added drums and backing vocals (the latter of which continue on in the next verse), has a sort of oldschool Runescape feel to me. Generally speaking, the compositional style of that OST's (if that's what games also call them) Ian Taylor is relatively simplistic, but he is apt and well capable of capturing different moods. And so, as fans well know, does Bush. Great melody. Bit complex in the verses, but still lovely.

And "Warm and Soothing" is very much of her old mode, with soft and feeling vocals in piano balladry. A lot of beauty, but a less-than-memorable melody compared to some of the similar tracks of this sort. I mean, "In The Warm Room", for instance... Good God, can she write. Certainly B-side material here, to say the least.