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Kate Bush
On 'Vulnicura,' Bjork is heavy and at her most personal
In the opening measures of Björk's new album, "Vulnicura," the Icelandic artist offers a direct statement of purpose, one involving personal upheaval she describes as "a juxtapositioning fate." Mentioning "moments of clarity as so rare, I better document this," Björk directs her gaze in that first song, "Stonemilker," on the dissolution of a relationship. As she does so, what can be described only as Björkian strings and beats swirl around her. These drifting arrangements soar through tracks like birds spinning circles in prairie skies, even as the experimental pop singer, 49, lyrically crawls through the brush below in utter...
Related "Kate Bush" Articles
On 'Vulnicura,' Bjork is heavy and at her most personal
In the opening measures of Björk's new album, "Vulnicura," the Icelandic artist offers a direct statement of purpose, one involving personal upheaval she describes as "a juxtapositioning fate." Mentioning "moments of...
Jessie Ware brings her 'Tough Love' to America
Jessie Ware is exhausted. A few weeks back the 30-year-old English R&B singer was amid a promotional tour for her recently released sophomore effort, "Tough Love," and though she fought off a few yawns and is feeling jet-lagged from the...
'Hunger Games' soundtrack leaves listeners sated
Recorded as if in a humid forest just after midnight, the soundtrack to "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1" is an immersive experience, one overwrought enough to darken candlelit teenage bedrooms but deep enough to reward more advanced...
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2015: 11 other acts that should be in
Pardon me while I feign outrage for a fake institution.
The annual conundrum known as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees list was announced Thursday, and it's as baffling as ever. In fact, so shaky is its philosophical foundation that arguing...
Lorde gets the Greek on her team at her sold-out show
About a year ago, Lorde played her last headlining L.A. concerts, at the Fonda Theatre and the Belasco. After that, she played on the Grammys telecast and at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. At each of those shows, she seemed steely and...
Paris Fashion Week: At Celine, homespun sweetness and familiarity
Set to the heartstrings-pulling Kate Bush song, “This Woman’s Work,” the collection Phoebe Philo showed for Celine on Sunday afternoon during Paris Fashion Week was a home run, a gentle mix of fringe, flares, florals and 1970s nostalgia that will change...
FKA Twigs bewitches crowd at the El Rey Theatre
For a moment Tuesday night, FKA Twigs lost control.
The multitalented British singer and songwriter born Tahliah Barnett had just finished a round of dancing that left her quivering on the floor of the El Rey Theatre stage. When she got up, she...
Essential Tracks: Vertical Scratchers, Schoolboy Q, St. Vincent, more
Vertical Scratchers, "Daughter of Everything" (Merge Records)
A band named for the method in which guitarist and singer John Schmersal works his instrument, Vertical Scratchers are an L.A. two piece that teams said scraping with catchy songs...
Albums to seek out this fall: Perfume Genius, Zola Jesus and Sbtrkt
Like Peter Parker and Princess Diana of Themyscira disappearing behind Spider-Man and Wonder Woman masks, the artists born Mike Hadreas, Nika Danilova and Aaron Jerome perform vanishing acts this fall when each releases new music under larger-than-life...
Friday Coda: Fly Lo, Aphex Twin, Tracey Thorn, U2, Apple and more
Booty, beauty, beats and Kate Bush. Below, a rundown of some of what happened this week in popular music.
-- A few decades from now, when music historians are writing the tome of Los Angeles in the early part of the century, two names will be at...
The life of Wilhelm Reich as drawn by Elijah Brubaker
When Wilhelm Reich died in prison in 1957, he was a scientist disgraced. Remembered, if at all, as the inventor of the orgone accumulator (William S. Burroughs and William Steig, among others, were devotees), Reich was once an associate of Sigmund Freud...
The reviews are in for Kate Bush's first concert in 35 years
Until Tuesday night, the English singer Kate Bush hadn't performed a concert in 35 years. To say that the Brits, and the world of Bush fans, were excited is an understatement. To read the pre-concert coverage, it's as though Bush had not merely decided to...
Coachella 2014: The inside story on Outkast
One of the major draws of this year's Coachella — and the whole of the upcoming festival season — is the return of the Atlanta hip-hop team Outkast. To a certain generation, the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling duo's hits, including "Ms....
'Peter Gabriel: Back to Front' concert film screens April 23
Peter Gabriel has always used his concerts for something much more ambitious than merely singing his favorite songs live. This Wednesday (April 23), viewers will get a chance to go inside his recent Back to Front tour by way of a concert film...
Coachella 2014: Solange surprises with Beyonce in sparkling set
Whenever talking about Solange, the conversation inevitably steers to her superstar sister Beyonce.
It’s understandable, albeit a bit unfair. Beyonce, the teenage girl-group frontwoman turned pop queen of the universe, casts a mighty wide shadow -- a...
Kate Bush to play first live dates since 1979
Kate Bush, the grande dame of English art-pop, is returning to the stage. It took her only 35 years to do it.
Bush has announced that she's booked a long run of live dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The shows are slated to begin Aug. 26 and...
Grammy nominations show puts chaos on display
The Grammy Awards may be "music's biggest night," to quote the Recording Academy's dogged branding effort, but they no longer represent its center.
You got a firm sense of how haphazard the awards can seem, particularly as the record industry...
Linda Ronstadt on Hall of Fame induction: 'I don't care'
Linda Ronstadt fans invoke words such as “shameful,” “incomprehensible” and, as Don Henley put it recently, “another travesty” when they talk about her absence from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for which she been eligible for induction for more...
From Strangers to You Really Got Me
I knew the relationship was over when she told me she'd never heard of the Kinks. I could overlook her mood swings, her occasional cruelty and even those all-too-frequent phone calls with her "ex"-girlfriend, but music ended up being the deal...
Review: Ellie Goulding starry-eyed at the Palladium
Ellie Goulding described herself as “just a country girl” at her sold-out Hollywood Palladium show Tuesday night. That’s a curious self-image for a 26-year-old English electro-pop vixen with a one-quarter shaved head and a quiver of ravey, chart-topping...
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