Theo Bleckmann - Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush (2011) Hi-Res

The 1980s possessed an incongruous hope for the future against a backdrop of possible nuclear annihilation, as if in the darkest of times, society retreated to a naive state. This is a generalization that doesn't, obviously, represent the entire gamut of human experience, yet it was there all the same. The majority of singer and composer Kate Bush's music came from that decade, and there was always something about her music that seemed representative of that cloak of innocence; a touch of fairy tale magic, even when singing about loss, heartbreak or the cost of war. Since then, cynicism has been adopted by much of society as the interface with the human experience, and so it's supremely refreshing that singer Theo Bleckmann embraced the magic and optimism from which the source material for Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush sprang. Of the fourteen album tracks, all but two were recorded in the 1980s, half of which were released on Bush's Hounds Of Love (EMI, 2000).

An appealing aspect of Bush's music has always been her lack of self-consciousness in baring her heart and soul through her music. It's the kind of thing that is easy to mock, but the correct reaction is to respect the hell out of it. Bleckmann shows the same courage Bush displayed when recording the original versions.

The best example of Bleckmann's outstanding treatment of the Bush songbook is in opening track, "Running Up That Hill," which rings with sincerity and beauty, not to mention the glassine shimmer of the Fairlight CMI digital effects that grew in popularity on many pop and rock albums of the 1980s. Bleckmann's version is an astounding facsimile of the original, a feat outshone by the song's immaculate tunefulness.

In addition to unabashed sincerity, Bush also had a predisposition to drama bordering on the theatrical. In the hands of a less talented artist, this is the kind of thing that can quickly devolve into the comical. Bleckmann, however, displays the same uncanny knack for making it so easy to buy in, to accept the drama as genuine tension and the theater as the song's reality.