kate bush - the ninth wave [album]
disclaimer: this is the second appearance of an album/music thing landing both the lore and music section for similar reasons to the last, as we have another concept album! shoutout to angelo for liking my ethel one and making me do another (and for losing to me in chem titration... you're never living this down, and angelo you better be listening to this album too)
SECOND disclaimer: i refer to this album (even in the title) as "the ninth wave" - it is important to note that this isnt the name of a kate bush album, its a term used to refer to side B of her album "hounds of love", so if you're trying to locate it, it'll just be all songs starting from "and dream of sheep" until the end of the album
the ninth wave is a concept album about a woman (kate bush) drowning, like my journey through preacher's daughter, i'll once again go through the songs and share a bit about the story, and this is a MUCH more straightforward and explicit storyline than ethel's.
song 1: and dream of sheep
i'll wake up to any sound of engines / every gull a seeking craft
so, as mentioned, this is side b of "hounds of love", the first side is kate's most mainstream music, actual pop(ish) songs that are CONVENTIONAL (such as the lovely running up that hill, and the lesser known (but imo better song) cloudbusting). kate introduces herself as being stranded in the middle of an ocean, with a "little light" from her lifejacket being all she sees, we hear sounds of a coast guard radio, but the song feels very dreamy, and listeners aren't sure how real this situation is.
song 2: under ice
there's something moving under / under the ice / it's me
this song is CHILLING, it paints a beautiful picture for the first two minutes (a beautiful ice lake, which kate is seemingly skating across), until she sees somebody under the water. as she looks closer, she realizes its her reflection, and it becomes a genuine chilling moment. as she realizes who is under the ice (her) she screams "it's me", and the song ends with a choir saying "someone help them" in a really tragic moment.
song 3: waking the witch
what say you, good people? / guilty! guilty! guilty!
this is SHOCKINGLY not kate bush's craziest song, but it's close. its the first song in a series of three of kate's hallucinations, in this one, she hallucinates a witch trial—in which she is on trial—with a devil (also played by kate bush) yelling latin phrases at her. the song begins with a more than one minute basically nothingness with the sound of people telling kate to wake up, but then something shifts, and it goes into this crazy witch trial which must be listened to to experience.
song 4: watching you without me
don't ignore me / let me in and don't be long
this song is a weird hallucination too - half of it is because i cannot discern what kate is singing... but it is apparently about the drowning kate hallucinating that she is a ghost who's now visiting her old home, and nobody can see her, but she can see everyone :o.
song 5: jig of life
never say goodbye / to my part of your life
at this point, the album seems so... unserious for lack of a better term. kate has gone from drowning to a witch trial to becoming a ghost... to an IRISH JIG. but this is a cute and fun song! in her third hallucination, there is a confrontation between kate and.... kate's future self! kate's futuristic self is telling present kate to not give up and to live
song 6: hello earth
get out of the waves, get out of the water!
if you didn't remember, although kate is hallucinating... she is STILL DROWNING, and this sound grounds us back into her very close to death state right now. kate is seemingly getting rescued (maybe?) because this song has voices saying "get out the waves" (maybe they're rescuers!) but kate is in a whole different realm right now, and is seemingly having an existential crisis in which she's looking at the earth from space. this song is also so beautiful because we see kate's internal voices, there are random chants in the middle saying things like "just look at [the earth] go!", "murderer! murderer!", and "why did i go", these are beautiful, chilling moments, kate's voice and intonatino is just spectacular here, and of course there are also random interludes of georgian folk songs... but (unsurprisingly) kate bush makes it work
song 7: the morning fog
i'm falling / and i'd love to hold you now
unlike preacher's daughter (spoiler alert), we have a... HAPPY ENDING? or is it? we don't really know, these lyrics give way for two interpretations: either kate has survived this experience, or she's died and gone through a sort of reincarnation. the gravitational floating away from life that kate spoke about in the last song has been (quite literally) grounded, as kate begins to "fall", and the album ends!
i really really love the ninth wave and it's what got me into concept albums as a concept (haha). i'd really suggest listening to this album, craziest/best songs lowkey are under ice (for that chilling end), waking the witch (because it's crazy), and... honestly hello earth (i'm not even sure if it's my fav sonic wise but the way kate says these random lines in the middle is just so well done it deserves a mention).. THANKS FOR READING
also, regardless of this concept album, STILL LISTEN TO THE FIRST FIVE SONGS they are amazing
oh and also something so crazy but i just have to remind you all - this was made in the 1980s. and it still sounds SO ahead of its time, kate truly was/is a pioneer