having an interesting chat over on ds about these 'greats' . im not a fan of bjork, i dont like her material although i do recognise that shes been pretty inovative, creative and inspirational.

 

but

 

i dont rate bjork as highly as kate bush or siouxsie sioux, and out of the 3 its actually siouxsies influence that is most prominent in todays music with her iconic image being widely copied amongst 'indie' fashions and music.

 

how do you see it?

Sorry but it is Kate Bush by a mile.

 

Before Kate Bush there was absolutely no one like her for her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocals.

 

Whilst remember she was and is the youngest female singer/songwriter to write and sing on a UK #1 hit (Wuthering Heights 1978); and the first UK female artist to have a UK#1 album of original self-penned material (Never For Ever 1980).

 

What a lot of people seem to forget was that in 1978 she was voted worst act in the World today by the NME readership full of moronic punk sheep of the time. (Funnily enough the same accolade was bestowed upon David Bowie in 1972 & Lady GaGa in 2009!) This really upset PIL frontman John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, who declared her work to be "f***ing brilliant" and labelled her "a true original", and has been a huge fan of her's ever since. Yet now Kate Bush is regarded as the greatest UK female artist of all time.

 

In terms of female artists she has influenced and have sited her as an influence: Tori Amos, Björk (which automatically rules her out of this debate), Alison Goldfrapp, KT Tunstall, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple, Ladyhawke, Joanna Newsom, Sara McLachlan, Lily Allen (see video), Little Boots and Florence Welch for starters. (Although strangely Marina Diamandis claims that she is not an influence).

 

 

Whilst in terms of the pop culture the cult Comedy act The Mighty Boosh are named after a famous nickname that Smash Hits magazine gave to Kate Bush.

 

 

As for Siouxsie Sioux you would have a very strong argument if a certain "Godmother of Punk" Patti Smith never existed.

 

 

Siouxsie Sioux was directly influenced by the New York punk poet in terms of vocals, lyrics and her front woman abilities. True Siouxsie had her own gothic fetish slant which visually was stunning and influential as well as a late 1970s English songwriting sensibility. But Siouxsie Sioux cannot be regarded with the same level of influence as Kate Bush as she was not as unique or original.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rich..... I'm a huge Siouxsie fan - but she's just not in the same league as Kate Bush - but then... is anyone?

 

There simply isn't a female singer songwriter in the world who deserves to breathe the same air as her - you can have your wishy-washy counterfeits like Fiona Apple, Tori Aimless and Sarah McLachlan, but not one of them has ever released anything with the depth, spark and originality as Bush's Hounds of Love, The Dreaming or even her lesser works like The Sensual World and Lionheart.

 

Bjork is a visionary, true, but a visionary who too often takes her foot off the quality control pedal.... her pretentious, self indulgent clutch of recent albums have stretched her audience's patience to the max - and I dare even the most die-hard Bjork fan to defend Vespertine, Volta and the few soundtrack albums she's released these past few years - unlistenable, uninspiring and generally crushingly uninteresting.

 

So yes, as maddeningly lazy as the lady is, Kate Bush is the true icon here. Yes, she herself can be a victim of not enough quality control - Red Shoes was, a best, a half-hearted, patchy effort, Aerial was 60% genius, 40% twaddle (even I can't defend Mrs Bartolozzi, King of the Mountain, Bertie, Joanni or the dreadful How To Be Invisible). In fact, only the 2nd disc of Aerial works on any level for me - but that one disc alone made it my album of the last decade. I can't ever defend an artist who's only ever toured once in a 35-year career, or one who still hasn't got an official DVD release of....any of her work (crazy eh?)... but yep, Kate Bush, hands down, all the way.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rich..... I'm a huge Siouxsie fan - but she's just not in the same league as Kate Bush - but then... is anyone?

 

Bjork is a visionary, true, but a visionary who too often takes her foot off the quality control pedal.... her pretentious, self indulgent clutch of recent albums have stretched her audience's patience to the max - and I dare even the most die-hard Bjork fan to defend Vespertine, Volta and the few soundtrack albums she's released these past few years - unlistenable, uninspiring and generally crushingly uninteresting.

 

"Vespertine" is pretty amazing! I have never come across another album like that. So introvert (and yet in a way concerned with relationships at the same time), so beautiful. It is not uninspiring, uninteresting or unlistenable! Then again, this proves what I have been thinking about a lot lately - all these things are subjective.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rich..... I'm a huge Siouxsie fan - but she's just not in the same league as Kate Bush - but then... is anyone?

 

There simply isn't a female singer songwriter in the world who deserves to breathe the same air as her - you can have your wishy-washy counterfeits like Fiona Apple, Tori Aimless and Sarah McLachlan, but not one of them has ever released anything with the depth, spark and originality as Bush's Hounds of Love, The Dreaming or even her lesser works like The Sensual World and Lionheart.

 

Bjork is a visionary, true, but a visionary who too often takes her foot off the quality control pedal.... her pretentious, self indulgent clutch of recent albums have stretched her audience's patience to the max - and I dare even the most die-hard Bjork fan to defend Vespertine, Volta and the few soundtrack albums she's released these past few years - unlistenable, uninspiring and generally crushingly uninteresting.

 

So yes, as maddeningly lazy as the lady is, Kate Bush is the true icon here. Yes, she herself can be a victim of not enough quality control - Red Shoes was, a best, a half-hearted, patchy effort, Aerial was 60% genius, 40% twaddle (even I can't defend Mrs Bartolozzi, King of the Mountain, Bertie, Joanni or the dreadful How To Be Invisible). In fact, only the 2nd disc of Aerial works on any level for me - but that one disc alone made it my album of the last decade. I can't ever defend an artist who's only ever toured once in a 35-year career, or one who still hasn't got an official DVD release of....any of her work (crazy eh?)... but yep, Kate Bush, hands down, all the way.

 

Vespertine is incredible.

 

(Volta is not, let's forget about that one).

 

But yeah, Kate Bush is my favorite musician of all time, hands down. Well, Joanna comes close. But I just hold too many memories close to Kate Bush; I've been a fan for so long now (since I was like 12). She's a genius and I could not live without her music.

 

And How to be Invisible is amazeee, so Richard Thompson. Dunno how you dislike it. ): I do agree that Aerial was a bit of a letdown though, though it produced a few absolutely incredible songs (Aerial, Nocturn, Sunset, How to be Invisible).

Vespertine is incredible.

 

(Volta is not, let's forget about that one).

 

But yeah, Kate Bush is my favorite musician of all time, hands down. Well, Joanna comes close. But I just hold too many memories close to Kate Bush; I've been a fan for so long now (since I was like 12). She's a genius and I could not live without her music.

 

And How to be Invisible is amazeee, so Richard Thompson. Dunno how you dislike it. ): I do agree that Aerial was a bit of a letdown though, though it produced a few absolutely incredible songs (Aerial, Nocturn, Sunset, How to be Invisible).

 

Vespertine must be an acquired taste, then ;) But, honestly, is it an album you can play again and again? And those soundtrack albums she made, too - beJesus.... whatever she was taking at that time, I really don't want to try it :P

 

With Aerial - I thought HTBI was a bit of a plain-Jane track for Kate to be singing.... it kind of plodded along - perhaps the arangement let it down for me, I dunno. But the tracks you pick bar HTBI are my faves, too, and quite how she decided on releasing 'King' as a single over Sunset or Nocturn.... crazy.... apparently she didn't want to break the 'suite' of songs on the 2nd disc up.... which is silly, I think, because, unlike The Ninth Wave, the 2nd disc of Aerial doesn't really tell a fathomable story as such. I'd add A Coral Room to the list of Aerial greats, too - proof that she really hasn't lost the knack to be a master balladeer when she wants to be.

 

Talking of Bush ballads.... This Woman's Work was covered on American Idol the other week - how did this happen? Didn't Bush deny Simon Cowell the rights to sing ANY of her songs on ANY of his shows? And did anyone catch the performance? Obviously the guy singing hadn't even heard Kate's version - he basically covered the limp and occasionally painful Maxwell version... which, on YouTube, seems to be everyone's favourite version of the song, strangely enough. Funny how even the clueless judges, when giving their critique, said it was a Maxwell song too...... ah well, you'll never educate pork....

i too agree with richard, kate every time. however, im not sure about how much patti smith there is in siouxsie, and parelells the old argument sex pistols vs the ramones/new york dolls etc. whilst british punk wasnt initially original, we made it ours. fashions inspired by siouxsie are of course still seen in current indie kids clothes!

Talking of Bush ballads.... This Woman's Work was covered on American Idol the other week - how did this happen? Didn't Bush deny Simon Cowell the rights to sing ANY of her songs on ANY of his shows? And did anyone catch the performance?

 

I did, for me their performance completley ruined the song, but for some reason the Judges liked it ^_^

Bjork is a visionary, true, but a visionary who too often takes her foot off the quality control pedal.... her pretentious, self indulgent clutch of recent albums have stretched her audience's patience to the max - and I dare even the most die-hard Bjork fan to defend Vespertine, Volta and the few soundtrack albums she's released these past few years - unlistenable, uninspiring and generally crushingly uninteresting.

 

Bjork is an amazing artist and, while I agree Kate is the superior of the two, I think you could easily argue that Kate's work is also often very self indulgent and pretentious.

 

Vespertine is an album that I honestly have played time and time again, although it tends to get most of these plays in the Winter months when it's atmosphere is the perfect partner for a chilly late night.

I could play Vespertine again and again :)

Vespertine is short on tunes. I find it very difficult to find melody in most of it. I rate Bush as above every female except Tori Amos. I've said this in the Discuss What You Are Listening to thread.

 

The best 80 minutes of Kates beats the best 80 minutes of most artists but I can only name about 25 Kate songs that I really like. Tori has well over 60. Tori just connects on an emotional level that Kate rarely does - Never Be Mine, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, This Woman's Work apart.

 

The accusations that Tori was never experimental fall flat with Hotel, Mountain, her production on her cover of Carnival, Iiiieeee. Tori is a much better piano player and also tackled blues - something Kate never did.

 

I rate Under the Pink as better than Hounds of Love for being a diamond sharp penetration into rock music territory with abstract classical compositions such as the devastating Icicle and Yes, Anastasia.

 

I know I am alone in my preference. Obviously Tori isn't one tenth as influential as Kate.

 

Regarding Kate's albums I find Never Forever and Lionheart to be dull apart from the amazing singles. Aerial did nothing for me apart from How to Be Invisible. The Dreaming is jarringly original. Hounds of Love is less awkward and so more listenable for me. The Sensual World had it's moments, as did The Red Shoes.

Edited April 2, 201015 yr by tonyttt31

whilst i definitely prefer bjork than the other 2 there's no denying how much kate bush has influenced her and so many other people. i was watching a load of bjork videos in college the other week and my mates kept telling me to put some kate bush on too. it just goes to show how associated they are with each other and in pretty much most cases if you like bjork then you'll like kate bush or vice versa.

 

i'd say that for my generation though bjork's become more of an influencer than kate bush is. obviously that's because she's made a lot more music than kate recently but still she's definitely more out there which to top kate's pretty hard to be honest but she manages it.

I always think that Pagan Poetry is a kinda of Wuthering Heights for the 00s. The intros are similar.

i don't really get the hype around vespertine. it's my least played album of hers and it comes nowhere near the greatness that is debut for me. i much prefer her earlier stuff though declare independence instantly makes volta amazing though.

Homogenic is my fave Bjork album

I used to think of "Vespertine" as my favourite Björk album and possibly my favourite ever, but now I like "Post" more. For me, they are both amazing albums but "Post" tops it for me at the moment out of Björk's albums.

 

Björk is kind of an acquired taste in my opinion, as are Kate Bush and Tori Amos. I'm yet to familiare myself with most of Kate Bush's work but I think I will definitely give her a try since I love Tori Amos, as well as Kate's songs "Wuthering Heights" and "The Sensual World". My sister is a fan of Kate Bush so I can make myself CD's in her laptop when I'm at her place again.

 

I actually like "Volta" :kink: But not hugely.

interesting perceptions guys...

 

tbh i see more of siouxsies influence in todays music (certainly at the commercial end of the scale) both in music ('indie) and fashions ('indie' fashions). maybe not the most inovative artist, but bannion shouldnt be overlooked.