FEATURE:
The Modern Embodiments of Kate Bush
Is There Anyone Who Comes Close?
__________
THERE is always talk…
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda Brownlee/The Guardian
about a new artist being the new so-and-so. We all lazily compare artists to those who came before, as it makes them more identifiable and something to moor to. Maybe there are very few true originals. However, I do think that it is a disservice to the artist they are being compared to. I am not sure whether we get anyone saying a band is the new version of The Beatles. Or The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or The Who. The Kinks. David Bowie. Maybe Madonna is being linked to newer artists. However, there have been articles and opinions when it comes to who is the new or next Kate Bush. I always say that nobody can equal her, so it is futile asking which new artist or a mainstream act who can take her place. Kate Bush is still recording and active, so there does not need to be a new version of her. However, I have talked enough about Bush’s growing influence and how so many of the great albums from the past year or so can be linked to Kate Bush oin some way. Women, anyway, and how they are fans of hers or you can hear some of her work in others. Although there is nobody today who can equal Kate Bush and is exactly like her, I do think there are modern embodiments. In terms of artists who either shift between albums or have a similar trajectory. Maybe their fashion and aesthetic is similar to Kate Bush. I feel The Last Dinner Party have elements of Kate Bush. They are inspired by her and there is definitely a feel of Bush in terms of their fashion and a sense of theatricality. Darker elements in their new album, From the Pyre, reminiscent of Kate Bush. Florence + The Machine, too. Everybody Scream, their latest album, definitely channels Kate Bush. Florence Welch is someone who summons comparisons to Kate Bush. Her vocal style and even her stage presence. One can say that Florence Welch is the closest we get to a ‘modern Kate Bush’.
Rather than distil a true original and suggest anyone can topple the queen, there is inevitable talk around Kate Bush now and whether any new artists are similar to her. I am hearing people talk about Perfume Genius and FKA twigs being Kate Bush-esque. Bold sonic ambition and experimentation. A visual aspect. Given the popularity of Kate Bush now, it is only a matter of time before there are features published asking who the new Kate Bush is. However, when it comes to someone prominent today who seems to be most like Kate Bush, I would say it is Charli xcx. I have written about her a lot, because she recorded the soundtrack from the “Wuthering Heights” film. Naturally, you got people linking Charli xcx to Kate Bush. The Guardian noted this in a recent article:
“Move over Kate Bush! The new voice of “Wuthering Heights” is Charli xcx, whose haunting soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s new big screen reimagining of Emily Brontë’s gothic tale of love, heartbreak and haunting is poised to darken and deepen our aural landscape.
The recording artist has form with era-defining albums – 2024’s epochal Brat was a summer phenomenon that found its way into that year’s US presidential election. But inspired by Fennell’s take on Brontë’s masterpiece, the mood has turned murky and melancholy. “I think I’m going to die in this house,” intones the deep-voiced refrain on House, the pop singer’s collaboration with the legendary John Cale, which was the first track to be released from the new album. “I’d rather watch my skin bleed/ In the eye of your storm,” she sings on Chains of Love, a moody synth-pop ballad that heightened the sense of gothic romance in the trailer ahead of the film’s 13 February release for Galentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
“I sent the script to Charli with a view to asking her simply if she had an emotional response to it, would she like to make a song about it?” says Fennell. “And she called me and asked if she could do an album. Of course I said yes. And then she just started sending me just the most incredible things that were new, sexy, emotionally engaging.”
Charli xcx has called the sound “raw, wild, sexual, gothic and British”. It’s the acoustic equivalent of getting caught in a squall on the Yorkshire moors while wearing one of Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran’s lavish creations”.
Many might see only minor links between Charli xcx and Kate Bush. However, it is clear that the former is a massive fan of the latter. She treads her own path. An album like BRAT is not really comparable to any Kate Bush album. Bits of Hounds of Love or The Dreaming, perhaps. However, I do thank that the way Charli xcx evolves between album and shifts course makes me think about Kate Bush. Touches of Hounds of Love, The Kick Inside, The Sensual World and The Dreaming in other Charli xcx albums. I do feel we will even hear an expansive and rich work like Aerial impact Charli xcx. In terms of a personal, eclectic and shifting style and these different looks. The way Chali xcx is their hugely engaging photographic subject. I do think of Kate Bush. I know Bush will know Charli xcx’s music and, whilst they will probably never collaborate, you cannot blame me for feeling Charli xcx is the closest we have to a modern incarnation of Kate Bush. Rather than it being about replacement and forgetting the divine Kate Bush, it someone today who seems to carry her torch. Hearing how Charli xcx talks in interviews. That combination of quick humour, sweetness, confidence and the way she deals with the press and interviewers when they are a bit sexiest or foolish. There is this boldness and experimentation in the music. Charli xcx can release sensual and beautiful music but also bombastic and strange songs. The nature and feel of her videos too. How indeliable they are. I do feel and see Kate Bush through that. Popmatters observed this in their review of Charli xcx’s latest album: “Both women were inspired by a deeply British book, channelling Celtic heritage to transform the work into something more idiosyncratic and angular. The Wuthering Heights soundtrack features Velvet Underground bassist John Cale on “House”, an eerie and ghostly recital. An austere cello bolsters the backdrop, brimming with an angular confidence. Where Bush relied on her Irish heritage to guide her, Charli XCX turns to Welsh folk music, immersing the work with memory, madness and hiraeth. “Dying for You” features textured soundscapes and a complex, multi-segmented pop number that shifts in tempo and timbre. “All the pain and torture I went through,” the vocalist screams, emulating the sensual urges felt between Cathy and Heathcliff”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Charli xcx/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Kooiker
Other people may have different views about which modern artist seems most like Kate Bush. Anna von Hausswolff might spring to mind. However, when we look at the genius of Kate Bush and everything that makes her such an influential artist, I do turn to Charli xcx. Of course, as I say, both artists are distinct and doing their own thing. I am not sure whether Charli xcx would want to be compared so heavily to Kate Bush, even if she is influenced by her and is an obvious fan. That said, I look back at her earliest albums like 2014’s SUCKER and chart it through Charli (2019) and Crash (2022) and you can feel the same sort of shifts and sonic changes that Kate Bush had through her career Charli xcx is only thirty-three and she has decades ahead. She is a more prolific artist than Kate Bush and is involved in a lot of acting projects. There are aspects of her life and career that you cannot compare to Kate Bush. I think the way Charli xcx takes control of her career and is wrestling to have her say and make sure it is her true artistic vision even reminds me of Kate Bush right from the start. In 1978, when she fought to have Wuthering Heights released as her debut single. Charli xcx has this filmic and dramatic nature of her videos. Stylish and ambitious. A certain eccentricity and provocative nature that you can also trace to Kate Bush. It would be wonderful if the two artists met. In a way, Charli xcx has helped get Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights back in the charts and heard by a new wave of listeners. A contentious debate to introduce, you can understand why I am excited to see any artist who has that spirit of Kate Bush. In time, I do feel we will see a lot of newer artists very much taking a similar course to Kate Bush. Right now, I really feel Charli xcx has so much in her that makes me love and admire Kate Bush. Charli xcx and the depth of her sound. That quest for autonomy. A gothic nature to some of the music. Inspiration drawn from literature and film. Of course, look at other artists like Chappell Roan and you know she owes a certain debt to Kate Bush. Looking around at those challenging Pop convention and being this singular artist, who gets closest to Kate Bush? Even if nobody can ever be her – and they are not trying to be-, there are those who certainly summon the spirit and bones of Kate Bush and her remarkable music. The icon of music affecting and shaping modern music…
IN so many ways.