70s KnockOut Cup Match 2 *Neige advances*

[never/ever]

A

Kate Bush -Fullhouse





B

The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

[Darkness_Fish]

I never knew Kate Bush was such a fan of US punk ("watching The Wipers..."). I've always had a bit of a problem with Kate, in that her voice is astonishing, but her songs are generally frigging awful. Hanging around with Peter Gabriel wasn't a mistake, it was actually something she wanted to do, and that should be a warning sign to everyone. I mean, she's trying to do something interesting here, but I feel that she's just got too much of a prog and AOR core, that's the base she's trying to escape from, and no matter how many vocal wows and flutters she does, it's a gloop of horribleness behind her.

Can we slag anything off now for being too obvious, if it wasn't picked in the gazillion tons of dross that filled the main cup? I mean, this is veering towards 70s megamix CD territory. But it shouldn't really matter, because if you're doing guitar based big dump pop, this is basically the ideal, isn't it? This is what you should be doing, catchy verses, a chorus which actually sounds like its going to bring the roof down, and a bridge which is absolute fucking genius. Boom. Top bins, as my son insists on saying, fam.

B

[Dayodead]

Never understood the love for Kate...Have never seen her as musically interesting...So, Vote B

[Osgood]

Not a big fan of B, but A is just awful.

B

[The Modernist]

I often want to like Kate Bush more than I do. She has that English eccentricity that I like and when she gets it right, she gets it very right. But A is symptomatic of a lot of things that were wrong with her early music ( she would get better), it's all a bit formless and messy with all these intrusive 70s rock elements sitting uncomfortably with her voice. She needed a more pared down arrangement ( as with 'Man With the Child in his Eyes') to bring out her talent.
B is a blindingly obvious pick, really unimaginative, but is the better track by some distance, so..

B

[toomanyhatz]

Maybe it's my mood, or maybe it's all the career retrospection going on, but A is just hitting a good spot for me right now. My favorite work of hers is probably the following decade, but it's nice to be reminded that eccentric stuff like this (and to a lesser degree B) could actually seep into the public consciousness a tiny bit.

[Jumper K]

On initial scrolling I thought someone had uncovered Kate's cover of The Stooges. Alas no. Its the usual Mrs Mills piano-driven high warbling nonesense.
B is great, of course.
B.

[Loki]

Not a KB fan.

I'd forgotten what a nifty little number "Ballroom Blitz" is. As obvious and relatively generic as it is, it has enuf here.

[fange]

I wish this one was closer, coz I feel a mauling coming on for A, but there is no denying the better song here for me.


B

[C]

I've never been a Kate Bush fan and this track does nothing for me.

Whilst never being a Sweet fan, at the time, it was difficult to avoid. I don't like it

I should really abstain but I have decided that I will not be doing that during this competition

So, decisions decisions

-+A+-





.

[Purgatory Brite]

B mainly because I actually remember this from the 70s.

The La Bush song works better in the context of being an album track.

[harvey k-tel]

There's not much of a song there in A, is there? It just seems like a mish-mash of melodic ideas over a too-intrusive backing track, almost like she's trying to channel Court and Spark-era Joni, but not quite getting it. It's a shame, too, because it's a bit difficult to want to vote for something as obvious as B, but it can't really be denied that it is a fun tune.

B

[naughty boy]

I love Kate Bush's voice and think she's one of the most interesting artists to come out of the UK, but a lot of her stuff really doesn't tickle me at all. This is a good example - it's not linear, it's jazz-like, with its little bursts of melody and skittish piano

B is daft and has enough to win this match for me

[sloopjohnc]

B

[Penk!]

Kate Bush is an artist I keep meaning to explore more, as I know there must be a lot of interesting things lurking in her catalogue. This one had some intriguing direction and key changes although there were parts that strayed a little close to '70s muso tosh and some alarmingly Meatloafy flourishes in there too. Something of a curate's egg then.
'Ballroom Blitz' is one of those songs that is very famous but which has for some reason never really impinged upon my consciousness. Now I sit down and play it I realise I have heard it before, of course. It's fun, although I could imagine getting annoyed by repeated hearings.

B

[echolalia]

A

[T. Willy Rye]

B

[trans-chigley express]

Fullhouse is a very odd KB pick, a fairly low key track from by far the weaker of her two 70's albums. I like it in the context of the album and it has certain quiet late night quality to it that I like - in fact the whole album does - but as a standalone track from her it's a weak choice.

I like The Sweet a lot in my youth but listening now everything they did from this era sounds like a variation of Blockbuster but not as good.

A

[Nick Danger]

B

[Rayge]

I'm all ranted out from round three, so suffice to say that while I actually own a few KB records, including that album (although I played it so seldom I have no memory of the track), the only ones I really like are the single of Wuthering Heights and the Hounds of Love album, where she dumps the prog shit in favour of pop songs, and there's no way she's beating the gleefullly absurd Sweet at the top of their game. Actually I did listen to the track for form's sake, and I thought it was one of the worst things I ever heard from her. 2 / 10
b - oh my thursday night TOTP in B&W of long ago. This is an aural madeleine, a perfect pop number and, for me, the very best thing to come out of glam. Marc and the Dame would have killed for a single like this. Only complaint is that I had to turn the youtube volume way up to get anything like the dynamic boom of the 7-inch. 7 /10

B