Director's Cut will see the singer revisit tracks from 1989 album The Sensual World and 1993 successor The Red Shoes

Kate Bush has not toured since 1979, and her last studio album was released in 2005, so fans of the Wuthering Heights singer can be forgiven their excitement at the announcement on Friday that she is releasing a new album on 16 May. But as its title suggests, Director's Cut is not a wholly new record, but rather a revisiting of a selection of tracks from her 1989 album, The Sensual World, and its 1993 successor, The Red Shoes. The 52-year old Bush, who lives in Oxfordshire, has re-recorded some elements while keeping the best musical performances of each song.


It is an unusual move for any artist, and particularly surprising of Bush, who once said: "I can't possibly think of old songs of mine because they're past now. And quite honestly I don't like them any more." She has never released Live at Hammersmith Odeon, recorded in 1979, nor her collection of groundbreaking videos, Hair of the Hound, on DVD. Deluxe editions of her albums featuring bonus discs of outtakes and rarities have been notable by their absence.

Bush has not commented on the release, but Graeme Thomson, author of a recent biography, Under the Ivy, said: "It's telling that she has chosen to build something new on the skeletons of her old songs. Although her music is frequently defined by a haunting nostalgia and repeat excursions to the shadowy dream country of childhood, in her attitude to her work she has always been resolutely forward-facing."

According to Thomson, fans might have expected Bush to revisit her earliest two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart, both released in 1978, when she wasn't in control of the production process. Her 1986 compilation album The Whole Story included a version of Wuthering Heights with a new vocal. A new version of Deeper Understanding, originally recorded for The Sensual World, will be released as a single in April.

Those still patiently waiting for a fully new album may, however, have their hopes realised. Bush's spokesperson said on Friday: "Kate is currently working on new material although no release date has been set for this."



Source:www.guardian.co.uk