In an otherwise stella career song critics have rated 1989’s “The Sensual World” and 1993’s “The Red Shoes” as among Kate’s weakest work, certainly her least successful in a commercial sense. “Director’s Cut” sets out to re-record and re-work the original recordings into what is essentially a new album. Kate herself was unsatisfied with the original recordings and felt they had dated badly, so just as film directors set about re-editing their work for modern audiences, this perfectionist artist set out to re-make her music. The idea came to Bush in unusual circumstances, when she originally released her song “The Sensual World”, James Joyce’s grandson refused to give her permission to use his famous relative’s words in her lyrics. One day before the copyright was due to expire, he contacted Bush and she re-recorded the song as she had originally wanted it to be heard.
It would be fair to say that with the exception of “Rubberband Girl” which degenerates into boogie woogie 12 bar blues and seems horribly out of place, all these songs improve significantly on the originals. The truly exceptional moment is “Deeper Understanding” with its computer generated voices and strange rhythmic patterns. The minimalist synthesizer underlying “This Woman’s Work” reminiscent of the Korgis “Everyone’s Got To Learn Sometime” offers a new dimension to this song that was originally a piano based ballad.
