Kate Bush Before The Dawn

51cmbcxl5vl-_ss500This pick for the 2016 PopCult Gift Guide won’t be officially released until Friday, December 2, but as a huge fan of Kate Bush, I couldn’t wait to tell you about it. This is the official audio artifact of Kate Bush’s month-long residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in the summer of 2014. Those were her first live concerts since 1979, and her fans who were not able to attend have been clamoring for these recordings.

Presented as an audacious, multi-media theatrical performance entitled Before The Dawn, the month-long, sold-out, 22-date residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo was an unqualified triumph.

Now, to the delight of Kate Bush fans around the world, comes the audio document of those mesmerizing, historic shows. Before The Dawn will be available as a 3-CD set, a 4-disc vinyl box set or a 29 track digital album. The sound quality is almost unparalleled; nothing has been re-recorded or overdubbed. The three act show, containing many well known Kate Bush songs, also included two song suites: ‘The Ninth Wave’ from Hounds of Love and ‘A Sky of Honey,’ from Aerial. Included in the show are an abundance of well loved songs from her extraordinary career including ‘Running Up That Hill,’ ‘Hounds of Love,’ ‘And Dream of Sheep,’ ‘Waking The Witch’ and ‘Cloudbusting.’

giftguide-graphic-smallDespite the enormous anticipation and expectations, Before The Dawn drew resounding praise from fans and critics all over the world. The New York Times called the performance ‘Dense, cathartic and physical.’ NME concluded: ‘It is no ordinary artist that can tackle life, death, synchronicity, identity, spiritual transformation, empathy and the chaos of relationships with idiosyncratic ease in the space of a few hours,’ and the U.K.’s Independent gushed, ‘Undoubtedly the most ambitious, and genuinely moving piece of theatrical pop ever seen on a British stage.’

If you have a Kate Bush fan on your holiday shopping list, this is THE item that you want to get them. Available from Amazon, or anywhere that new music is sold.

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