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IIs music just a young man’s game? One glance at the streaming chart for any given day and you might think this is axiomatically true. Many of today’s greatest singer-songwriters are still in their early or mid-20s, including Chapel Lawn, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo. Taylor Swift is treated like a veteran, someone whose storied career is worth splitting into 11 different eras, but at the grand old age of… 34 years. What will happen to real veterans now?
On Friday, Kate Bush, the bouncy-voiced singer-songwriter from Wuthering Heights, revealed she plans to return to music after more than a decade away from the spotlight. Bush’s last live performance was in 2014 (a residency at the Hammersmith Apollo), and her last new record was three years earlier (2011’s 50 Words for Snow).
In his prime, Bush was an artist with a rare talent for making pensive, prickly, weird rock music. Her voice seemed to jump through octaves from the get-go, crystallizing into a unique iridescent falsetto. There was never anyone else like her, and there never is. So it’s good work that she’s back. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning, Bush said he was pursuing “a lot of ideas” for new music. “It’s been a long time, but I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space,” she said.
Despite being on hiatus, Bush has gotten back into the zeitgeist thanks in large part to Season 4 of Netflix’s sci-fi sensation Stranger Things. Season 4 served as the soundtrack for a key moment in her song “Running Up That Hill,” which propelled the song to No. 1 nearly 40 years after its debut. release.
This unlikely comeback introduced Bush’s music to a new wave of young fans, who may have more to look forward to in this vein when the pioneering British musician finally makes a comeback. But they are unlikely to get it. At 66, Bush is half a lifetime removed from the young maverick who broke new ground for female singer-songwriters in the 1970s and 1980s. The problem is that this makes the prospect of hearing more music all the more appealing.
When it comes to singer-songwriters in the twilight years of their careers, it’s easy to think that decline is inevitable. In a sense, it has fallen prey to even many of the undisputed greats, such as Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell. But when your early work is as shocking as “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blue,” this is not to be taken lightly.
As we grow older, a musician’s arsenal can lose some tools. Energy and vocal range are the most universal and acutely felt changes. But it adds just as much: experience, depth, perspective. Many songwriters create their best and most powerful work late in their careers.
There’s something great about songs like Randy Newman’s “Wandering Boy” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Ghost.” These are rich, moving songs that these men, great songwriters, would not have written in their young primes. With 2016’s Blackstar, David Bowie released one of his greatest and most profound records at the end of his life. Gil Scott-Heron did something similar with 2010’s I’m New Here. In other words, greatness doesn’t have to diminish with age.
Bush’s case is particularly interesting. Because there is a gap between the common understanding of what her music is – languid rock bangers, most notably the chart-topping “Wuthering Heights” – and the challenging, experimental reality. Because there was always a gap. “Hounds of Love,” the 1985 album from which “Running Up That Hill” is featured, straddles both worlds. Half of it is a set of radio-ready singles, and the other half is an elaborate conceptual work that weaves seven songs into one piece of music. Her subsequent work continued to iterate and experiment. “50 Words For Snow” consists of seven long, complex songs, the longest lasting nearly 14 minutes.
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So while it’s impossible to really guess what Bush’s new music will sound like, it’s safe to say it won’t be too similar to the thud-friendly “Running Up That Hill.” Her next album may not be on Stranger Things 5, and that’s probably a good thing. What matters is that Bush says something new and says it in a new way. She makes music that no one else can. So how wonderful it is that it is not yet finished.