Lionheart (Kate Bush album)
| Lionheart | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Kate Bush | ||||
| Released | 10 November 1978 | |||
| Recorded | 7 July – September 1978 | |||
| Studio | Super Bear Studios Berre-les-Alpes, France |
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| Genre | Art rock, baroque pop | |||
| Length | 36:32 | |||
| Label |
EMI (UK) EMI America (USA) Harvest (Canada) |
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| Producer |
Andrew Powell assisted by Kate Bush |
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| Kate Bush chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Lionheart | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| NME (1978) | negative |
| Record Mirror |  |
Lionheart is the second studio album by the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. It was released in November 1978, just nine months after Bush's successful debut album The Kick Inside. Lionheart reached no. 6 on the UK Albums Chart (her only album not to make the top 5) and has been certified Platinum by the BPI.
The first single taken from the album, "Hammer Horror", missed the UK Top 40. However, the follow-up single, "Wow", was released on the back of Bush's UK tour and became a UK Top 20 hit.
Following the success of her debut album, Kate Bush's record company EMI were eager to get another out. Bush had composed many songs throughout her teens (she was at this time 20 years old) and the majority of the tracks used for Lionheart were compositions from before her debut. Bush, however, was unhappy with the short length of time she had in which to produce the album. Recorded entirely at Super Bear Studios in Berre-les-Alpes on the French Riviera, this was to be her only album recorded outside the UK. Of the ten tracks, only "Symphony in Blue", "Fullhouse" and "Coffee Homeground" were newly composed songs, although the other songs had been reworked by Bush in preparation for the recording. The album was produced, like her first, by Andrew Powell, with Bush feeling that she was at this stage too inexperienced to produce it herself (she would go on to produce all her following albums). Since the album's release, Bush has many times said that she was unhappy with this album because of the restrictions imposed on it. In a 1989 interview she remarked: "Considering how quickly we made it it's a bloody good album, but I'm not really happy with it".
Literary references include J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in "In Search of Peter Pan" (a song which also quotes "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the classic Disney film Pinocchio), as well as a nod towards Arsenic and Old Lace in the song "Coffee Homeground", which despite being similar in plot to the play, was inspired by a taxi driver who drove Bush once. Film references include "Hammer Horror", while although taking its name from the Hammer Film studios, is actually about a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The British television show The Sweeney, a popular police drama from the 1970s, was mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Wow", which is a song about a homosexual actor. Touching on the same subject, "Kashka from Baghdad" is about a male couple who are forced to keep their relationship secret.
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