I originally bought this CD in 1992 right after seeing the movie "She's Having A Baby," with Kevin Bacon. "This Woman's Work" was featured in this movie, and I frantically searched for the artist and title of this song after seeing the movie. At the time, I, too, was pregnant with our first child. After I had our son, Aaron, in 1992, I remember laying him on the floor on a blanket and lying next to him, looking into his eyes, and holding his tiny fingers in mine while we listened to this haunting, bittersweet song. My eyes would fill with tears at the realization of the miracle that he truly was, and how truly blessed we were to have such a beautiful child. My son died from S.I.D.S. four months later. I now bring out this CD only when I want to relive those moments with my son --always on his birthday, his death anniversary, and sometimes simply on days when I really miss him. It's been eight years, now, and of course, the memories have faded with time. But whenever I want to feel close to my son, I turn on the song "This Woman's Work." This song is the only thing that enables me to relive those beautiful moments that I had with my child. "I know you have got a little life, in you yet. I know you've got a lot of strength, left... I should be crying, but I just can't let it show...Give me those moments, back. Give them back to me. Give me that little kiss. Give me your hand... All the things we should have done, that we never did..." The words are tremendously haunting, yet touch me so much within the depths of my soul. Although I can't listen to it daily (it's too hard, still...), I truly thank Ms. Bush for this "gift" of emotional perfection that she gives me, each time I hear it. I think this song will remain a part of me, forever. -An eternally grateful mother

In her home country, England, Kate Bush's most famous song is probably Wuthering Heights and her most famous album is probably one that that song didn't come off- Hounds of Love (1985). However, abroad it seems to be a different story. The album that came four years after Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World (1989) appears to be most well-known, in particular in the US, where This Woman's Work appeared in a film once- way back in 1988!
Yes, as a shy Home Counties girl, Kate has never gone big on promotion and whereas, in society, it seems ok for a band like Radiohead to get away with left-field ideas, people are still scared by a powerfully sensitive woman with unusual ideas. Subconciously, with her mystical lyrics and wild-eyed flights of fancy, they think she might really be a witch.
Kate has done a few songs about witches- Waking The Witch on 'Hounds of Love' springs to mind. And Rocket's Tail on this album, which reaches a breathtaking crescendo and has references to pointed hats and flying sticks, hints at the same theme. Despite this album being regarded as her 'relationship' album, it is far from the safe channels of most female lyricists. It is as much about Kate's relationship with herself, her ideas and the 'world' as with any man.
Kate talks about things buried deep in her, both physically (self pleasure on 'The Sensual World') and past events on 'Love and Anger.' Communication is a big theme, on 'Deeper Understanding' where she develops a relationship over (and with) the internet and on Between a man and a woman where she speaks of love between two people away from 'modern Western pressures'.
'Never be mine' is like a negative of the chorus of the song 'Hounds of Love' from her earlier album. Instead of being consumed by emotion she now quietly mourns 'The thrill and the hurting...'(of love) '...will never be mine'.
Earlier on in the album, 'The Fog' and 'Reaching Out' seem most occupied with the theme of childhood that has stayed with Kate during her career, a mixture of innocence and worldly knowingness. There is always a fear and an tension in making her way in the big wide world, away from familiar things. This coincides with the theme of being excitedly scared of love.
That leaves Walk Straight Down the Middle, which is the weakest song on the album and Heads We're Dancing in which Kate, or a character of Kate's imagining, finds out only from a picture that she has actually been dancing with Hitler. You could read into this that we never know for sure who we have fallen in love with - that we fall in love with an idea and the idea is often enough.

The album is simply one of Kate's best and, to me, her most intriguing. The insrumentation and backing singers are sublime. It is a deeply mature work about woman's sexuality, love, childhood, fear. Each song is complete and contained in itself like a new thought or dream. Abstract, advant-garde but highly personal. Genius.

I have played this album then CD over 100 times, and it is better richer more gorgeous and perfect each time. Put on your earphones and let this magical mystical album take you places deep in your soul. I love it, if you can not tell. Kate is an underappreciated genius, lost in the shuffle of marketing ploys and teeny girl hyper sexuality... this is sexuality on a different level. A level beyond age time gender. Get it and be enriched, I mean it.

Only the second Kate Bush album I ever loved the first time I heard it, this may in fact be her most accessible, with neither the wildness of experimentation on "The Dreaming", nor the exceptionally soprano vocals of her first three. If you are curious about whether to try Kate Bush or not, this is a fine place to start.

Opening with "The Sensual World", we are at once plunged into an appropriately sensual sonic world. Bush's musical experimentation has moved (for this song at least) away from compositional complexity to orchestral richness. As usual, of course, the musicianship is simply exquisite. The lyrics are confessionally lurid.

"Love and Anger", the single from the album, is Bush reaching back to the kind of rock composition she originally attempted with "James and the Cold Gun", now magnified with the ferocity of her intelligence and experience. The chorus is typically powerful, and it is both endearing and amazing how her emotional range has changed over the course of her albums. A must hear piece.

"The Fog" is a truly rich symphony that is lush, but not at all misty or vague. One of the things so amazing about Bush's music is how you really have to concentrate to pick out the instruments in her best songs. She puts together such artful combinations that it is received as a whole, as if the melody and accompaniment are more sensed than heard. In any case, the string arrangement here is simply sumptuous and the vocals, crystalline and beautiful.

"Reaching Out" is one of the best Kate Bush songs ever. It's what you get with eleven years of experience applied to the basic song formula of piano, drums and bass that Bush began with. The simultaneous power and clarity of her backing vocals here makes the disc worth having alone, but the chorus is simply one of her most beautiful and haunting ever.

"Heads Were Dancing", a quirky song about meeting Hitler in a dancehall, is not the most compelling combination of music and vocals Bush has ever done. Subpar only by her high standards, the song has its strengths, particularly the funky bass line. I'd never try to make converts with this song though. It doesn't help much that the song runs on for over five minutes.

"Deeper Understanding", technically an even quirkier song about a computer program that provides emotional nurturing and deeper understanding for lonely people, is much more successful because of the truly lovely vocal arrangements Bush builds up, especially in the chorus with the child-like and sweet timbre of her voice, as opposed to the desperate and hollow intonation she uses for the narrator, who is describing her (or his) lonely and desperate condition. Simple drums, keyboards, piano and subtle bass provide the skeleton for the song. The "Eastern"-influenced vocal flourish toward the end is also especially nice.

For the songwriter who began with some many dreamy ballads about love, "Between a Man and a Woman" shows, lyrically, emotionally and musically, how very, very far Bush has come as an artist. There is more emotional nuance, characterization and range in this one song than on many other people's albums. And once again, the surprising simplicity of orchestration, with its continuous splashes of guitar or bass or drum or keyboard, disappears in the overall complexity of its sound.

"Never Be Mine" is another of those exquisite Kate Bush songs that seems to disappear into her catalog, overshadowed unjustly by other justly marvelous songs. It seems genuinely impossible to do descriptive justice to this song--the many layers of vocals are simply breathtaking, and the way the bass and the guitar tones combine here to form an unprecedented instrument of their own is gorgeous. Definitely a song to make buying the disk worth it.

"Rocket's Tail" is a stand out piece, since it opens with an a cappella section with Bush providing all of the voices. The bassist (that must be Del Palmer, Bush's long time David Gilmour of the bass) provides especially scrumptious lines in the rock section that follows. It's hard not to think of this song as a kind of musically super-developed version of "Kite".

"This Woman's Work", an example of Kate Bush at the very bedrock of her compositional strength (just her and the piano), is an unbelievably beautiful, achingly affecting song. The way she sings about needing to be strong in a nearly cracking voice, how the backing vocals swell in intensity and then just fall away as she sings, "just make it go away"...a perfect combination of form and content. But the main thing is how haunting and beautiful the song is. Originally the last song on the album, it left an almost unbearable and amazing impression.

Technically, I should rant that the effect of the original album is compromised by tacking another song on the end, but "Walk Straight Down the Middle" (one of Bush's insanely good B-sides, like "Under the Ivy") is another of her finest vocal achievements. Sung in an almost-drugged voice for the verse, the chorus suddenly opens up into pure power and clarity backed by marvelously arpeggiated chords that put exactly the right amount of swing behind the strength of Bush's vocals. The bass work at the end is yet one more reason to vote for Del Palmer as a ranking member of the most undercelebrated bassists ever club.

Most people don't seem to get this album. Sadly it draws immediate comparison to it's predecessor The Hounds Of Love, Kate's most critically acclaimed and well known album. While I will be the first to admit that Hounds is indeed a masterpiece, so is The Sensual World. Unlike most artists Kate changes the sound between each release, important for evolution and the reason we love her so much. Thankfully (from my perspective) The Sensual World wasn't Hounds Part II.

The Sensual World is unashamedly romantic and lush. Songs of love, lust and hate fill this disc; from the gorgeous, syrup-like open track The Sensual World (adapted from Molly Blooms narative at the end of Ulysses and inspiring 1990's singers such as Tori Amos and Bjork), through to the foresightful Deeper Understanding, the crazy Rockets Tail and the beautiful This Womans Work. My personal favourite is Heads We're Dancing, a chilling story of a woman (maybe Eva Braun, though the lyrics suggest she didn't of him - or perhaps it's written from the perspective of a whole nation?) who falls in love with Hitler. Great percussion, brilliant guitars and a good story!

The disc also seems to draw a response for lacking cohesiveness. I think it flows beautifully, the "sound" of each track is similar enough without becoming repetative, and the theme of the album runs strong through all the lyrics. Give the album some time to settle in, allow the songs to float in your thoughts, and I am sure it will soon become a favourite!