Never for Ever

The studio becomes part of Kate Bush’s writing process on Never for Ever, and that change is transformative. The piano is still the foundation, but around it appear stranger colours, sharper edits and sounds that could not have existed on her first two albums. Most importantly, this was the first Bush album to use digital synthesisers and drum machines, including the Fairlight CMI sampler, an instrument that would become increasingly important to her work.

Bush co-produced the album with Jon Kelly, taking a much greater role in shaping the finished sound. Recording ran from September 1979 to May 1980 at Abbey Road and AIR Studios in London. The leap in control is audible. Acoustic instruments, orchestration and rock-band playing coexist with Fairlight textures rather than being replaced by them, and the arrangements often feel theatrical in the best sense: each song seems to invent the musical environment its story requires.

The three singles show the range. “Babooshka” turns jealousy and disguise into a dramatic pop song with an unforgettable hook; “Army Dreamers” uses a lilting waltz to approach the death of a young soldier; “Breathing” imagines nuclear terror from the perspective of an unborn child. The subject matter could easily become heavy-handed, yet Bush’s instinct for unusual melody and character keeps the album mobile. Even when the themes are dark, there is curiosity in the production, as if every emotional problem also presents a sonic problem to solve.

Released on 8 September 1980, Never for Ever became Bush’s first number-one album and made her the first British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Chart, as well as the first female solo artist to enter it at number one. The statistics are significant, but the artistic shift matters more. This is the point where Bush stops sounding merely like an exceptional songwriter being recorded and starts sounding like the architect of the recording itself. The albums that followed would push further, but the door opens here.