Kate Bush is a wierd singer who was most popular in the late seventies and eighties. Kind of like Lady Gaga, only nothing like Lady Gaga, how DARE you put Kate Bush on her level. Maybe I could let you compare her with Bjork, but I will not let you sully Kate Bush's good name by uttering it in the same sentence of that snot nosed trumped up femilore! Kate bush is in my opinion she's an excellent singer. Although my favorite album of hers has to be Never for Ever, hence my username Neverhundred. But today I'm going to talk about a song off of her album Hounds of Love, it's called Running up That Hill. It's about penis envy.

Right away it hits it off with the percussion, and some synth that can only be acceptable in an eighties song. Soon Kate Bush is singing in her distinctive voice, and she's such a talented singer that she's even singing the backing vox! The song continues to be simple, just the driving percussion, synth chords and Kate Bush continues to sing. As the song progresses it manages to build up tension. And it really delivers in the bridge where all that build up pays off. You can hear a chunky guitar added, the cloned Kate Bush backing vocalists sing their unintelligible melodies. It pays off twice, it's a well constructed song with very good pacing.

This next band is Dutch. They're symphonic metal. They're called Within Temptation, their lead singer is Sharon den Adel... that's all I know about them. I'm pretty sure that's all I'll ever need to know about them.

The cheesy eighties synth is replaced by woodwinds, alright I can understand that choice I mean it's not the eighties anymore. The percussion is hardly noticeable, and I can hear more snap to the beats. Not that it matters that'll be gone soon. Suddenly the metal hits the fan, the guitars are chugging away... it seems a bit messy to me, with the flutes and shit, the synthesized "ah" vocals, the drumset. Then it drops away and the first verse has more punch to it, but it's kind of too little too late, the song already lacks consistency.

So how does Sharon compare vocally to Kate. They both have a great range, but I don't get the sense that Sharon captures the emotional range of the song.

The structure of the song does not work. It gets into the bombastic metal sound early and there is no build up to anything. Because that it's reached it's limit before the vocals even kick in. There's nothing it can build up to!

So the original is the better song today.