You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.
What a joy it was to see Kate Bush finally break through to the masses in the U.S. with the resurrection of “Running Up That Hill” nearly 40 years after it was released, thanks to Stranger Things. Bush’s earlier albums had more classical undertones, but Hounds Of Love is where she masterfully melded progressive with pop. “The Big Sky”, “Hounds Of Love”, “Cloudbusting” and the closer “The Morning Fog” are some of my favorite songs from her catalog.
“The Morning Fog” musically and thematically is perfect as the final track on the album. It sounds like a reprise, as if it’s a continuation of the tracks that precede it. Listening to it in isolation just isn’t the same experience. Everything about “The Morning Fog” – the lyrics, the smoldering bass line, the piano arpeggios – feel like a new dawn filled with a sense of clarity and hope even as this tremendous pop album winds down to its final moments.
“The light. Begin to bleed, Begin to breathe, Begin to speak.”