Kate Bush is a compilation album, released in the USA and Canada on 15 June 1983. EMI Records released this mini-LP because they wanted to promote Kate Bush, who was relatively unknown in the USA at the time. In Canada, she was more famous, and so the Canadian version ended up with one extra track. The cover shows Kate in the warrior costume she was wearing in the music video for one of the tracks included in the album, Babooshka.

Track listing

The album consists of the following tracks:

  1. Sat In Your Lap
  2. James And The Cold Gun (live version from On Stage EP)
  3. Ne T’enfuis Pas (Canada only)
  4. Babooshka
  5. Suspended In Gaffa
  6. Un Baiser d’Enfant

Formats

In the USA, this mini-LP was released on tape and LP. In Canada, the mini-LP was released as an LP only, but it’s interesting to note that there were versions in many different colours of vinyl: brown, blue, gold, translucent green, red, white and clear vinyl.

Critical reception

The album was reviewed a few times in the American press.

An excellent, if somewhat schizophrenic, introduction to British singer Bush

Alex Cain, Pulse!, August 1983

An easy introduction, at the same time it introduces (…) a number of Kate Bush’s failings. This record seems to show that she’s really pretty much the same as any over-ambitious chanteuse.

J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1983

Kate about ‘Kate Bush [mini-LP]’

Quite honestly, I don’t think I would have chosen those five. It has very much to do with the record company and what they see a market for. I did want Sat In Your Lap to be on there. It’s also quite nice to get the French song on there ’cause I quite like that. (…) I think there’s so much aimed at the Canadian market where there’s a French population and the song was especially done for the French people, so it made sense to put in on the Canadian version.

Brian Berry, ‘Kate Bush’. Wireless, September 1983

Highest chart positions

USA: 148

References

  • Kate Bush (EP). Wikipedia, retrieved 25 October 2014
  • Robert Godwin, The Illustrated Collector’s Guide To Kate Bush, cop. 2005. ISBN 1894959450.