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May 18, 2011There's a consistency and homogeneity about the 11 tracks (seven from The Red Shoes, four from The Sensual World) which echoes her work on Aerial, and which lends the project a character entirely its own.
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May 24, 2011Director's Cut can be seen as new work, because some of these songs are very different to their earlier versions in tone and scale; both sets of work are equally brilliant, but here there is even more clarity of purpose,
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May 18, 2011But if Director's Cut is a tad superfluous, it's also gorgeous.
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The WireAug 12, 2011An unusual and unexpected triumph. [Jun 2011, p.44]
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Jun 20, 2011Bush considers Director's Cut to be its own separate work, and with each revealing listen, that seems more and more to be the case.
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May 31, 2011Perhaps the most significant thing that Director's Cut offers is context. Not just the context of an album – which it is being touted as, rather than a mere compilation – but the context of era, in how technological limitations of the time affect a composer's original intentions.
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Q MagazineMay 31, 2011Director's Cut succeeds, however, by axing the star cameos and thrusting some of her most powerful songs back into the spotlight. [Jun 2011, p.115]
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May 25, 2011That the songs retain their vibrancy and ambition with this new energy – more focused, less stridently theatrical – is a testament to her songwriting and enduring appeal.
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UncutMay 18, 2011After the intermission of Aerial, could this mark the real beginning of the second act of Kate Bush's brilliant career? Let's hope, like Molly, the answer is "Yes..." [Jun 2011, p.81]
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May 18, 2011Taken on its own merits, however, there's plenty to enjoy, as Bush sings new vocals over remixed and re-edited backing tracks in a deeper, more weathered voice.
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May 18, 2011As much as it's fascinating to hear Bush the Elder look back at Bush the Younger, is the tinkering worth a full album? Yes, because it's a sign Bush the Artist is still alive (she's working on new songs too) and Director's Cut (a less prosaic title would have been nice) is a gorgeous body of work.
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May 18, 2011Her vocals now sound stately, and the impression is of a grande dame breathing new life into work made as an ingenue.
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May 18, 2011Director's Cut ultimately amounts to faffing about, albeit faffing about of the most exquisite kind. Still, as anyone who's watched her putting up with Richard Stilgoe will tell you, Kate Bush has earned the right to do whatever she wants.
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May 18, 2011There is, as Bush intended, much more air around the songs, which can reduce their original, raw intensity but also gives them a more mature, lingering potency.
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May 19, 2011Director's Cut provides a unique opportunity to do an A/B comparison between a late-career artist and her younger self. But which you'll prefer likely depends on whether you favor a more assured artist working within her strengths, or a brash younger artist delighting in the defying of pop conventions.
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Dec 6, 2011The experience of The Director's Cut, encountering all this familiar material in its new dressing, is more than occasionally unsettling, but simultaneously, it is deeply engaging and satisfying.
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May 24, 2011At its best Director's Cut is a dazzling affirmation of Bush's genius as songwriter, performer and producer. Maybe one day we'll take her for granted again. But not today.
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May 24, 2011Director's Cut is a fine addition to her gorgeously ethereal repertoire, but it's mainly for Bush completists.
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Jun 14, 2011If you've heard the albums it's drawing its material from, you've already got all of those secrets figured out. Ultimately, that renders this album as a novelty of sorts, a release that should only have a footnote in the story of her career rather than its own chapter.
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May 31, 2011None of these cropped and re-imagined takes are drastic enough to add huge insights into Bush's output as they do her finicky outlook on her own work. Work that is, generally, great in any context.
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MojoMay 18, 2011There are few moments where Director's Cut offers anything close to a bold deconstruction. [Jun 2011, p.95]
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May 18, 2011The reinterpretations offer interesting what-if scenarios, tweaking and altering familiar material, but inevitably reveal more about Bush's fussiness over her own legacy than anything else.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 21
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Mixed: 4 out of 21
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Negative: 0 out of 21
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Dec 26, 2020
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Aug 31, 2019
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Oct 29, 2013