Best recording of the 80s, by anyone, period.

Review Score:

(10/10)
The Dreaming, or as my friends and I in the early 80s dubbed it "The Screaming", is Kate's most fully realized work. She herself has said it was emotionally wrenching to produce, and that emotional intensity comes through consistently on every track. In fact, I think this is the most emotionally intense music ever made with synthesizers. Constructed essentially with just her Fairlight (with some additional instruments added as textures), her voice sequenced in and out, she was able to construct a psycho-sonic landscape that conjured a state of mind and spirit in a state of high tumult with no promise of redemption.

On vinyl, the two sides of this masterpiece were reflections of one another, each track a mirrored response to its counterpart on the opposite side. The conscious search for knowledge on "Sat in your Lap" was answered by the unconscious revelations of "The Dreaming"; the heist gone wrong on "There Goes a Tenner" became a flight from the cops on "Night of the Swallow", and so on; culminating in the expressionist screams that close both sides: "Leave It Open", with its take-all-comers approach to experiencing what life throws at you, is contrasted with the get-the-hell-out-and-don't-ever-come-back she-mule of "Get Out Of My House". Kate new exactly what she was doing from beginning to end. In the making of this record - the first one of hers that she produced herself -- she demonstrated a remarkably confident command of art and technology, and this all coming from a 22-year-old.

The dynamics and textures used on The Dreaming were developed on it predecessor, Never for Ever, and mastered on its follow-up, Hounds of Love, but never were they as evocatively employed as on this album. The soaring circles of her voice, the pipes, and Fairlight treatment on Night of the Swallow are literally breathtaking. I could go on and on. This work changed the way I listed to popular music two decades ago. To listen to this music now, over 20 years after it was recorded, is to still be transported onto romantic flights and dreams. Search. Theft. Escape from bondage. In dreams begin responsibilities. It is best listened to after midnight.

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