The Red Shoes is the seventh studio album by English musician Kate Bush. Released on 1 November 1993, The song charted at No. 77 on the UK Singles Midweek Update dated 22 April 2024.
Overview
The Red Shoes was inspired by the 1948 film of the same name by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which itself was inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. It concerns a dancer, possessed by her art, who cannot take off the eponymous shoes and find peace.
Bush had suffered a series of bereavements during the making of The Red Shoes, including the loss of her mother, Hannah, who died in 1992 and the death of her guitarist, Alan Murphy. Bush's long-term relationship with bassist Del Palmer had ended, although the pair continued to work together. "I've been very affected by these last two years", she remarked in late 1991. "They've been incredibly intense years for me. Maybe not on a work level, but a lot has happened to me. I feel I've learnt a lot – and, yes, I think [my next album] is going to be quite different... I hope the people that are waiting for it feel it's worth the wait."
The Red Shoes featured more high-profile cameo appearances than her previous efforts. The track "Why Should I Love You?" featured instrumental and vocal contributions from Prince as well as guest vocals from comedian Lenny Henry. Trio Bulgarka (who had contributed to The Sensual World) appeared on three songs: "You're the One", "The Song of Solomon", and "Why Should I Love You?". "And So Is Love" features guitar work by Eric Clapton; Gary Brooker (from the band Procol Harum) and Jeff Beck also participated in the recording sessions.
The album was recorded digitally, and Bush has since expressed regrets about the results of this, which is why she revisited seven of the songs using analogue tape for her 2011 album Director's Cut, as well as releasing a remastered version of The Red Shoes in 2011, based on the master from an analogue backup tape.
Bush had suggested she might tour in support of The Red Shoes and deliberately aimed for a "live band" feel, with less of the studio trickery that had typified her last three albums. The tour did not materialise. Bush performed "Lily" and "Top of the City" live for the first time in 2014 as part of the Before the Dawn concert residency.
Release
Music Week reported that that album would be released by EMI on 1 November and be accompanied by national press campaign that would include posters, window displays, and television advertisements. Certain record shops throughout the UK such as HMV also played the album in advance of its release.
A short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, written and directed by Bush, and starring herself and English actress Miranda Richardson, was released in 1993. It featured six songs from the album: "Rubberband Girl", "And So Is Love", "The Red Shoes", "Moments of Pleasure", "Eat the Music" and "Lily". The first five were used as promo videos for the singles, though Bush recorded a separate video for the American release of "Rubberband Girl" (which is intercut with clips from The Line, the Cross and the Curve). The film was nominated for the Long Form Music Video at the 1996 Grammy Awards.
Critical reception
Chris Roberts, writing for Melody Maker, praised The Red Shoes as "an utter masterpiece" and felt that, apart from the "misguided" "Eat the Music", Bush is "on form like the Bible is well-known" with an album of "heartbreakingly beautiful ballads" and the rest "sunrise and Santa Claus, miles of muses". Alan Jones of Music Week designated it as their album of the week in the 6 November 1993 edition of the publication. He called it a "strong album" with "tranquil moods" and "influences from Africa, South America and Europe clearly audible".
Terry Staunton of NME considered the "truly exceptional" album to be Bush's "most personal to date, yet also her most accessible". He said that it was "a more mixed bag" than the "semi-thematic collections" of her previous two albums, but added that the majority of the songs are "link[ed] by a sense of loss, in particular the loss of love and loved ones", despite being "often light-hearted musically".
| 8
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! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)
| 6
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! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)
| 14
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! scope="row"| Irish Albums (IFPI)
| 24
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for The Red Shoes
! scope="col"| Chart (2014)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 2018 chart performance for The Red Shoes
! scope="col"| Chart (2018)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
|-
! scope="row"|UK Album Sales Chart
| 97
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! scope="row"|UK Vinyl Albums
| 14
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for The Red Shoes
! scope="col"| Chart (2022)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Year-end chart performance for The Red Shoes
! scope="col"| Chart (1993)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
| 77
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! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 32
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