An album inspired by a dancer who cannot take off her shoes, written by a woman who could not stop working through grief. That is the strange tension at the heart of The Red Shoes, the seventh studio album by the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, released on November 1, 1993.
Three years of recording
The record arrived in the United Kingdom on November 1, 1993, released by EMI. On that day, the album became available to listeners, carrying twelve tracks written entirely by Bush. It was the product of three years of recording, from June 1990 to June 1993, split between Bush's home studio and Abbey Road Studios in London. She wrote all twelve songs and produced the album herself.
The title came from a 1948 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, itself based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows a dancer obsessed with her art, trapped in shoes that will not let her stop. Bush did not need to stretch far to find the parallel.
Loss behind the sessions
During those years of work, she lost her mother, Hannah, in 1992. Her guitarist Alan Murphy also died. The album became a record made by someone who kept moving because the shoes would not come off. All twelve tracks carry her name as sole songwriter, a remarkable act of focus through mourning. The album also marked the end of her long personal and musical relationship with bassist Del Palmer, though the two continued to work together. Even as the losses mounted, Bush kept the sessions moving, inviting more collaborators than she ever had before.
The album became a record made by someone who kept moving because the shoes would not come off.
What makes The Red Shoes different from her earlier albums is how many voices she let into the room. Prince played, sang, and helped arrange 'Why Should I Love You?'. Eric Clapton contributed guitar to 'And So Is Love'. Bush had never opened her work to so many guests. The guest list stretched further. Comedian Lenny Henry added his voice to 'Why Should I Love You?', while the Bulgarian vocal trio Trio Bulgarka appeared on three songs: 'You're the One', 'The Song of Solomon' and 'Why Should I Love You?'. Gary Brooker of Procol Harum and guitarist Jeff Beck also took part in the sessions.
The sound was meant to be live. Bush planned a tour to support the album and wanted the band to feel real and breathing. The tour never happened. Instead, the songs sat in the studio, waiting. Two of them, 'Lily' and 'Top of the City', would not be heard on stage until 2014, during her Before the Dawn residency.
Director's Cut and the analogue remaster
Bush later regretted the digital recording of the album. In 2011 she re-recorded seven of its songs on analogue tape for Director's Cut, and a remastered version of The Red Shoes appeared the same year, taken from an analogue backup.
She also wrote and directed a short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, in which she starred alongside Miranda Richardson. Six songs from the album appeared in it. The film was a visual companion to the record, another way to perform without touring. The film earned a Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Music Video in 1996. In the United States, the album climbed to number 28 on the Billboard 200, her highest position in that chart at the time. Decades later, in April 2024, 'Eat the Music' was reissued as a 10-inch vinyl single for Record Store Day, with 'Lily' and 'Big Stripey Lie' on the B-side.
The album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, kept from the top spot by another release. It was the sound of an artist refusing to stop, even as the people around her disappeared. The dancer in the fairy tale could not remove the shoes; Kate Bush, it seems, never tried.