I’m a sucker for a good outro. I would say Kate Bush does a good job of ending her songs, it doesn’t ever feel cut too short or awkward.

In the beginning of her career the songs were way more concise and carved, leaving little breathing room for the instrumentals to shine on their own

By Never for Ever (and possibly Lionheart, tbh I’ve only listened to it a few times), I think she started to get more comfortable with lyrical silence. “Night Scented Stock” is a great example of this.

After that, she was fully confident in letting songs linger on, with “Get Out Of My House” still having, imo, one of her best outros of all time. Especially for an album closer.

However, that brings me to my next point—Kate Bush is so thoughtful about choosing a closing track, and making that song truly feel like the end of a tale

For example, “The Morning Fog” ends rather suddenly in terms of when the lyrics end and when the song itself ends. However, it feels positively succinct and naturally reassuring. All is all right again, and perhaps it always was

“This Woman’s Work” also solemnly closes out a fairly volatile album featuring several ups and downs. It’s the perfect stoic performance to close up such a tender, emotion-driven album. HOWEVER, it is just like HoL’s closing, as she doesn’t let the music breathe on and on like she was able to capture with The Dreaming’s finale

Then we get to The Red Shoes and Bush is able to create, imo, another one of her best outros. The outro of “You’re The One” is full of yearning, pent up emotion just leaking out from all around, anger and softness and longing.

The music , the guitar!!, the “sugar!”s with the trio’s bombastic harmonies in the back… it really feels like a great way to close the album. It’s not soft like The Sensual World’s ending, but instead full of palpable frustration and love.

I finally want to give a shout out to the closing song of Director’s Cut, “Rubberband Girl.” I mean, in a meta sense, ending this album with this song is very symbolic. Not only because of what the lyrics represent, but because it was the first song on The Red Shoes. Using it as a closer feels really poignant

The outro is impeccable for this version of “Rubberband Girl.” The harmonica alone is insane. She captures this hard to explain essence of transcending. Transcending the album and music and thoughts. There’s something a bit scary or eerie about it, I would say. Like we are teetering on the edge of something we are not supposed to know. But we are being invited to find out. And when the album is over, I think I do know a little more secrets than before

In no particular order my favorites outros right now/that I can recall are:

Get Out Of My House

You’re The One

Rubberband Girl (“Director’s Cut” version— that harmonica is insane)

I actually made this list before writing this post, but when I realized that they were all closing tracks, I started to do a little analysis on her discography:) I honestly skipped Aerial and 50 Words out of tiredness.

If anyone wants to add their thoughts I’d love to hear !! Maybe someone has some connections they’ve made across opening tracks or title tracks?