The Sensual World

Released in the UK on EMI with catalogue number EMD 1010, it was produced by Bush, with Del Palmer as recording engineer. Kevin Killen mixed tracks one to ten, Palmer mixed the last, and Andrew Boland engineered the Irish sessions. Bush could not get permission from the Joyce estate to use Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses, so she wrote new words for the title song. The Bulgarian ensemble Trio Bulgarka sing on Deeper Understanding, Never Be Mine and Rocket's Tail, and Bill Whelan worked on the Irish sessions. It was the last studio album with the guitarist Alan Murphy, who died three days after its release.

The vinyl album ends with This Woman's Work. The CD and cassette add Walk Straight Down the Middle after it. An accompanying video collection, The Sensual World: The Videos, includes the title song, Love and Anger and This Woman's Work.

Reception

It reached number two in the UK and went platinum, and was gold in the US, where it became her biggest seller. Q's Robert Sandall heard a mood of Oriental reverie like that of Japan. It brought two 1990 Brit nominations, for best British producer and best British female, and a Grammy nomination for best alternative music album. Slant placed it 55th among the albums of the 1980s in 2012. Robert Smith of the Cure chose it as his favorite album of 1989. Bush called it her most honest, personal album. In 2011 she revisited it on Director's Cut, re-recording the title song as Flower of the Mountain with the Joyce text, after the estate granted permission.