64. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

64. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985)

1. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)
2. Hounds of Love
3. The Big Sky
4. Mother Stands for Comfort
5. Cloudbusting
6. And Dream of Sheep
7. Under Ice
8. Waking the Witch
9. Watching You Without Me
10. Jig of Life
11. Hello Earth
12. The Morning Fog

Who is/are Kate Bush?

Wikipedia tells us Kate Bush “is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer”.

She’s also from the same town that I grew up in…

Why did you buy this album?

This album was on my wife’s Amazon wishlist. Seemed like a good choice, so I bought it for a birthday or Christmas present, we forget which!

What’s it like?

Confusing. In a good way.

I’ve always found it hard to categorise Kate Bush; she’s too progressive to be straight pop, yet too pop to be fully prog. Prog-pop seems a fair compromise, but then there’s songs like those on the second half of this album that really defy description.

Essentially, Kate Bush is her own genre…

After listening to it now, do you (still) like this album?

I’ve heard this album a few times prior to listening to it for this blog, and it’s always just washed over me, mostly because I’ve been listening to it as music in the background, rather than concentrating on it.

Now, however, given the chance to actually listen to it, I’ve loved nearly every minute of it. (Utah Saints have somewhat tarnished the otherwise brilliant ‘Cloudbusting‘, so thanks for that…)

Any stand-out tracks?

The afore-mentioned ‘Cloudbusting‘ is up there, along with ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)‘ which I first owned on a Q magazine covermount cassette…

There’s also ‘The Big Sky‘, which reminds me of Peter Gabriel for some strange reason, and from the 6 song suite ‘The Ninth Wave‘, ‘Jig of Life‘ always stands out for me.

Rating out of 10?

9/10. Would have been 10 if the Utah Saints hadn’t used ‘Cloudbusting‘ so successfully.

Next up: Kate Bush – The Red Shoes