Album title: Hounds of Love
Artiste: Kate Bush
Genre: Art rock/Pop
Year: 1985
Label: EMI
Producer: Kate Bush
Chronological position: Fifth album
Notes:
Album chart position: 1 (UK) 30 (US)
Singles: “Running up that hill”, “Hounds of love”, “Cloudbusting”, “The big sky”
After taking some time out to just be her, time away from records and songs and studios, Kate returned in 1985 with an album that would blow her previous effort out of the water and forever establish her as not only a unique artiste, but a consistently successful one. Seen almost as a comeback effort, given the poor performance of
The Dreaming (though it reached number 3 it can be accepted that this was largely purchases made on the expectation of an album similar to
Never for Ever, and the failure of its singles reflect that) and the length of time it took to record and release,
Hounds of Love is for many people their favourite Kate Bush album, and it's certainly the one with the most big hit singles on it. More importantly though, it shows her using her creative talents, rather than in a confusing mix of styles and ideas as on
The Dreaming, to here fashion not only a superb album but one which had a whole concept suite as part of it.
Review begins
It's almost certain that everyone has at least heard “Running up that hill”, as it was a number three hit for her, and covered by various other artistes, and it rides on trundling percussion with for once a much more reserved and understandable vocal from Kate. I often found, on the previous albums, that it was hard to even make out what she was singing, such were her vocal histrionics, but here she has developed perhaps a more radio-friendly voice where you can easily understand what she's singing. Originally called “A deal with God”, Kate was forced to change the title for the single release, as she was advised by label executives that religious countries would not take kindly to the original title and would not allow it to be played, so it became the subtitle of the album version. The title track opens with a spoken line from the movie
Night of the Demon - “It's in the trees! It's coming!” and then rolls in on kind of tribal percussion with a “Ooh ooh ooh ooh!” that kind of reminds me of The Buggles. Yeah. Another hit single, it continues the quality of the album with some fine synth and, interestingly, much less (indeed, here, none) of the piano that has been so prevalent in her albums up to now.
As indeed does “The big sky”, which rolls along on a bright, almost African beat, and certainly gives you the idea of expansive space and freedom, with a really powerful chorus at the end, while “Mother stands for comfort” again has breaking glass sound effects in it for some reason, and slick fretless bass, then “Cloudbusting” is the last track I knew before I began this review* and its orchestral arrangement is fantastic, the backing vocals excellent, and the main vocal perfect. Oh, and the choral vocal chorus at the end ... perfect.
That brings us on to what was side two, and the beginning of the suite, which goes under the umbrella title of “The Ninth Wave”, and is split up into seven parts. It apparently is based around the idea of someone who (for reasons undisclosed) has to spend a night in the sea, waiting to be rescued, and the thoughts that go through their head as they fight to remain alive. We get the return of her faithful piano for the first part, “And dream of sheep”, a really nice fragile ballad , and you can hear the whistles coming in there near the end. More dramatic then is “Under ice”, with some very sharp and dramatic violin, slow too, but darker, Kate's vocal almost matching the cadences of the violin. “Waking the witch” features a lot of people saying “Wake up”, then we get a sort of fragmented sample and the beat quickens, and it's very strange; I think there are bell sounds sampled there too, and sped up. Some dark voices which sound like they're coming out of the deepest pit of Hell, very growly and scratchy (backward masking?) with Kate kind of howling above it all and I think a chorus said “Guilty!” Another voice orders “Get out of the water!” and there's the sound of helicopters (perhaps this is the rescue? I'm assuming this person has fallen overboard a ship).
Soft tribal drums then bring in “Watching you without me”, with some nice whistling keys and fretless bass, again certainly brings Gabriel to mind, and of course they would work together on his 1986 album, duetting on one of the big hit singles from that, “Don't give up”. Another broken-up sample and we're into “Jig of life”, where the Celtic influences really return, with fiddle and uileann pipe and whistles and all sorts of skiddly-idle. The vocal is almost a constant stream, with very little pause for breath but I hear elements of the basic melody of “Running up that hill” in it. Halfway through it breaks down into a total Irish jig, kind of makes me shudder in remembrance of bleedin' Riverdance! In the last minute it becomes more of a spoken poem, narrated by John Carder Bush (her father?) and into “Hello Earth”, where the piano takes the melody with some powerful percussion coming in too, and strings arrangements as well as what appears to be a choir – oh yes, the Richard Hickox Singers, apparently. They take the song solo for a beautiful and moving
acapella in the fourth minute, and we end on the upbeat and optimistic “The morning fog”, as, I assume, the character, having survived the night in the water is about to be rescued and life will go on. Quite punchy, a very bright piano line, and a relatively short song to end the suite, and the album.
Track listing and ratings
Running up that hill (A deal with God)
Hounds of love
The big sky
Mother stands for comfort
Cloudbusting
And dream of sheep
Under the ice
Waking the witch
Watching you without me
Jig of life
Hello Earth
The morning fog
Afterword:
I suppose this would be the one that did it for me, though I have heard it before. Three superb singles, a suite, some great tracks, and not anywhere near as experimental as the previous album. So far, even considering the other two I have heard prior to beginning this discography, this would be my favourite Kate Bush album. I just like the way she sings on it now, that you can understand her; the weird inflections, the high-to-low, the screams, the odd howls, are all, for now, gone, and I can enjoy her singing much better. Yeah, the hounds of love definitely caught up with me on this one, but will they be able to keep their teeth sunk into my heart, or will they open their jaws and let me escape?
Well, it would be another four years before the next proper album from Kate (1986 would see the release of her first anthology,
The Whole Story, from which I gained much of my appreciation of her music) so this might be an appropriate place to stop and catch my breath before travelling further along this road she has made for herself, and seeing if our feet remain in step, or if our paths are doomed to diverge.
Rating: 
