Hounds of Love

When this record came out I was still convinced that I couldn’t stand Kate Bush, but a friend was so insistent that I was going to like this that he bought me a copy and badgered me until I finally listened to it. Of course he was right, and this became one of those records that I listened to constantly in the mid 1980s. I love the combination of the compelling percussive background and blended rock/trad/whatever kind of musical ideas, her introspective, meaningful lyrics, and the occasional creepy background voices and effects.

Amusing “Hounds of Love” memory: watching the 1950’s sci-fi movie “Curse of the Demon” at some point in the deep past and realizing that that’s where the “it’s in the trees! it’s coming!” bit at the beginning of the title track comes from.

I love how Kate Bush has never shied away from being her own unique self. Very enchanting and creative album.

Top tracks: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Cloudbusting, And Dream of Sheep

A lot of wailing: album gets progressively more unhinged as she starts skipping and adds some electronic stuff

Under Ice sounds like it could be a track to some art dance thing
Waking the witch has a monstrous voice
Jig of life is has a hybrid Scottish Irish dance going on

Some people might find it experimental and refreshing but I overall I do not really like it bc it is loud and wailing

The people who don't like this just don't have enough whimsy in their hearts

kat buh

Incredible album that still reverberates to this day. The first strains of Running Up that Hill ease into your soul while the Night of the Demon soundbites speak to the urgency of her terror in Hounds of Love. Its both beautiful and strange at the same time.

Favorite track(s): Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Hounds of Love, The Big Sky, Mother Stands for Comfort, Cloudbusting, Under Ice, Jig of Life, Hello Earth

Nothing will ever confound me more than how the public got such good taste when Stranger Things made this popular. They probably didn't touch the B-side though.

Heard before
Previous rating: 9/10

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love is an album I really wanted to love, especially given how highly regarded it is, but it didn’t quite click with me as a whole.
The obvious standout is “Running Up That Hill”, which is easily my favorite track on the album. It has this dramatic, almost hypnotic quality, with a fantastic synth-driven sound and a vocal performance that gives the song a real sense of urgency. It’s one of those songs where everything seems to come together perfectly.
Unfortunately, I found the rest of the album much less compelling. A lot of the songs felt flat and somewhat repetitive to me, and I often found myself waiting for them to develop into something more exciting. There are certainly interesting ideas in the production, and I can appreciate how distinctive Kate Bush’s approach was, but appreciating the ambition and actually enjoying the listening experience were two different things for me.

FUUUUUUUUUUCKYEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Truly I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited to listen to an album as I was to listen to this one. It’s a perfect album. A movie of an album. Every song is incredible and adds to the overarching theme.

Kate Bush’s songwriting and construction of story is incomparable and awesome. Surely, the production is fantastic but the sequencing!! The diction! The figurative language!! She’s tantamount to the best songwriters of all time, and she has a better knack for melody than most.

This album is perfect. PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT.
10/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YESSSSS
REASON: PERFECT

5/5. Up there with Talking Heads “Remain in Light” as my favorite album of the 1980’s. It’s split into two halves, with the first five tracks of the album being massive pop bangers. Even with its overexposure due to stranger things a few years back, “Running Up That Hill” will always be one of the best pop songs of all time. But the amazing hooks just keep coming with tracks like “Big Sky” and the title track.

Then comes the back half of the album which is a seven track conceptual suite about a person trapped at sea in the cold darkness after a shipwreck and their hallucinations/nightmares/grapples with mortality and their life. And the production/performances in this back half get very weird like the demonic shouting on “Walking the Witch.” But that’s the beauty of Kate Bush as an artist, she brought both the pop bangers and the genuine experimentation/adventurous production. You can feel her influence all over so many artists that came after such as Bjork or more modern indie darlings like Magdalena Bay. Amazing album, can’t recommend it enough.

Uffff le tengo un hype.
Running up that hill es un temazo, que es tan bueno que ni siquiera sufrió la quemadura de tiktok y se sigue escuchando como la primera vez.
Obra maestra. Una experiencia única.

Och bogowie, to jedna z ważniejszych płyt dla mnie w ostatnim czasie, nie bez powodu oczywiście. Pierwsze czarownica i wisienka na torcie muzycznych egzorcyzmów. Pierwsza połowa skonstruowana z dobrych, popowych piosenek, a potem robi się tylko ciekawiej, "strona B" to porządna historia tonięcia i to jak napisana! Kocham tę płytę, 5-tka bez zastanowienia.

I came to know Kate Bush through the fourth season of Stranger Things. In it, she's Max's favorite artist, and it's her music that helps her escape Vecna's clutch. The song "Running up that Hill" is prominently featured, most notably in one of the best scene in the series, which helped it gain new traction among modern audiences. For good reason : it's a magnificent song. Apparently, Kate Bush wasn't very popular in the US before that. A shame, because what an artist she is!

Don't be mistaken : "Running up that Hill" is great song, and an equally great opener on the album, but it is far from being the only good one on it. One-hit wonder this album is not. In fact, I'd even say that it's not the best one. Most memorable? Maybe, thanks to Stranger Things, but the second half of the album is so fucking wonderful that it doesn't really matter.

There's a real sense of crescendo on the album, as it progressively become more whimsical, ethereal, esoteric even. Kate Bush paints a rich dream-like tapestry full of witches, fairies and imps, and she herself sound like a nymph in the woods, murmuring poetry directly into your soul.

This is one of the best albums ever composed, don't @ me.

One of the best - if not the best - album of the 1980s. Also probably Kate Bush's best album.

The first half has Track after track of beautiful songs that will also either get you up to dance or have you in some trance state.

The second half is more experimental, with spoken word, choirs, eastern European singers, ambient sounds.

Everyone knows about Running Up That Hill and how Stranger Things brought it back to everyone's attention. But The Big Sky is even better. And Jig of Life - all traditional Irish music and a lyric about the older version of a woman coming back to visit her younger self - is astonishing.

This is intelligent, beautifully crafted, and a masterwork.

so fun and funky

Arh... Det bliver sgu lidt for kedeligt
2-3 gode numre kan ikke rigtig holde min gejst oppe

3.1

Not the best singing or the most interesting songs in general in this album. I would feel embarrassed to show anyone a song from this album because of all the weird noises thrown in throughout it.

I remember asking my parents if they liked Kate Bush and they said she was a little out there for them. I think I have to agree?

Super ahead of it's time. I mean there's still not much that sounds like this. Love how this starts off relatively accessible at the start and then just gets super weird in the second half while still remaining every bit as good. Cloudbusting and The Big Sky are my favourites here but you could make an argument for any of these songs being the best one.

Very vibey, but lowkey different from what I was expecting, more poppy I guess.