Hounds of Love is a 1985 album by the British singer Kate Bush. It was Bush's fifth studio album, and her second no.1. It has since been certified Double Platinum in the UK for sales of over 600,000 copies, making it her most successful studio album.

In 2002, Q Magazine named Hounds of Love the 3rd Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist.^[1]

Overview

Despite being Bush's most successful album commercially, 1985's Hounds of Love is no less experimental from a production standpoint than its predecessors. Not only did she produce it herself, but for this album, stung by the huge costs she had run up hiring studio space for her previous album The Dreaming, she built a private 24 track studio near her home where she could work at her own pace.^[2]

The album is split into two sides, with the first side, "Hounds of Love", containing five "accessible" pop songs, including the four singles: "Running Up That Hill," "Cloudbusting," "Hounds of Love," and "The Big Sky". "Running Up That Hill" became one of her biggest hits in the UK, and re-introduced Bush to American listeners, receiving considerable airplay at the time of its release. The second side is entitled "The Ninth Wave", whose title is taken from a poem by Tennyson.^[3] As part of a concept, each track helps to convey the story of a woman who is lost at sea, facing death by drowning, and the tortured night she spends in the water. Bush uses samples and vocals played in reverse to synthesized sounds and folk instrumentation.

A 1997 re-release of the album included 6 bonus tracks: 12" mixes of "The Big Sky" and "Running Up That Hill", and the B-sides "Be Kind To My Mistakes" (which featured on the opening to the film "Castaway" starring Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe),^[4] "Under The Ivy", "Burning Bridge" and "My Lagan Love".

Reception

In August 1985 the British music magazine NME featured Bush in a "Where Are They Now" article. Two days later, on The Wogan Show, the single "Running Up That Hill" was premiered for the first time. The single entered the UK singles chart at no.9 (a considerable feat at that time) and ultimately peaked in the top 3. The Hounds of Love album entered the UK album chart at no.1, knocking Madonna's Like a Virgin from the top position. ^[5]

The album marked her breakthrough into the American charts with the Top 40 hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)". The album also yielded a set of videos, the most famous of which is "Cloudbusting", directed by Julian Doyle, and co-starring movie star Donald Sutherland. The video - like the song - was inspired by the life of psychologist Wilhelm Reich.

In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Hounds of Love the 48th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 20 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In January 2006, NME named it the 41st best British album of all time. The 19th edition of British Hit Singles & Albums, published by Guinness in May 2006, included a list of the Top 100 albums of all time, as voted by readers of the book and NME readers, which placed Hounds of Love at Number 70. In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said the album should be given consideration when listing albums released between 1978 and 1988 that have stood the test of time while remaining influential and enjoyable to this day.^[6]

Track listing

All songs written by Kate Bush.

Side one: Hounds of Love

1. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" – 5:03
2. "Hounds of Love" – 3:02
3. "The Big Sky" – 4:41
4. "Mother Stands for Comfort" – 3:07
5. "Cloudbusting" – 5:10

Side two: The Ninth Wave

1. "And Dream of Sheep" – 2:45
2. "Under Ice" – 2:21
3. "Waking the Witch" – 4:18
4. "Watching You Without Me" – 4:06
5. "Jig of Life" – 4:04
6. "Hello Earth" – 6:13
7. "The Morning Fog" – 2:34

Bonus tracks (1997 EMI edition)

• "The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix)" (1986) – 7:44
• "Running Up That Hill (12" Mix)" – 5:45
• "Be Kind to My Mistakes" (1989) – 3:00
• "Under the Ivy" (b-side to "Running Up That Hill" 7") – 2:08
• "Burning Bridge" (b-side to "Cloudbusting" 7") – 4:38
• "My Lagan Love" (b-side to "Cloudbusting" 7" and 12") – 2:30

Notes

The chorale in "Hello Earth" is a segment from the traditional Georgian song "Tsintskaro", performed by the Richard Hickox Singers.^[7]

Swedish techno artist The Field sampled "Under Ice" extensively for his song "Over the Ice".

Be Kind to My Mistakes" was written for Nicolas Roeg's film Castaway and plays during the opening scene.

The Placebo cover was featured in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode A La Cart.

The cover was also used in the Bones second season episode Judas on a Pole and in the fourth season of the popular hit tv drama The OC

The lines "It's in the trees! It's coming!" from the beginning of the title track are taken from a seance scene from the 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon, spoken by actor Maurice Denham.

Personnel

• Kate Bush – vocals, Fairlight CMI, piano
• Stuart Elliott – drums on 1 2 4 5 9 10 11
• Del Palmer – bass on 1 10, handclapping on 3, backing vocals on 5, Fairlight bass on 8, Linn programming
• Alan Murphy – guitar on 1 3 8
• Paddy Bush – violins on 12, balalaika on 1, backing vocals on 5, didjeridu on 3, harmonic vocals on 7, fujara on 12
• Charlie Morgan – drums on 2 3 5 8 10, handclapping on 3

Additional personnel

• Jonathan Williams – cello on 2
• Youth – bass on 3
• Morris Pert – percussion on 3
• Eberhard Weber – bass on 4 11
• The Medici Sextet – strings on 5
• Dave Lawson – string arrangements on 5
• Brian Bath – backing vocals on 5, guitar on 11
• John Carder Bush – backing vocals on 5, narration on 10
• Donal Lunny – bouzouki on 6 11, Irish bouzouki on 10
• John Sheahan – whistles on 6
• Kevin McAlea – synthesiser sequences on 8, synthesiser on 12
• Pink Floyd – helicopter from The Wall on 8
• Danny Thompson – double bass on 9
• Liam O'Flynn – uilleann pipes on 10 11
• The Richard Hickox Singers – choir on 11
• Richard Hickox – vocals, choir master on 11
• Michael Berkeley – vocal arrangements on 11
• John Williams – guitar on 12

Production personnel

• Del Palmer – engineer
• Haydn Bendall – engineer
• Brian Tench – engineer, mixing
• Paul Hardiman – engineer
• Nigel Walker – engineer
• James Guthrie – engineer
• Bill Somerville-Large – engineer at Windmill Lane Studios
• Pearce Dunne – assistant engineer
• Julian Mendelsohn – mixing on 2 4
• Chris Blair – digital remastering
• Ian Cooper – cutting engineer

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

The RIAA did not certify sales figures for this album. Listed below are the total certified sales of Hounds of Love in the United States from Soundscan, in November 2005 since 1991. Figures are unavailable for period 1985 to 1991, when bulk of sales would arguably have occurred.[1][2] [3].

See also

• Kate Bush discography
• Kate Bush's Awards and Nominations

References

Template:Start box |- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align:center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"|Preceded by
Like a Virgin by Madonna
Like a Virgin by Madonna |width="40%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="1"|UK number one album
September 28, 1985 – October 11, 1985
October 19, 1985 – October 25, 1985 |width="30%" align="center" rowspan="1"| Succeeded by
Like a Virgin by Madonna
The Love Songs by George Benson |- Template:End box