Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by the English musicianKate Bush, released on 16 September 1985 byEMI Records.[5] It was a commercial and artistic success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous album, 1982'sThe Dreaming. The album's lead single, "Running Up That Hill", became Bush's biggest hit, initially peaking at no. 3 upon its original 1985 release but later giving Bush her second UK number-one single in June 2022. The album'sfirst side produced three further singles, "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love", and "The Big Sky", all of which reached the UK Top 40. The second side, subtitledThe Ninth Wave, forms aconceptual suite about a woman drifting alone in the sea at night.
Considered to be Bush'smagnum opus,Hounds of Love received critical acclaim and often ranks among the greatest albums of all time.[6] It was Bush's second album to top theUK Albums Chart and her first to reach the top 40 on the USBillboard 200.Hounds of Love is Bush's best-selling studio album,[7] having been certifieddouble platinum for 600,000 sales in the UK,[8] and by 1998 it had sold 1.1 million copies worldwide.[9] The album was nominated at the1986 Brit Awards forBest British Album, at which Bush was also nominated forBest British Female andBest British Single for "Running Up That Hill".
In the summer of 1983, Bush began laying the groundwork forHounds of Love at her home recording onto 8-track equipment, using aLinnDrum,Fairlight and piano. Wanting to retain the feel and atmosphere of these early recordings, she had them transferred to 24-track to build the final versions around once recording sessions officially began in November 1983.[11][12] Following these sessions, as well as several recording sessions in Ireland during the spring of 1984, Bush began overdubbing and mixing the album in a process that took a year and the album was finished in June 1985. The recording sessions included use of theFairlight CMI synthesiser, piano, traditional Irish instruments, and layered vocals. "Waking the Witch" quotes from the chorus of thesea shanty "Blood Red Roses." Thechorale in "Hello Earth" is a segment from the traditionalGeorgian song "Tsintskaro", performed by theRichard Hickox Singers.[13] The lines "It's in the trees! It's coming!" from the beginning of the title track aresampled from a seance scene from the 1957 British horror filmNight of the Demon, spoken by actorMaurice Denham.[14]
The album was produced as two suites, with side one being subtitledHounds of Love and side two a seven-track concept piece subtitledThe Ninth Wave. The album has been described aspost-progressive because Bush voices themes of love and womanly passion rather than the usual male viewpoints associated withprogressive rock.[15]
The Ninth Wave uses a great many textures to express the story: in the style ofAlfred, Lord Tennyson's Arthurian poems, Bush pursues a vision quest, taking the listener through a death and rebirth. The warmth of familiar sleep is cut by dangerous speed, ice and frigid water, an otherworldly trial and judgement, an out-of-body limbo, and finally a vigorous emergence and grounding in life energy.[15] The disparate musical elements of "The Ninth Wave" were described by Ron Moy as "classically prog" because of their evident experimentation, and because Bush wholly embraces European music traditions without a trace of American influence.[16]
The album's launch party was held at theLondon Planetarium(pictured in 2006).
On 5 August 1985, Bush performed the new single "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" onTerry Wogan'sBBC1 televisionchat showWogan. The single entered theUK Singles Chart at number nine and ultimately peaked at number three, becoming Bush's second-highest-charting single after her chart-topping debut single "Wuthering Heights". The song is Bush's only US top 40 hit, reaching number 30 on theBillboard Hot 100 during its original chart run in 1985.
The album launch party was held at theLondon Planetarium on 5 September 1985. The invited guests were treated to a playback of the entire album while watching a laser show inside the Planetarium.[17]Hounds of Love was released on 16 September 1985 byEMI Records onvinyl,XDR cassette andcompact disc formats. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, knockingMadonna'sLike a Virgin (1984) from the top position.[7] The album marked Bush's breakthrough into the American charts with the Top 40 hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)". The album also yielded a set ofmusic videos, one of which was "Cloudbusting", directed byJulian Doyle and co-starringDonald Sutherland. The video, like the song, was inspired by the life of psychologistWilhelm Reich.
As a companion to the album, a 20-minutevideotape andLaserDisc,The Hair of the Hound, containing music videos for the four singles, was released in 1986.[18]
On 16 June 1997, a remastered version of the album was issued on CD as part of EMI's "First Centenary" reissue series. The "EMI First Centenary" edition included six bonus tracks: 12″ mixes of "The Big Sky" and "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", and theB-sides "Under the Ivy", "Burning Bridge", "My Lagan Love", and "Be Kind to My Mistakes", the last of which was written forNicolas Roeg's 1986 filmCastaway and plays during the opening scene.[19]
In 2010, Audio Fidelity reissuedHounds of Love on vinyl with new remastering bySteve Hoffman.[20]
A 10" pink vinyl record with four songs taken from the album ("The Big Sky", "Cloudbusting", "Watching You Without Me" and "Jig of Life") was released by Audio Fidelity (catalogue number AFZEP 001) on 16 April 2011 forRecord Store Day 2011, limited to 1000 copies worldwide.[21]
During her 2014Before the Dawn concerts, Bush performed almost the entire album live for the first time, with the exceptions of "The Big Sky" and "Mother Stands for Comfort". "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" had previously been performed live in 1987 withDavid Gilmour ofPink Floyd at theSecret Policeman's Third Ball.[citation needed]
In November 2018, Bush released box sets of remasters of her studio albums, includingHounds of Love.[citation needed]
Hounds of Love contemporarily received positive reviews in the UK, and it ranked at number 10 in theNME critics' list of the best albums of 1985.[33] In a five-star review,Sounds called the album "dramatic, moving and wildly, unashamedly, beautifully romantic", before going on to state, "If I were allowed to swear, I'd say thatHounds of Love is f***ing brilliant, but me mum won't let me".[29]Record Mirror also gave the album five stars, stating that it "recaptures the ground Kate lost with her last album" and concluding, "A howling success? I think so."[34]NME said, "Hounds of Love is definitely weird. It's not an album for the suicidal or mums and dads. The violence ofThe Dreaming has turned into despair, confusion and fear – primarily of love, a subject that remains central to Bush's songwriting." The review went on to scorn the idea that by signing to EMI Records as a teenager, Bush had allowed herself to be moulded in their corporate image, suggesting that on the contrary, it had enabled her to use the system for her own purposes: "Our Kate's a genius, the rarest solo artist this country's ever produced. She makes sceptics dance toher tune. The company's daughter has truly screwed the system and produced the best album of the year doing it."[35]Melody Maker was more reserved, saying, "Here she has learned you can have control without sacrificing passion and it's the heavyweight rhythm department aided and abetted by some overly fussy arrangements that get the better of her". OfThe Ninth Wave suite on the second side of the record, NME felt "she makes huge demands on her listener and the theme is too confused and the execution too laborious and stilted to carry real weight as a complete entity".[36]
In the US, reaction to the record at the time was mixed. Awarding the record the title of "platter du jour" (i.e. album of the day),Spin observed that "with traces of classical, operatic, tribal and twisted pop styles, Kate creates music that observes no boundaries of musical structure or inner expression". The review noted "while her eclecticism is welcomed and rewarded in her homeland her genius is still ignored here – a situation that is truly a shame for an artist so adventurous and naturally theatrical", and hoped that "this album might gain her some well-deserved recognition from the American mainstream".[37]Rolling Stone, in their first review of a Kate Bush record, was unimpressed: "The Mistress of Mysticism has woven another album that both dazzles and bores. Likethe Beatles on their later albums, Bush is not concerned about having to perform the music live, and her orchestrations swell to the limits of technology. But unlike the Beatles, Bush often overdecorates her songs with exotica ... There's no arguing that Bush is extraordinarily talented, but as withJonathan Richman, rock's other eternal kid, her vision will seem silly to those who believe children should be seen and not heard."[38]The New York Times characterised the album's music as "slightly precious, calculated femaleart rock" and called Bush "a real master of instrumental textures."[39]
In retrospective reviews,The Independent calledHounds "aprog-pop masque of an album".[40]Pitchfork gave the album a perfect score, noting that the album draws fromsynth-pop andprogressive rock whilst remaining wholly distinct from either style.[25]Spin called it an "art-pop classic".[41] In a 2025 40th Anniversary reappraisal,PopMatters observed: "Forty years later,Hounds of Love‘s true power lies in this invitation: to use its sound to neurologically film what our dream worlds sound like."[42]
In 1998,Q magazine readers votedHounds of Love the 48th-greatest album of all time,[9] while two years later the same magazine placed it at number 20 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever", and the third "Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist" in 2002.[43] In 2006,Q placed the album at number four in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[44] In January 2006,NME named it the 41st-best British album of all time. The 19th edition ofBritish Hit Singles & Albums, published byGuinness in May 2006, included a list of the Top 100 albums of all time, as voted by readers of the book andNME readers, which placedHounds of Love at number 70.[6] 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.[45]
In 2012,Slant Magazine listed the album at number 10 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".[46] In 2013,NME placedHounds of Love 48th on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[47] In a 2018 poll of the public conducted byNPR,Hounds of Love was voted in fourth place in its list of 150 greatest albums ever made by female artists.[48] Also in 2018,Pitchfork included the album at number four on their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s".[49] In 2020,Rolling Stone rankedHounds of Love at number 68 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[1] In 2024,Apple Music placed the album at number 50 on its "Apple Music 100 Best Albums" list.
Hounds of Love was described as "one of the big inspirations" forAlison Goldfrapp ofGoldfrapp.[50]Suede lead singerBrett Anderson said ofHounds of Love: "I love the way it's a record of two halves, and the second half is a concept record about fear of drowning. It's an amazing record to listen to really late at night, unsettling and really jarring".[51]Stevie Nicks ofFleetwood Mac namedHounds of Love as one of her favourite albums.[52]Kele Okereke ofBloc Party said of the title track: "The first time I heard it I was sitting in a reclining sofa. As the beat started I was transported somewhere else. Her voice, the imagery, the huge drum sound: it seemed to capture everything for me. As a songwriter you're constantly chasing that feeling".[53]
The original 1985 cassette release included the 12″ single version of "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" at the end of side one.
The 2011 Fish People re-release and the 2018 remastered album substitute the "Special Single Mix" version of "The Big Sky", rather than the original album version.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^Kennaugh, Jonathan (2003)."Kate Bush". In Buckley, Peter (ed.).The Rough Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to More Than 1200 Artists and Bands (3rd ed.). London:Rough Guides. p. 150.ISBN978-1-8582-8457-6.To date [Hounds of Love] has sold close to a million copies in the UK ...
[22]
[27]
