16 January 2014

Kate Bush "Hounds of Love" (1985)

Hounds of Love
release date: Sep. 16, 1985
format: vinyl / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: Kate Bush
label: EMI - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: A-side) ['Hounds of Love'] 1. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" 2. "Hounds of Love" (5 / 5) - 5. "Cloudbusting" (4 / 5) - - B-side) ['The Ninth Wave'] 2. "Under Ice" - 5. "Jig of Life" - 6. "Hello Earth" - 7. "The Morning Fog"

5th studio album by Kate Bush released 3 years after The Dreaming. After the long and financially difficult studio sessions working on her 82 album Bush build her own studio so she could use whatever time she needed on making new music. The album's style is more mainstream but it still could be categorised as art pop. Where The Dreaming appears as closed and angry this seems more positive and open. The original vinyl issue's A-side 'Hounds of Love' contains the most evident pop hits, whereas the B-side 'The Ninth Wave' is more of a conceptual progressive composition in several acts. The album contains some of her best single hits and was her second album to reach #1 on the album charts list in the UK. It's by many considered her best album ever, which I agree with, and it's also enlisted in numerous of best of albums comprising all time best albums including "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Sounds, Q Magazine 5 / 5 stars ]