illusionofjoy | OTR: Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (Reply)

Widely considered her most realised work, Hounds of Love is Kate Bush's fifth record and was her first breakthrough into the American Top 40. A cursory listen to various musical media outlets would seem to support my thought that "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" is Kate Bush's best-known song in the United States. In any case, while The Dreaming remains my personal favourite album, Hounds of Love is a very, very close second.

The album is actually divided into two parts via the tried and true method of placing two distinct themes in song groupings on either side of the record (in the case of the CD, the theme changes with track six). Side A is named after the album whole, while side B is entitled "The Ninth Wave" (after a Tennyson poem). "The Ninth Wave" is a loose telling of a woman spending a night lost at sea, not knowing if she will live to see morning. Two guesses as to which side contains the accessible "pop" songs and the album's four singles...

Hounds of Love opens with "Running Up That Hill," which to this day remains a benchmark in alternative music. Of course, Kate Bush is the only individual who can sing it properly - exhibit A: Placebo's cover of the song, while interesting, isn't particularly emotive or engaging.

"Hounds of Love," the title cut, follows as Bush compares falling in love to being hunted to a thrilling, heavy tribal drumbeat against an exhilarating string ensemble. The Futureheads covered "Hounds of Love" and, frankly, their version sucks.

It is almost a shame that track three isn't "Mother Stands For Comfort," as it's position in track four splits what could have been a perfect one-two punch of "The Big Sky" followed by "Cloudbusting." I'm sure Kate Bush had her reasons for this particular sequence, but I'm personally big on themes and groupings. Regardless, let me confess my extreme love for "Cloudbusting." Of all the Kate Bush songs I'd play on my old college radio show, I think this one either rivalled or edged out "Wuthering Heights" for the honour of being played the most.

"Cloubusting" seems quite minimal when one first listens, until one actually examines how many layers of string instruments actually make up the song. The percussion is a simple 4/4 beat based around a kick drum and toms - not a snare of cymbal to be heard anywhere (which would have coloured the song poorly, to be frank). The percussion acts to subtly augment the rhythm already well-defined by the string section. And then, there's the voice...

Lyrically, "Cloudbusting" was inspired by A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich. Within the novel, Reich tells of his father, Wilhelm Reich, a psychologist who invented the cloudbuster. In the music video dramatisation of the story referenced in the song, Willhelm Reich is portrayed by Donald Sutherland while Kate Bush portrays Peter Reich as a boy:

Incidentally, the Utah Saints sampled Bush's vocals for their rave-up "Something Good." It is sad comment on society that a passable dance track that takes the essence of brilliance without being itself brilliant charts higher than the truly inspired source material ("Cloudbusting peaked at #20 in 1985 while "Something Good" peaked at #8 in 1992 on the UK pop charts).

With side A at an end, one must turn the record over to begin "The Ninth Wave." More abstract than "Hounds of Love," this half of the album opens with the deceptively placid "And Dream of Sheep," which less than three minutes later becomes the nerve-chilling "Under Ice," which then segues into the explosively creepy and - I daresay - violent "Waking The Witch." Of the seven songs on "The Ninth Wave," I can only think of three which could possibly be played as "pop radio" singles: the Irish stomp "Jig of Life," the sombre ballad "Hello Earth" and the potentially deceptively upbeat "The Morning Fog." Regarding that closing song (which ends with a quick cut), I am hard-pressed to determine whether the protagonist of "The Ninth Wave" ever made it back to dry land or drowned. The lyrics are ambiguous on the subject.

This is one record I could listen to repeatedly and never tire of. In fact, I wish I actually had a copy on vinyl, as it would require me to pause and turn the record over, thus creating the necessary break between the two parts of the album. Once again, I lament that in the age of iTunes, the fully realised album has become an endangered species in favour of the instant gratification of a disposable single. And, let's face it - you could hold a 45 and there was sometimes a cool B-side...you don't get that with a freaking MP3!

The music video for "Cloudbusting" uses the extended version of the song which appeared (under various designations, depending on one's nation) on the 12-inch single version of the song. Of course, this single is out of print and I have been unable to locate a used copy. Furthermore, the only other place to find the extended version of the song is on the boxed set This Woman's Work.. Since I am only two albums short of an entire Kate Bush collection, I can not justify buying a boxed set which would repeat the bulk of what I already own for only one song.

And before anyone tells me to look on iTunes, allow me to reiterate that I want physical media to accompany my aural pleasure.