tjhassecrets's Full Review: Hounds of Love by Kate Bush
Is there such a thing as a perfect album?
My journey with Kate Bush has been worse than a rickety, old roller-coaster that's about to finally crumble into pieces. For every amazing Kate track, there's about three awful ones-- ones where her voices is all over the place and could puncture an ear drum. In fact, the first time I ever heard her (on the track Wuthering Heights), I wanted to find her, slap her, and take away her vocal chords because nobody should be allowed to enlist Satan for a pop song. So, what the hell. I gave this album five stars. After rumbling through a series of YouTube videos, I tripped over the music video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), and her incredible choreography, which she did come up with herself, floored me. Kate and a male dancer seem to melt into each other all the while trying to escape. Aside from the incredible visuals, the audio was impressive, and I learned that Kate Bush, like Joni Mitchell, has a three octave voice that spans obnoxious to childlike to sultry to dark. While I prefer her deeper tones, found on this record, I did learn to appreciate her falsetto on her Never For Ever album.
The album starts with A Deal With God, later covered by Placebo. I will always hold this song with high regard for turning me into a fan-- it's one of the few times Kate sounds like she was making music in the 1980s, whereas she normally steers clear of any true timestamp. The synth drumbeat pulsates, and Kate's voice grows as the track goes on. Even though it's an incredible song, it doesn't even begin to describe how incredible this record is. Title track Hounds of Love kicked my ears inside out and left them wanting more. Kate wails throughout the stylized anthem and is pulls you in a thousand different directions: Take my shoes off and throw them in the lake! And I'll be two steps on the water... The visuals the lyrics provided as very imaginative and vibrant, as she sings about how the hounds of love are coming to get her. In other words, she's afraid of falling in love. It's one of the best cuts on the album.
My favorite song from this album, as well as by Kate Bush, is The Big Sky, which grows from a mild pop song into a full-force musical party, flourishing and flexing Kate Bush's musical muscles. One of the more theatrical songs on the record, it embodies everything that makes Kate Bush an incredible artist. It's imaginative, beautiful, fun, and in every sense of the word, it's epic. Cloudbusting was another single from the album, which, along with Running Up That Hill, gave Kate Bush some American recognition in addition to strengthening her European fan base. Based on a novel, Kate always, lyrically, does literature justice-- see Wuthering Heights and the works of James Joyce. A friend of mine, who would not buy me this album for my birthday out of principle, confessed she thought this song was good. Her voices are gorgeous and the production is heavy and feels like it's reaching to the sky.
The production is across the board fantastic, and the album doesn't slow down on side B, known as The Ninth Wave. Under Ice is haunting and downright spooky-- her vocals match the sparse, cold instrumentation to the point where you can barely understand her. It's effective, but I think my body temperature drops about twenty degrees when I listen to it. Waking the Witch is bizarre and continues the spooky feel on Under Ice-- the music swells and the voices that begin out trying to literally wake you up become twisted and distorted-- this is what an acid trip sounds like when it's gone though a TalkBoy, a vocoder, and a megaphone. If that's not your thing, we've got Watching You Without Me is a gentle pop song and a break from the heavy material on this album. But don't get too comfortable because Jig of Life is going to slug you right in the mouth. Kate's lyrics and vocals are amazing, dark, and haunting before the song breaks into a literal Irish jig. Following that up is Hello Earth, which is another of my favorite tracks based solely on Kate's vocals and the production. While the chorus's lyrics are a little half-baked (honestly, she sounds like Sean Penn in Fast Times), the overall mood makes a striking impact.
I don't know what to say about this album, but it proved me wrong about Kate Bush. While I'm only a fan of about 50% of her work, this album is powerful and undeniable. Even if you're not a fan of Kate Bush, you can't view this album as anything short of absolute genius. It's sounds just as good as the album cover is bad.
TRACKLIST Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) Hounds of Love The Big Sky Mother Stands For Comfort Cloudbusting And Dream of Sheep Under Ice Waking the Witch Watching You Watching Me Jig of Life Hello Earth The Morning Fog
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