Hounds of Love

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hounds of Love
Hounds of Love cover
Studio album by Kate Bush
Released 20 September 1985
Recorded 1984
Genre Art rock, Pop rock
Length 47:33
Label EMI
Producer Kate Bush
Professional reviews
Kate Bush chronology
The Dreaming
(1982)
Hounds of Love
(1985)
The Whole Story
(1986)

Hounds of Love is a 1985 album by Kate Bush. Whereas the first five tracks are regarded as amongst her most accessible, the remainder of the album sees Bush at her most experimental from a production standpoint.

Contents

[edit] 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 The Dreaming, she built a private 24 track studio near her home where she could work at her own pace.[1]

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" re-introduced Kate to American listeners, and received considerable airplay at the time of its release. "The Big Sky" can be viewed as a creative manifesto issued by Bush in response to criticisms of The Dreaming (for which she had been criticized for being too obscure). The second side is entitled "The Ninth Wave", whose title is taken from a poem by Tennyson.[2] As part of a song cycle, 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's technical mastery is shown to full effect, using 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),[3] "Under The Ivy", "Burning Bridge" and "My Lagan Love".

[edit] 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 played for the first time. The single, and indeed the album, were showcases of a newfound mastery of production. Hounds of Love ultimately topped the charts in the UK, knocking Madonna's Like a Virgin from the number one position. [4]

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, co-starring movie star Donald Sutherland and 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.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Kate Bush.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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 12"") – 2:30

[edit] Notes

The words "it's in the trees, it's coming!" heard at the beginning of the title track are from a British horror movie of the 1950s called Night of the Demon, but not sampled directly.

The chorale in "Hello Earth" is a segment from the traditional Georgian song "Tsintskaro", performed by the Richard Hickox Singers.[5]

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

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

[edit] Production personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Chart (1985) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 1
U.S. Billboard 200 30
Australian albums chart 6
Germany Albums Chart 2
Netherlands Albums Chart 1
Norway's Albums Chart 12
Ireland Albums Chart 1

Singles

Year Single Chart Peak
position
1985 "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" UK Singles Chart 3
1985 "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" Australian Singles Chart 6
1985 "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" U.S. Billboard Hot 100 30
1985 "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" U.S. Hot Dance Club Play 13
1985 "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks 34
1985 "Cloudbusting" UK Singles Chart 20
1986 "Hounds of Love" UK Singles Chart 18
1986 "The Big Sky" UK Singles Chart 37

[edit] Certifications

Organization Level Date
BPI – UK Gold October 7, 1985
BPI – UK Platinum October 30, 1985
CRIA – Canada Gold December 6, 1985
CRIA – Canada Platinum December 6, 1985
BPI – UK Double Platinum December 23, 1986

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].

Released year Title Total sales
1985 Hounds of Love 206,000

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kate Bush. NNDB. Retrieved on 2007-04-03.
  2. ^ Kate Bush radio interview. Rock Over London with Paul Cooke. Retrieved on 2007-06-27.
  3. ^ Kate Bush. IMDb (1985). Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
  4. ^ Fitzgerald Morris, Peter. Hounds of Love lyrics booklet (1997). EMI. 
  5. ^ Berkeley, Michael. "Kate Bush rules, OK?", The Guardian, 2005-10-11. Retrieved on 2008-03-30.