16th September 2025
I can’t quite believe that the incredible album Hounds of Love is 40 today – September 16th.
My copy was purchased from WH Smiths in The Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough. I was working for Jacob & Eric Hairdressing at the time, and I couldn’t wait to get home and listen to it.
Already familiar with (and obsessed by) lead single Running Up That Hill, I skipped it as I’d played it numerous times every single day since it was released. The first side of the LP was quite typical of a Kate Bush album, jaunty tracks side by side with more serious, melancholic pieces. Side two was an utter revelation, it was probably the first piece of ‘prog rock’ I’d heard, and it had me hooked from the very start. And here we are 40 years later, Hounds of Love remains my most frequently played album, although (naturally) it’s a CD these days.
My thoughts have not altered over the years, Hounds remains my most favourite album, closely followed by Electric Warrior – T.Rex in case you don’t know. I can’t do [the album] justice with my thoughts as I tend to get carried away thinking about how important this has been to me over the last 40 years, so apologies if I get lost in a world of pretentiousness along the way, I can’t help myself.
Track by track:
1: Running Up That Hill: After waiting 3 long years for new music RUTH came along and blew me away. It’s insistent drumbeat, the complex lyrics, and the video …. Wow, what can I say, this is my all-time favourite piece of music. Whilst it is very much of its time, the 80’s, it still manages to sound fresh and vibrant each and every time it is played, that subtle beginning that grows and grows is just hypnotic. I quite often find myself dancing around the kitchen to this track, and it’s the song that will be played as the curtain closes around me.
2: Hounds Of Love: And wham bam thank you man, straight into…. ‘it’s in the trees; it’s coming’…. A thunderous second track that packs a might punch and definitely has a dance vibe to it. It is joyous and rhythmic and showcased (for me) a super confident Kate showing off her talent in a song that always makes me smile. I love the energy of this track, it makes me feel happy, especially because [she] saves a fox #IfYouKnowYouKnow
3: The Big Sky: A different vibe, this paean to clouds is so Irish in its soundscape that it makes me feel like I could do a jig. My least favourite track on the album, but when the least favourite means you love it, it gives some idea of how much all the other tracks mean to me. BTW the 12” version is phenomenal …. ‘that cloud, that cloud, it looks like Ireland’ …. ‘and pause for the jet’.
4: Mother Stands For Comfort: a slow haunting track that has a deep base undercurrent. The song tackles a mother’s undying love for her child, irrespective of what they might have done, and as such it is one that resonates as, as it says ‘mother, stands for comfort’. Even though I don’t think my mam would have forgiven me for murdering someone, I like to think that she would still have comforted me
5: Cloudbusting: This track is magical, based on ‘A book of dreams’ by Wilhem Reich, the book itself is peculiar, but the song shows Kate’s ability to make something odd sound utterly magnificent. This was the song she chose to end her shows each night in the ‘before the dawn’ residency, and what a glorious, uplifting moment it was to witness. The song. That makes me want to call my sister dawn, just to say hello, how are you.
Side 1 proved that Kate knew how to be commercial and still sound unlike anyone else, and what an incredible 5 tracks they are.
Side 2 is utterly epic! A segued piece of 7 tracks loosely based on Tennysons the Coming of Arthur …. The 9th wave:
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and the all the wave was in a flame.
1: And Dream Of Sheep: Trying to stay awake to prevent herself from drowning, Kate sings of falling asleep and dreaming [of sheep], this starter track sets the scene with a haunting, slow, wave like rhythm that sets the scene for what comes next. The opening words…. ‘little light shining’ makes me think of the ‘before the dawn; concert for which I created a shirt with a genuine ‘little light shining’ on it.
2: Under Ice: Its start evokes someone skating on ice (it does to me) the scratchy sound of whatever instrument it is that creates the effect is so strange, and the lyrics about someone under the water are dark and scary, which I presume is exactly what Kate was after. This track makes me stay away from icy water…. Seriously.
3: Waking The Witch: It starts slowly with various voices talking over random pieces of music and then it explodes into a frenetic, jarring piece that really makes the listener (me) feel like the person (Kate) is drowning. It’s unlike anything else on the album with its stuttered vocals, helicopter sounds and random voices overlayed on to the track. In its own way this song is as weird and wonderful and frightening as the very best horror films, not that I watch any of them.
4: Watching You Watching Me: Kind of hallucinatory, imagining being watched from above whilst watching from below. For me this is the weakest track in the concept but redeems itself as it gets closer to the ending of the piece. When I listen to this song, I often wonder who is watching me from up above.
5: Jig Of Life: The most Irish piece on the entire album, it bounds along at a fast pace with violin (???) being played in the background. And then Paddy, her brother comes in with an Irish ode that is just amazing after an amazing jig! I admit it, I’ve tried to do an Irish jig (of sorts) when listening after a few glasses of something fizzy.
6: Hello Earth: A possible contender against Running Up That Hill as my favourite track. The opening words …. ‘hello earth, hello earth, with just one hand, held up high’ sound spatial as if Kate is singing from outer space. The huge choral aspects of the track give it an immense, huge sound, against the almost echoing vocal sung by Kate. Fact, I once had a clock that wad from IKEA, it was a plain grey square, and I used Letraset (sticky letters in different fonts) and put the words all over it. I wish I still had it!
7: The Morning Fog: A joyous climax to the opus; saved at the last gasp, the uplifting lyrics and music create a sense of relief after the heavy duty songs that precede it…. ‘do you know what, I love you’. Although she is saying I love you to her family, like every other Kate obsessive, I imagine she is also singing it to me!!
So that’s it, my obsession with Hounds Of Love is never ending, I’m actually listening it as I write this. If you have never listened to the album in its entirely, I urge you to do so.
Now, all I need is for Hounds Part 2 to be released sometime soon (well a boy can dream).
