'Hounds of Love', 1985 album by Kate Bush - an appreciation
It's hard to imagine there was ever a time when Kate Bush was regarded as anything but the grande dame of British rock.
Kate Bush
EMI
It's hard to imagine there was ever a time when Kate Bush was regarded as anything but the grande dame of British rock.
However, in 1985, the general consensus was that the singer responsible for classics such as the sublime Wuthering Heights had gone Awol. Her 1982 album The Dreaming failed to make an impression and the New Musical Express had even included her in a "where are they now" feature.
But the report in the music paper was badly timed: two days later, she debuted her new track Running Up That Hill, demonstrating exactly where she was - on the cusp of releasing an album that would make her an international superstar.
Running was the public's first taste of Bush's fifth album, Hounds of Love, which would comprise what she called two LPs in one - an A-side of catchy radio-friendly hits-in-the-making and a B-side mini-concept album called The Ninth Wave.
Side one spawned hits in Running, the quirky The Big Sky and the title track. For sheer emotional power, however, the album's centrepiece was the second single and for many critics the album's standout track: Cloudbusting.