User:JennKR/hounds

Background
In the early 1980s, Kate Bush had become interested in producing her work. Although her third studio album Never for Ever (1980), co-produced with Jon Kelly, embraced a more contemporary sound while still experimenting with instrumentation, she was not entirely satisfied with the outcome. For her next record, she decided to work alone. In May 1981, Bush began working from Townhouse Studios, London, where over a three month period she recorded the album's backing tracks with a small group of musicians.

Release and reaction
Upon release, Hounds of Love received positive reviews from music critics. Several reviewers found its complex exploration of romantic love to be a particular highlight. Jane Solanas of NME wrote that "the violence of The Dreaming has turned into despair, confusion and fear—primarily of love, a subject that remains central to Bush's songwriting". She proclaimed Bush "a genius, the rarest solo artist this country's ever produced" and noted that the singer had been effective throughout her career in "consistently manag[ing] to make her records erotic, however depressing the lyrical content". Stereo Review's Mark Peel was impressed that the "growing sophistication of [Bush's] compositions, arrangements, and production techniques does not obscure her unique, weird point of view". He found that the album's first side—Hounds of Love—was "more elusive since it is less about love than about some of love's attendant emotions—fear, alienation, rage, and confusion". Ronnie Randall, writing for Sounds, described the album as "dramatic, moving and wildly, unashamedly, beautifully romantic", before quipping, "If I were allowed to swear, I'd say that Hounds of Love is fucking brilliant, but me mum won't let me".

Other reviews focused on Bush's musical experimentation, praising her eclectic arrangements and intelligent use of the Fairlight CMI synthesizer. In his review for Spin, Steve Matteo observed that "with traces of classical, operatic, tribal and twisted pop styles [the album] observes no boundaries of musical structure or inner expression". Pam Lambert of The Wall Street Journal found Bush's instrumentation to be "compelling" and use of the Fairlight CMI as "the base for impressionistic aural landscapes that at times swell to orchestral complexity, at others simplify to the directness of a march". Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, said "sonically she's magnificent, out-stripping her art-rock mentors", while John Rockwell of The New York Times similarly lauded Bush as "a real master of instrumental textures, and of the sort of hothouse complexity only possible with a modern recording studio". However, Rolling Stone, in their first review of a Bush record, found the tracks to be chaotic and compared her to The Beatles for using complex arrangements that would be difficult to perform live. Melody Maker's Colin Irwin was also ambivalent, and while he felt that Bush had "learned you can have control without sacrificing passion", he was critical of The Ninth Wave suite, believing "she makes huge demands on her listener and the theme is too confused and the execution too laborious and stilted to carry real weight as a complete entity".

Retrospective reviewers have since described Hounds of Love as a classic album.

Track listing
All songs written and composed by Kate Bush.


 * Notes
 * The original 1985 cassette release included the 12" single version of "Running Up That Hill" at the end of side one.
 * The 2011 Fish People re-release contains the "Special Single Mix" version of "The Big Sky", as opposed to the original album version.