Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kate Bush at Her Artistic and Commercial Apex, January 6, 2002
At first listening, HOUNDS OF LOVE would seem to have little in common with Kate Bush's previous work; in some ways, however, it is a logical extension, for throughout her earlier work she had increasingly fused unlikely instruments with synthesizers while gradually leaving behind certain vocal affectations. For HOUNDS OF LOVE she would repeat this, fusing distinctly Irish-sounding instruments with synthesizers while continuing to downplay her extraordinary range to create a remarkably clean yet multi-layered sound that serves her material remarkably well. At the same time, she worked her penchant for macabre and bizarre imagery into a much more subtle idiom. The resulting HOUNDS OF LOVE seems, to me at least, like a combination of the melodic delicacy of her earliest recordings with the raw power of her immediately previous THE DREAMING.HOUNDS OF LOVE breaks into two distinctly separate yet stylistically similar parts, and it is a tribute to Bush's talents that she was able to unify these portions in such a way as to make them obviously different in content without making them feel separate in tone. The first half of the recording-"Running Up That Hill," "Hounds of Love," "Big Sky," "Mother Stands For Comfort," and "Cloudbusting"-are at once independent of each other yet distinctly of the same album, raveling the same musical and lyrical thread. The second half-"And Dream of Sheep," "Under Ice," "Waking the Witch," "Watching You Without Me," "Jig of Life," and "Hello Earth"-are more in the line of a single recording from which the individual titles cannot be easily separated. In these selections, she seems to be telling a story of her dreamlife, capturing the beautiful and fearsome images that come to her in sleep and then awakening to face the new day with the concluding "Morning Fog." Throughout the recording, Bush seems considerably less interested in vocal gymnastics than in the past-although "Big Sky" and "Waking The Witch" certainly make good use of her remarkable talents in that direction. Her voice is full, rich, and sure, and her bursts into extreme displays of range seem less a matter of showmanship than of artistic inevitability. This is Kate Bush shorn of her eccentricities, and she is every bit as remarkable without them as she was when she gave them full play. Although Bush has always been extremely well regarded in England and in Europe, she was not widely known in the United States, where her recordings were deemed too alternative for the mass market. With HOUNDS OF LOVE, however, she made a perfect leap into American commercial success, creating a more popular sound without sacrificing any of her uniqueness in the process. It was and remains a remarkable feat, and even some fifteen years after its release HOUNDS OF LOVE remains as fresh and as compelling as the first day it was recorded. A powerful statement by a truly gifted artist, highly recommended.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hounds of Love is Kate's best studio album. Arf!, September 26, 2001
Kate Bush's fifth studio album was accused of being more accessible to the general public. While not as wonderfully bizarre as its predecessor, The Dreaming, Hounds Of Love not only proved she still had what it took, but had her develop a concept album for the latter seven songs.The first half, Hounds Of Love, is basically most of the singles. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" It's that chorus, where's she's "runnin' up that road/runnin' up that hill/with no problem", which makes me wonder what the angels Damiel and Cassiel from Wings Of Desire would think. Would Kate accept a compromise trade, where she would trade places and become an angel instead of God? "The Big Sky" is a big yes to all those introspective, inwardly directed "extraterrestrial" cloudgazers who say, "that cloud looks like such and such" instead of literalists who say "that cloud looks like a bunch of suspended rain and ice particles." I always liked Kate because she was in her own Bush universe and who cares if no one understood her songs? "Cloudbusting" is my favorite single from here, especially with its regimental rhythms of the synthesizers. It is the Ninth Wave portion of this album that is intriguing. The series of seven songs portray the saga of a drowning woman. Now, how she manages the transition from the insomniac state of "And Dream Of Sheep" to "Under Ice", I'm not sure. Presumably, the radio doesn't help, so she goes outside to skate in order to work herself to a goodnight's sleep. The action happens in "Under Ice", which begins with her skating, "cutting lines in the ice", spitting snow. In the last verse, she sings of something trying to come up, and guess what? It's her! She's fallen through the thin ice. "Waking The Witch" is her struggle to stay awake in the freezing water, and a cacophony of her memories past and present, as well as her subconscious, interwoven with an ominous voice of an inquisitor that pronounces her guilty as a witch. As she sinks, there comes the blades of a helicopter, courtesy of Pink Floyd, indicates the Rescue Services. It seems that in "Watching You Without Me", the woman's spirit has left her and she is a "ghost in the hall", watching her worried husband watching "the clock move the slow hand". The ghost's communicating to her husband is translated by chopped up, staccato dialogue. Next up, the engaging Irish "Jig Of Life", which deals with efforts to resuscitate her. The sounds of air chatter indicates that the woman's chances for survival is touch and go, as her spirit hovers above the world of senses and into outer space so she says "Hello Earth". She has an angelic perspective ("with just one hand/held up high/I can blot you out of sight/Peek-a-boo, little Earth") and it looks like she tries to save a ship of sailors from being deluged by a storm at sea. The low-register chant that sounds the second time might be angels she summoned. Once calm, she, or the head of the angels whispers, "Go to sleep, little Earth." She has helped save the sailors, and is transported back to her body. The series ends with the chirpy "The Morning Fog", which is a celebration of life and the people in one's life. The woman has survived, and all is well again. Or did she wake up from a dream? That's the thing I'm left wondering: did she actually fall into the icy lake, or did she have a DREAM of falling into that lake? Much of this septet is subject to interpretation, and mine is no exception.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite KB album, May 27, 1998
By A Customer
After the relative lack of success of "The Dreaming," Kate Bush tried on this album to achieve a more accessible sound. I think that this brought out the best in her: while not abandoning her sense of drama, her vocal range, and her unique "take" on love (erotic and familial), she's reined in her fascination with outlandish characters and situations, and created an album almost anyone can relate to. The title tune and "Running Up That Hill" are thrilling, and she enacts a memorable series of mini-dramas in "Cloudbusting," "To Dream of Sheep," and "Under Ice." "Waking the Witch" is Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" in miniature, and "Hello Earth" links the personal and the cosmic with immense tenderness. And the first time I heard "Jig of Life," it made the hair stand up at the back of my neck: I was in my early 40's, just beginning to confront my own aging process, and she summed it up perfectly. Despite the variety of subjects and moods, she cleverly weaves themes and literary allusions throughout the album, creating a cohesive experience for the listener. This one always shows up on my desert island list.
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