No one asked for this, and I can’t think of why anyone would care, but I felt like it, so here you go.
Kate Bush is one of the great musical artists of the last ’50 years. She takes chances and when she gets it right, damn she’s good.
While she has a lot of good albums, I noticed my choices only covered a limited number. In some cases, their absence is because those albums are weaker (or were experiments that bore fruit later). In others, like for Aerial and 50 Words For Snow, it is because nothing stands above the rest. The albums are solid, but best listened to as a whole. Now it is also true that Hounds of Love is best listened to as a whole, being one of the greatest albums ever made, but its individual parts also rise above…most everything. So. starting at #10, my favs (after noting some honorable mentions of Wow, The Big Sky, Room For the Life, and This Woman’s Work):
#10 Cloudbursting
My first of multiple choices from Hounds of Love, Cloundbursting is a beautiful song of love of a son for his father, some strange science, and some nasty government action. It’s based on a true story, and the music video is pretty astounding too.
# 9 Under the Ivy
A very personal song, Under the Ivy is sung from the point of view of a introverted woman who finds the world too much, taking one last chance to get away from things and share herself with just one other. It is a remembrance of childhood and I find it quite sad. It was the B-side to Running Up That Hill and collected on This Woman’s Work; I heard it first on that single. I’m old.
#8 Breathing
The standout track from her third album, Never For Ever, Breathing is about a knowing foetus, or about nuclear war, or about a thoughtless/broken mother, or about a post-apocalyptic world. OK, it is about all of those and it is tense.
#7 The Ninth Wave Suite
Is this a cheat? It’s seven songs—the entire second side of Hounds of Love—but it fits together as a perfect whole. My favorite bit is Waking the Witch, but not when I hear it alone. It belongs in its place in the whole suite. The Ninth Wave tells the story of a man lost at sea, his nightmares, and his future self reaching back to let him know he must live. It is creepy and uplifting at once.
#6 Not This Time
Another B-Side, again collected on This Woman’s Work. I love both the strength of the song, and that tinge of insanity.
#5 The Sensual World
What a perfectly named song—the title track of Kate Bush’s 6th album. Originally she’d wanted to use the closing passage of James Joyce’s Ulysses as the lyrics but was denied the rights. Sometimes great art comes from necessity. She later got to rework the song to fit her original plan and it is fine, lesser work.
#4 Hounds of Love
The hounds of love are chasing you, and if they catch you, they just might rip you apart. And the fear of that is far worse than the hounds. And I trust you’ve watched Night of the Demon. Otherwise the start of the song won’t mean much to you. Plus you are also messing up The Rocky Horror Picture show.
#3 Love and Anger
The second, and final song on my list from The Sensual World, this is one of the most emotional songs I know where I can’t figure exactly what it all means. This is a song to feel, not think about. David Gilmour plays the guitar because…why wouldn’t he?
#2 Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
This is the destination for the art rock movement. How can so much be in a single song. This is a song about love. It is about wanting, needing so much that you want to swap places with your lover. It is about the fear that love brings. It is about the differences between the sexes. It is about violence and gentleness. And no one has written anything else like it. Originally she wanted to title it A Deal With God (its subtitle now), but the record company panicked. Believers often have no sense of humor (the idea that the singer is trying to make a deal with God rather than The Devil was already freaking them) so she let the single go out as Running Up That Hill.
#1 Wuthering Heights
Of course it is. Only Wuthering Heights could top Running Up That Hill. Kate Bush’s first single from her first album, Wuthering Heights made her a superstar in Britain. It is haunting and beautiful and just so weird. Forget the book, or the movies. This song tells the tale better than either. Nothing like a ghost asking to grab your soul away.
She’s recorded the song twice. When I am listening to Wuthering Heights in isolation, I prefer the newer cut, with her more mature and less insane voice. But when I’m digging into my Kate Bush collection, the original is what calls to me.
(Note: This is a link to a live version.)