Kate Bush's strongest album to date also marked her breakthrough into the American charts, and yielded a set of dazzling videos as well as an enviable body of hits, spearheaded by "Running Up That Hill," her biggest single since "Wuthering Heights." Strangely enough, Hounds of Love was no less complicated in its structure, imagery, and extra-musical references (even lifting a line of dialogue from Jacques Tourneur's Curse of the Demon for the intro of the title song) than The Dreaming, which had been roundly criticized for being too ambitious and complex. But Hounds of Love was more carefully crafted as a pop record, and it abounded in memorable melodies and arrangements, the latter reflecting idioms ranging from orchestrated progressive pop to high-wattage traditional folk; and at the center of it all was Bush in the best album-length vocal performance of her career, extending her range and also drawing expressiveness from deep inside of herself, so much so that one almost feels as though he's eavesdropping at moments during "Running Up That Hill." Hounds of Love is actually a two-part album (the two sides of the original LP release being the now-lost natural dividing line), consisting of the suites "Hounds of Love" and "The Ninth Wave." The former is steeped in lyrical and sonic sensuality that tends to wash over the listener, while the latter is about the experiences of birth and rebirth. If this sounds like heady stuff, it could be, but Bush never lets the material get too far from its pop trappings and purpose. In some respects, this was also Bush's first fully realized album, done completely on her own terms, made entirely at her own 48-track home studio, to her schedule and preferences, and delivered whole to EMI as a finished work; that history is important, helping to explain the sheer presence of the album's most striking element - the spirit of experimentation at every turn, in the little details of the sound. That vastly divergent grasp, from the minutiae of each song to the broad sweeping arc of the two suites, all heavily ornamented with layered instrumentation, makes this record wonderfully overpowering as a piece of pop music. Indeed, this reviewer hadn't had so much fun and such a challenge listening to a new album from the U.K. since Abbey Road, and it's pretty plain that Bush listened to (and learned from) a lot of the Beatles' output in her youth.
~ Bruce Eder, All Music



Track List:

01. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) [5:02]
02. Hounds Of Love [3:03]
03. The Big Sky [4:36]
04. Mother Stands For Comfort [3:08]
05. Cloudbusting [5:10]
06. And Dream Of Sheep [2:45]
07. Under Ice [2:22]
08. Waking The Witch [4:18]
09. Watching You Without Me [4:07]
10. Jig Of Life [4:04]
11. Hello Earth [6:13]
12. The Morning Fog [2:38]

Personnel:
Kate Bush - vocals, Fairlight CMI, piano
Stuart Elliott - drums on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11
Del Palmer - bass on 1, 10, handclapping on 3, backing vocals on 5, Fairlight bass on 8, Linn programming
Alan Murphy - guitar on 1, 3, 8
Paddy Bush - violins on 10, balalaika on 1, backing vocals on 5, didjeridu on 3, harmonic vocals on 7, fujara on 12
Charlie Morgan - drums on 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, handclapping on 3

Additional musicians:
Jonathan Williams - cello on 2
Youth - bass on 3
Morris Pert - percussion on 3
Eberhard Weber - bass on 4, 11, 12
The Medici Sextet - strings on 5
Dave Lawson - string arrangements on 5
Brian Bath - backing vocals on 5, guitar on 11
John Carder Bush - backing vocals on 5, narration on 10
Dónal Lunny - bouzouki on 6, 11, Irish bouzouki on 10
John Sheahan - whistles on 6
Kevin McAlea - synthesiser sequences on 8, synthesiser on 12
Danny Thompson - double bass on 9
Liam O'Flynn - uilleann pipes on 10, 11
The Richard Hickox Singers - choir on 11
Richard Hickox - vocals, choir master on 11
Michael Berkeley - vocal arrangements on 11
John Williams - guitar on 12