released 35 years ago today ~ “hounds of love” is kate bush’s most commercially successful album to date! it spent 3 weeks at no. 1 in the uk (and 64 weeks on the charts in total) & peaked at no. 30 on the u.s billboard 200. it has been certified 2x platinum by the bpi

the album was produced entirely by kate herself (it’s the second self-produced album in her discography) and was recorded in the home studio she had constructed in the barn near her family home

the album is split up into two parts — “hounds of love” and “the ninth wave”. side a, according to kate, consists of 5 individual songs all linked by the theme of love whereas side b is a conceptual suite depicting a story of a person alone, adrift in the sea

“running up that hill” was the first single released from the album, and one of kate’s most successful singles to date

the song was originally called “deal with god” but due to fears some of the more religious countries wouldn’t play it, the title was changed to “running up that hill”

previously posted thread on the song ~ https://twitter.com/moonin7th/status/1290968435644563456

the second single released from the album is “cloudbusting”, which peaked at no. 20 on the uk charts. kate’s label wanted to release this as the lead single for the album, but kate pushed for “running up that hill” to be released first instead

the song was inspired by “a book of dreams”, a 1973 memoir by peter reich and depicts the relationship between peter and his father wilhelm as they experimented with “cloudbusting” on their farm named orgonon, and peter’s feelings following his father’s sudden arrest

“hounds of love” was the third single from the album and peaked at no. 18 on the uk singles chart!

kate described the song as being about the fear one might experience when feeling hunted by love or when getting into a relationship

“the big sky” was the fourth and final single taken from the album. it peaked at no. 37 on the uk charts, making it another top 40 hit from the album!

kate described the song as being about experiencing pleasure & enjoyment from the simple things in life, like looking at clouds changing shapes. she has also described it as being a somewhat difficult track to work on, as it seemed to be constantly changing while she worked on it

kate talking about the album for the kate bush club magazine:
http://gaffa.org/garden/kate20.html