“She builds songs like Roman roads. She won’t let the hills and rivers of convention or compromise get in the way. It’s a straight line from her heart to yours”: Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, by some of the artists it inspired

Kate Bush combined hit singles with a seven-song conceptual suite on fifth album Hounds Of Love, which has provided inspiration to other artists for 40 years. The Anchoress, Within Temptation’s Sharon den Adel, Auri’s Johanna Kurkela, The Blackheart Orchestra’s Chrissy Mostyn and Exploring Birdsong’s Lynsey Ward celebrate the album’s enduring magic and influence.

In an age when artists seem desperate to share every waking moment of their lives on social media, Kate Bush remains positively enigmatic. Yet despite her almost hermetic commitment to avoiding the spotlight, she continues to inspire one generation after another. Her music speaks for itself – never more articulately than on her magnum opus Hounds Of Love.

“At the risk of projecting my own feelings onto her lived experience when she created this album, I can’t help but get the feeling that she was really breaking out,” says Exploring Birdsong’s Lynsey Ward. “Her previous album, The Dreaming, was the first where she’s credited with solely producing it, and I get the impression that Hounds Of Love is when she really finds her voice in that discipline.

“Her songwriting and sonic choices feel sophisticated and wholly deliberate. The Dreaming was the turning point, but Hounds Of Love feels like every facet of her artistry at the very peak of its powers.”

Bush wrote the album at home in her newly upgraded 48-track studio, allowing her to work at her own pace without external pressure. “I feel that her desire to stay true to her art and vision, no matter what, is truly inspiring,” says The Blackheart Orchestra’s Chrissy Mostyn. “The art of making great music is to find the shortest route from soul to sound, so that none of the emotion evaporates on the journey.

“Kate builds songs like Roman roads, not letting the hills and rivers of convention or compromise get in the way and not getting tempted by the gentle slopes and easy valleys. It’s a straight line from her heart to yours. Every song is a cathedral of creativity.”

Released in September 1985, Hounds Of Love topped the charts in the UK and also Holland, the home of Sharon den Adel from Within Temptation. “I already knew Kate Bush from Wuthering Heights; it was like nothing else I had ever heard before,” she says.

“I loved her voice from the first time I heard it, but becoming a fan was something that grew throughout the years. The fact that my dad absolutely loved her music helped. When I started making my own music I realised how big a talent she is – more than just a unique voice, her songwriting was something else. She has her own style in every artistic form; even her way of dancing.”

Hounds was the first Bush album in The Anchoress’ collection. “I was only faintly familiar with Wuthering Heights and Babooshka,” she recalls. “I fell headlong in love with the album as an example of how you could be completely in control of your own vision as a songwriter, producer and performer. What startled me was the uncompromising collision of her playful sonic imagination – as heard in the dense production and use of the Fairlight samples – alongside the emotional heft of her vocal performance. I was hooked. It’s been a touchstone for me ever since.”

Auri’s Johanna Kurkela was introduced to Hounds by her friend and fellow vocalist Johanna Iivanainen, who suggested they cover Hello Earth on their 2018 tour. “Hello Earth always brings back dear memories touring and singing with Johanna,” says Kurkela, who describes the album as “quite futuristic and even a bit challenging.”

She continues: “Captivating audiences is always a bit of a mystery. There’s an individual, sacred and intimate experience that music can awaken inside a person. Some songs manage to provide a sounding board that multiple hearts relate to, even across continents and generations. It’s all food for our unique souls.”

Ward was a self-described impressionable teenager when Hounds blipped onto her radar. “I was familiar with Wuthering Heights and her earlier career, but I didn’t expect her to come bursting out in the mid-80s with expertly crafted, decade-defining moments. I knew from the first listen I’d carry her influence with me every day for the rest of my life.”

The album’s four singles were accompanied by videos just as distinctive as Bush’s music – paying tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps for the title track, the interpretive dance of Running Up That Hill, and the playfulness of The Big Sky. The standout remains Cloudbusting, a seven-minute mini-feature film starring Bush and Donald Sutherland as her father.

“That was enormous for me – they corresponded so much to the emotion of the music,” says den Adel. “I didn’t completely know what the lyrics were about, but it woke my own imagination and interpretation. With Cloudbusting, seeing her father being taken away by strange men to somewhere unknown. As a kid, most of us think our dad is the biggest hero on the planet; that video had a lot of impact on me as my own father was away a lot, working on the other side of the world.”

While the singles pulled people into Bush’s orbit, they didn’t prepare the unwary for The Ninth Wave, the conceptual seven-song suite that fills the second side. “It was too experimental for me at the time, but grew on me when I got older,” says den Adel. “It was a bit dark. The songs were super-catchy and unique in style. She inspired me and many girls at the time to create and think out of the box.”

For The Anchoress, The Ninth Wave was a major influence on her debut album, 2016’s Confessions Of A Romance Novelist. “Deciding to have a conceptual suite on the second side was a genius move!” she says. “In many ways it feels more compelling to me than the A-side. Because it was the first album of hers that I got to know, I accepted it as something normal – part of the appeal of her more experimental side.”

Prog previously described Confessions as “Hounds Of Love updated for the 21st century,” which delighted it creator. “I couldn’t have been more flattered! And also relieved that my intentions had translated into something that the listener could hear. From the structural influence – having a conceptual suite on the second side – to experimenting with collages of spoken-word voices and samples, the influence of her album was writ large.”

Even as someone with a lifelong love of concept albums, “almost to the point of desensitisation,” as she says, Ward was dazzled by The Ninth Wave. “I can relate on some level to how it must have felt for folks playing the vinyl for the first time, and being completely blindsided,” she says. “It was the first time I had been swept away by a record, which feels quite apt! I loved feeling almost tricked by the first half, because it only heightens your experience with the second.”

Four decades on, it’s inevitable that some of the album’s production choices betray their age. Nevertheless, Running Up That Hill has been discovered and embraced by a new generation of fans thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things. “You can see a whole new generation growing up with her music and with this album in particular, proving it’s timeless,” says den Adel.

Kurkela was born the year Hounds came out. “So I missed the golden age of the 80s, but I do have a soft spot for music from that era,” she says. “I think Kate Bush is a captivating, unique and intriguing artist. I admire her very much for her pioneering and brave explorative approach to music.

“I feel that in Auri, that same energy is present and prevalent as well – even though musically we’re a whole different entity. The best music is always born from authenticity and freedom.”

If there’s a lesson in the success of Hounds Of Love (Bush’s first album to break into the US Top 40) it’s that popularity and integrity aren’t mutually exclusive. The Anchoress notes: “You can write commercially appealing songs, like Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill, while simultaneously satisfying your more experimental impulses on tracks like Mother Stands For Comfort – a personal favourite – and Waking The Witch. We don’t have to plough only one furrow.”

But where does Hounds fit within Bush’s estimable discography? Or is that the wrong question? “I think she’s one of the few artists whose work it is impossible and also futile to rank,” says Mostyn. “Each album represents a different time in her life, a different mindset and a different story to tell. She moves from watercolours to oils and then to digital colours with a fluency that few artists would even attempt.

“Is baked beans on toast better than a rice pudding? Is a vegetable bhuna better than a piña colada? Let’s just enjoy the banquet!”

Ward reports: “It isn’t an exaggeration to say that I carry Hounds Of Love with me in almost every creative decision I make. Kate is a born artist, the likes of which we don’t see come around too often. This era saw her stepping into the house she was finally able to live in after so many years building it brick by brick.

“The record feels unapologetically feminine, which inspires me to tap into a similar energy when making my music. Kate Bush will always be one the greatest to ever do it, and Hounds Of Love will live forever.”