Media Diary; Week 4, (Hounds of Love)

Media Diary; Week 4, (Hounds of Love)

by

Niamh Gallagher

The album 'Hounds of Love' by Kate Bush is a piece of media that has changed my life and how I look at music. I believe this album could be classed as a piece of artistic mastery and Bush's best work to date and nothing she has done has every compared to 'Hounds of Love'. I feel like 'Hounds of Love' changed my view on how music should be; unique, different and totally taking your breath away as you listen to it.

I was first introduced to the album over a year ago when I first heard 'Running Up That Hill' on a radio station. After hearing the song I was intrigued, I'd never heard a song like it before. At the time I was tired of the overly-generic pop being churned out by record companies and I desired something different to listen to and 'Running Up That Hill' was exactly that. I wanted to know more about the artist, later finding out it was Kate Bush. I'd heard of Bush before, namely for 'Wuthering Heights, and was surprised how much her voice had changed and matured from the screechy and wailing 'Wuthering Heights', released 1978, to her 'Hounds of Love' album released seven years later in 1985. 

I bought 'Hounds of Love' a few weeks later and was hooked from the start. 'Hounds of Love' was everything I could hope for a release from the common trash of today's music. The songs were bold, ethereal and showcased Bush's wide vocal range in their unique uncanniness, especially the second side  of the album 'the Ninth Wave' which features songs about someone drowning. The album completely changed my outlook on how I view music as nothing has ever come close to how I felt the first time I finished listening to 'Hounds of Love'. I normally skip tracks whilst I listen to an album but I never at anytime felt to urge to pass over a song, further validating how much I love 'Hounds of Love'.