FEATURE:
Walking Up That Hill…
N THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake for the Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) single shoot in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
The Hounds of Love 33 1/3 Book, and Which Other Kate Bush Album Celebrations Should Follow
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THE brilliant…
Leah Kardos is among the authors who will bring great albums to life through the 33 1/3 series very soon. I reacted to the news when it arrived, but I wanted to revisit it. Kardos is a brilliant writer and author, and she is definitely a Kate Bush superfan. I am surprised it has not been done sooner, but Hounds of Love is coming to the series. Maybe it is quite daunting not only trying to condense this 1985 masterpiece into a short book, but it is so well-known and popular, so it is a case of writing about it in an accessible way, but also including details that people might not know – appealing both to new Kate Bush fans and those who are new. Before moving on, I spoke with author, musician and composer Leah Kardos about the upcoming Hounds of Love book, her love of Kate Bush, and what it was like researching the 1985 album.
Congrats on being commissioned to write the 33 1/3 book for Hounds of Love! How did you react when you heard the good news? Why was Hounds of Love the album you wanted to write about?
Hey, thank you! I was overjoyed when I found out, because I’ve wanted to write a 33 1/3 for a long time now. I had submitted two unsuccessful proposals before this one. In fact, my last book, Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie, began as a failed proposal for a 33 1/3. When I heard the news there was a very excited, quite protracted “!!!” conversation over messenger with my best friend. Just days and days of Kate GIFs.
I knew for this open call that I wanted to write about Kate’s music, the ideas for it have been brewing for years - but I couldn’t decide on which album to focus on. For a while, my heart was set on writing about Aerial (that abandoned pitch is uploaded as a draft on my academia account if anyone’s curious. But in the end, the RUTH (Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) appeared on Netflix’s Stranger Things) moment of 2022 was too good to ignore, and there’s so much to dig into with Hounds: all the bangers on side A; The Ninth Wave is a real gift to write about. I think that intuition was correct in the end. There seems to be a bit of special energy around Hounds of Love at the moment with the re-release coming up, the stirrings of something new with the Fish People rebranding, and the move to The state51 Conspiracy. For me, everything feels synchronous and right, even down to the Fish People logo redesign in collaboration with Barnbrook, who I interviewed and got to know with my Bowie book research, and with whom I had some long chats last year about Kate and Hounds of Love specifically. It feels like stars are aligning for this thing.
“The challenge will be to approach something so familiar with a freshness”
What has it been like writing the book? Did you learn anything new about Hounds of Love and Kate Bush when researching it?
I’m in the research phase right now. I haven’t really started properly writing it – the manuscript is due in December. For the moment, I’m just making lots of notes and doing some deep thinking on the musicological side of things, which I think (hope) will be the book’s USP. That, and situating the work in the larger cultural picture in terms of influence and legacy. One thing I’m really digging into at the moment is Kate’s Before the Dawn concert residency from 2014, where all but one of the songs from Hounds of Love were performed for the first time. I think the theatrical staging of The Ninth Wave really expands and deepens the album content, going quite a long way to illustrate the artist’s own vision of it.
How did it differ to, say, writing about David Bowie for Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie in terms of research and approach?
The difference for me is that the Bowie book was about the last phase of his career, so in a way it was about his entire career too. The whole story of the catalogue; all the connecting threads. Also, I wrote it not long after it happened – barely five years of Bowie’s death in 2016. With this book, it will be nice to zoom in on a single album, a specific time and place, a unique season for an artist who is still around, who could still put more work out yet (I dearly hope she does!). Another difference will be that Hounds has been discussed and written about quite a lot; the late Bowie work, not so much. The challenge will be to approach something so familiar with a freshness.
“With staggering sound design and next level songcraft, it’s an uncompromising artistic statement and a commercial success”
When did Kate Bush come into your life, and what was it about her music that struck you?
My fandom has gone through some phases. As a younger music student studying piano and trying to write my first songs, I was all about the earlier albums – trying to figure out the chords and sing along to songs like Moving, Symphony in Blue, Wow. Then later, when I got into record production and music technology as a creative and academic interest, I became alive to the staggering expression and sonic daring of The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. As I’ve gotten older, I appreciate Kate’s later work more and more, especially Aerial, which I think offers a profound, life-affirming message for everyone, especially for women at a specific stage of life. Being a woman in her forties, acutely aware of my fading visibility in the world, living in England in thrall to the magic of birdsong, the long-reaching light of summertime, I feel a connection to this work on an existential level!
As a musician and composer, how important is Kate Bush and albums like Hounds of Love to you personally?
Well. Beyond loving it and everything about it, Hounds is so important to me because it’s a complete vision, fully realised. I love how Kate becomes the complete auteur here, working expressively with sound, music, text, reference and image. With staggering sound design and next level songcraft, it’s an uncompromising artistic statement and a commercial success. Immediately accessible and exquisitely deep. Blazing a trail for and setting the template for successive generations of artists – especially female, Queer and trans self-producing songwriters like Tori Amos, Björk, ANOHNI, SOPHIE, Perfume Genius, FKA twigs, Jenny Hval, and so many more.
“I’ve unfortunately seen how female self-producing artists can have their authorship questioned and/or diminished…”
I don’t think enough people talk about Kate Bush’s talent as a producer. Her skill and intuition through Hounds of Love is evident. Do you think she is underrated as a producer?
Absolutely. I would love it if critics and musicologists would start talking about Kate as an influential record producer more. I would put her skills and vision during this era on par with Trevor Horn, or even Prince. Line it up next to Peter Gabriel’s So, and I think Hounds sounds every bit as good – if not better, more daring and stylistically coherent in places. And Peter had Daniel Lanois’ help with production on that one. I’ve unfortunately seen how female self-producing artists can have their authorship questioned and/or diminished - Bjork’s comments to Pitchfork in 2015 about this particular phenomenon come to mind – it makes me wonder had a man produced Hounds of Love, there would probably be a lot more open celebration of the album’s fantastic and influential production values.
My favourite song from Hounds of Love is The Big Sky, but I adore The Ninth Wave too. Do you have a standout track or aspect of the album that is a personal favourite?
This is a hard one. This week, I’m feeling the dopamine hitting hardest when Jig of Life comes on.
“Ann Powers’ proposed volume on ‘The Dreaming’ would have been an excellent addition to the series”
I am writing a feature about your upcoming book, but I also ask which other Kate Bush albums should be brought to the 33 1/3 series. Which would you say deserves to follow Hounds of Love?
Well as I said earlier, I think Aerial would be a great addition. There’s so much juicy stuff in there that I haven’t seen many people writing about yet. Ann Powers’ proposed volume on The Dreaming would have been an excellent addition to the series – I really enjoy hearing her talk about this era on Yasi Salek’s Bandsplain podcast, and you just know she would have done The Dreaming full justice. They’d probably never go for it, but I think Director’s Cut could be really interesting to write about, too.
For being a good sport, you can choose a track from Hounds of Love, and I will put it here. Which do you fancy?
Let’s have Hello Earth, since it references several songs, themes and musical motifs from the album…sewing the threads into a satisfyingly dramatic climax. You can’t fail to get swept up and away by it.
I am really pleased that there is a new book coming out about Hounds of Love! Considering what a masterpiece it is, there is little out there in terms of podcasts and books. I am not sure what date the book is coming out (as Kardos is still researching for it), but keep an eye on Kardos’ Twitter feed, and 33 1/3’s page. Given the new attention Hounds of Love has received after Stranger Things featured Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) last year, it is going to provide more background and depth about such an important album. It sort of begs the question as to what comes next. I think we will see other Kate Bush-related books this year, but I have always said how it is important to highlight and explore her albums. 33 1/3 offers a brief-but-deep look inside great albums. I think The Dreaming was published or planned at some point. I may have said it before, but there is an album that has always been underrated that has a fascinating backstory and run-up. 1980’s Never for Ever came a year after The Tour of Life – where Bush toured her first two albums around the U.K. and Europe. Producing alongside Jon Kelly, it features some career-best tracks like Babooshka, The Wedding List, Breathing and Army Dreamers. If not Never for Ever, then I think The Sensual World is an album that is both acclaimed and not known by all. I think these two albums would be perfect for further exploration.
I am not sure whether anyone is planning those books but, when 33 1/3 pitch for new submissions, I think these albums should be options. Of course, all the other Kate Bush studio albums are worthy of inclusion, but Never for Ever is hugely underrated and a fascinating album. The Sensual World came out in 1989 and was the follow-up to Hounds of Love. It saw Bush keep the quality up, but I think it was a more personal album. Full of sensuality and beauty, it had a different tone and palette to Hounds of Love. It is great that Leah Kardos is writing about Hounds of Love. I hope it opens the door for more books about Bush’s albums. We got Tom Doyle’s brilliant biography about Bush last year, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, so I am interested whether there will be another biography or even a photobook. Album dives and books are especially interesting, as it will open them up to new fans and listeners. So far, The Kick Inside, The Dreaming, and now Hounds of Love have had books written about them. I am not sure whether any others have. Every fan has their opinion as to which Bush albums would benefit from a 33 1/3-style representation. Whether it is 2005’s double album, Aerial, 1978’s Lionheart, or 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, there is more demand and a bigger fanbase than there has ever been! Whilst we wait to see if new Bush material will come along, there are these brilliant albums to enjoy. Knowing more about how they formed and took shape provides this insight and illumination. This is a great thing. I am looking forward to reading Leah Kardos’ writing on…
KATE Bush’s Hounds of Love.