FEATURE:
Running Up That Hill (with No Problem?)
The Long-Overdue Commercial Success for Kate Bush in America Following the Release of 1985’s Hounds of Love
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AS September…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Tower Records, New York in 1985 (where she was promoting Hounds of Love)
marks the anniversaries of three Kate Bush studio albums – 1980’s Never for Ever (7th), 1982’s The Dreaming (13th) and Hounds of Love (16th) -, I am writing pieces on those releases. I want to revisit Hounds of Love first. I have discussed how, perhaps, Kate Bush never really got recognition in America. It is true that, even after the releasee of The Dreaming, she was more of a cult concern. That album won some good reviews, though it didn’t make much of an impact in the charts there. There has been retrospective examination of The Dreaming. Hounds of Love was a different story. Maybe it was the most accessible Bush album. In 1985, the mainstream sound had changed dramatically. Perhaps audiences in the U.S., bonding with homegrown artists like Madonna, felt greater connection with the sounds on Hounds of Love. Even though the album’s second side, The Ninth Wave, is quite challenging and has some darker sounds, audiences were a lot more receptive. The album got to thirty in the U.S., as did the first single, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). If audiences and fans in the U.S. were kinder and helped ensure that Kate Bush was not completely overlooked in the country, it is strange to think that there was mixed critical reception:
“In the US, reaction to the record was mixed. Awarding the record the title of "platter du jour" (i.e. album of the day), Spin observed that "with traces of classical, operatic, tribal and twisted pop styles, Kate creates music that observes no boundaries of musical structure or inner expression". The review noted "while her eclecticism is welcomed and rewarded in her homeland her genius is still ignored here – a situation that is truly a shame for an artist so adventurous and naturally theatrical", and hoped that "this album might gain her some well-deserved recognition from the American mainstream".
However, Rolling Stone, in their first ever review of a Kate Bush record, was unimpressed: "The Mistress of Mysticism has woven another album that both dazzles and bores. Like the Beatles on their later albums, Bush is not concerned about having to perform the music live, and her orchestrations swell to the limits of technology. But unlike the Beatles, Bush often overdecorates her songs with exotica ... There's no arguing that Bush is extraordinarily talented, but as with Jonathan Richman, rock's other eternal kid, her vision will seem silly to those who believe children should be seen and not heard."The New York Times characterised the album's music as "slightly precious, calculated female art rock" and called Bush "a real master of instrumental textures", while The Independent called Hounds "a prog-pop masque of an album". Pitchfork gave the album a perfect score, noting that the album draws from synth-pop and progressive rock whilst remaining wholly distinct from either style.[20] Spin called it an "art-pop classic”.
I know that perception has changed since its release in 1985. It is a case of critics not being too sure but fans and buyers being a lot keener. It is clear that, as Bush did promotion in the U.S. (not the first of last time she did so there; she was back in 1993 promoting The Red Shoes), there was demand there.
Kate Bush appeared in the Tower Records in New York twice, to sign records for fans. On 17th November, 1985 she appeared in the shop (signing Hounds of Love) before recording appearances in the programmes Live at Five and Nightflight (which was an unfortunately disastrous interview thanks to the interviewer’s complete lack of research!). I have heard interviews with Bush pre-1985, and the majority are her chatting with people here in the U.K., Europe and Australia. Whilst there were U.S. print interviews, there was not really televisual exposure there. Bush was in front of the camera in America when Hounds of Love came out. She was not being talked down to; the album did not get dismissed. People were interested to learn what Hounds of Love was about. I love the fact that Kate Bush, to some extent, was being admired in America. One can debate that she only really has been taken to heart by critics in recent years – or after the release of The Red Shoes? America is a tough market to crack. Even though Hounds of Love is this masterpiece, critics in America were not completely on board! The success I am referring to is from the record-buying public. That is a different thing. Bush was not concerned with cracking America, though it is clear she was thrilled to promote Hounds of Love in the country. Events like her signing the album at Tower Records would have been a chance for her to connect with her fanbase there. In turn, they turned out in their droves! If some snobby critics wanted to marginalise her – even with an album as good as Hounds of Love under her belt! -, one noticed a more visible reaction and outpouring from fans compared to previous albums. Maybe greater exposure meant that more were aware of her work.
I am going to investigate more this month as it turns thirty-six. Changing tastes and the emergence of a more ‘commercial’ sound from Bush might have swayed the audience vote in America. Looking back at single releases, I guess the fact there were only two charting singles in the U.S. prior to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Wuthering Heights got to 108, whereas The Man with the Child in His Eyes reached 85 -. Kept Bush underground. Her albums certainly fared better than the singles post-Hounds of Love. The Red Shoes went to 28; Aerial (Bush returning after twelve years) went top-fifty. I want to wrap up with a 2016 review for Hounds of Love from Pitchfork. Barry Walters, a U.S. journalist, discusses the reaction Bush received in America in 1985:
“As her sailor drifts in and out of consciousness, Bush floats between abstract composition and precise songcraft. Her character’s nebulous condition gives her melodies permission to unmoor from pop’s constrictions; her verses don’t necessarily return to catchy choruses, not until the relative normality of “The Morning Fog,” one of her sweetest songs. Instead, she’s free to exploit her Fairlight’s capacity for musique concrete. Spoken voices, Gregorian chant, Irish jigs, oceanic waves of digitized droning, and the culminating twittering of birds all collide in Bush’s synth-folk symphony. Like most of her lyrics, “The Ninth Wave” isn’t autobiographical, although its sink-or-swim scenario can be read as an extended metaphor for Hounds of Love’s protracted creation: Will she rise to deliver the masterstroke that guaranteed artistic autonomy for the rest of her long career and enabled her to live a happy home life with zero participation in the outside world for years on end, or will she drown under the weight of her colossal ambition?
By the time I became one of the few American journalists to have interviewed her in person in 1985, Bush had clinched her victory. She’d flown to New York to plug Hounds of Love, engaging in the kind of promotion she’d rarely do again. Because she thoroughly rejected the pop treadmill, the media had already begun to marginalize her as a space case, and have since painted her as a tragic, reclusive figure. Yet despite her mystical persona, she was disarmingly down-to-earth: That hammy public Kate was clearly this soft-spoken individual’s invention; an ever-changing role she played like Bowie in an era when even icons like Stevie Nicks and Donna Summer had a Lindsey Buckingham or a Giorgio Moroder calling many of the shots.
It was a response, perhaps, to the age-old quandary of commanding respect as a woman in an overwhelmingly masculine field. Bush's navigation of this minefield was as natural as it was ingenious: She became the most musically serious and yet outwardly whimsical star of her time. She held onto her bucolic childhood and sustained her family’s support, feeding the wonder that’s never left her”.
Today, all around the world, people play and discuss Hounds of Love. It is the album of hers that gets the most focus and airplay. A new generation of American fans and critics have discovered the album and reappraised it. Even some who gave it a mixed review in 1985 have seen the error of their ways and looked at it with fresh ears. Fans in America ensured that the album got into the top thirty in 1985. Whilst not a massive influx of love, one can see photos of fans keen to meet Bush. The U.S. interviews from that time are really interesting and respectful. Although there was not a complete embrace from America in 1985, the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and the Hounds of Love album meant that she was definitely on the radar. It is a sublime album that…
IS impossible to dislike.