FEATURE:
Truly, All the Love!
Why The Dreaming Is the Most Influential Kate Bush Album of 2025
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ONE may naturally assume that…
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence + The Machine’s Florence Welch/PHOTO CREDIT: Autumn de Wilde
Hounds of Love is always the most influential album from Kate Bush. In terms of its prominence and genius, it is her best-known and most successful album. So many artists cite it as an influence. There is no doubting that it is a masterpiece. It turned forty back in September and, with it, a fresh wave of appreciation. I previously talked about artists today who are very much inspired by Kate Bush. How some of the best albums of this year in fact were made by artists who are fans of Kate Bush. Maybe The Last Dinner Party look more to Kate Bush’s earlier albums when it comes to influence from her, though I think the album I am about to mention is on their radar. The same goes for Florence + The Machine. You might think Hounds of Love or even The Kick Inside (her 1978 debut) would be the go-to. Even though Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl was not great and got mixed reviews, the cover definitely tied to Hounds of Love. Specifically, the back cover, which was shot by John Carder Bush. Taylor Swift very much replicating that. I stated how, last year, Dua Lipa released a song called Houdini (late in 2023), which shares its title with a song by Kate Bush. That is from an album which I think is the most influential of this year. It is 1982’s The Dreaming. In fact, one that has inspired by Dua Lipa. She has been performing this year, and one feels there might be another album next year. I suspect that we will get shades of The Dreaming on that album. Houdini appeared on The Dreaming. It is my favourite song from Kate Bush, and one that I could study and dissect endlessly. It is a fascinating track. The album itself is only ten songs long. Some might say that this is a perfect length.
In spite of the fact The Dreaming has fewer tracks that some of Kate Bush’s albums – Hounds of Love included -, I do think that it has exerted more influence the past year than any other. We can look back to 2023 and Dua Lipa definitely incorporating parts of it. That song title and, as I have noted before, the promotional image/cover for it, where she holds a key on her tongue. That is taken from the cover of The Dreaming. Another photo by John Carder Bush. Kate Bush imagery, in addition to the music, providing guidance and influence. In some cases explicitly so, and others more abstract, I do feel that the experimentation, drama, darkness, violence, beauty and variety on The Dreaming has fed its way into one of the very best music of this year. Not to repeat the same artists I name-checked in the previous feature regarding Kate Bush’s influence this year. However, they did release exceptional albums. I mentioned The Last Dinner Party. From the Pyre is one of the best of 2025. An album noted for being experimental, dense and focusing on something more dramatic rather than going for melody and the accessible, you can very much link this to The Dreaming. Baroque but also gothic, this is what The Line of Best Fit noted – that could be applied to The Dreaming : “Love, heartbreak, deception, necromancy, passion that leads to fulfilment (transformation), and passion that leads to devastation (hubris): the epic themes are present. The instrumentation, as mentioned, is perhaps slightly tamed, the band’s everything-and-the-kitchen sink impulses somewhat corralled, but make no mistake: Pyre is high drama”. From the Pyre sounds The Dreaming-motivated in places though you can hear hints of other Kate Bush albums. That push to something more experimental and denser reminds me of Bush moving from 1980’s Never for Ever to 1982’s The Dreaming. Retaining her core but creating an album that is denser and layered. This is what Rolling Stone UK noted about From the Pyre: “ It’s ironic, however, that ruminations on death and darkness have allowed this band to sound more alive than ever”.
People might be able to apply other 2025 albums to The Dreaming. Maybe Perfume Genius’s Glory and Lily Allen’s West End Girl. Elements of FKA twigs’ EUSEXUA. Hayley Williams released one of the year’s defining albums with Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Frequently compared to Kate Bush because of (Williams’s) thematic depth, unique artistic vision, and dramatic flair, even if the sonic textures on Williams’s new album are not directly comparable to The Dreaming, I do think there are links. The emotional vulnerability you get on a couple of tracks from The Dreaminmg. Exploring emotional landscapes and some of the more revealing moments on Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party put me in mind of The Dreaming and even tracks like All the Love. A general feeling and spirit from The Dreaming, I feel has influenced Hayley Williams. Even if Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream seems to evoke Wuthering Heights-era Kate Bush, I do think The Dreaming is more visible. Spiritual magic, darkness, witchcraft, personal revelation, life, death, rebirth and catharsis run through the album. Tip in some Hounds of Love and Never for Ever but, when I think of the energy of Everybody Scream and some of its standout moments, I bring to mind Kate Bush’s The Dreaming. Consider this review from The Guardian: “Amid the stuff about paganism, witchcraft and the references to 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich, this appears to be the central theme of Everybody Scream: the push and pull of fame, a compulsive desire to perform that overwhelms everything in ways that seem unhealthy…But there’s more light and shade here than you might expect, a greater desire to set the volume low than crank it up to 11”. So much of that relates to The Dreaming, I feel. Florence Welch also incorporates elements and aspects of The Kick Inside or even Never for Ever, Hounds of Love and The Sensual World. Consider too these words from NME: “Though informed by Wicca history and classic literature (the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley named as specific inspirations), ‘Everybody Scream’ is still an unmistakably timely record, expertly treading between folk and mysticism observations on the disconnect of a chronically online generation clutching at new age practices for relief”. Definite The Kick Inside vibrations, though some of the more gothic or darker elements of Everybody Scream can be connected to The Dreaming.
Even though it is a single and not an album, I feel Charli xcx’s House is directly alluding to Get Out of My House from The Dreaming. In fact, Charli xcx has said that herself I feel. THE FACE wrote this in their review: “When you hear the screeching strings on House – which appears on the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s potentially-shocking adaptation of Wuthering Heights – you immediately think of John Cale’s unsettling viola on Venus in Furs, or The Black Angel’s Death Song. After the 83-year-old Welshman himself orates a poem with gravelly delivery, Charli jumps in to scream “I think I’m gonna die in this house,” her warped voice building into a tidal wave of distortion which crashes against the drums. Charli says she’s been inspired by Cale’s comment that VU’s music needed to be both “elegant and brutal”. Mission accomplished”. Red Brick provided these thoughts: “The first half of the track begins with an unnerving, dissonant string quartet, all the whilst being narrated by avant-garde legend John Cale of Velvet Underground fame. It’s the kind of collaboration you would imagine happening in some disorienting dream, but his narration and Charli’s subtly auto-tuned vocals intertwine to create such a dark atmosphere. This atmosphere drastically changes in the second half with a wall of distortion that rips through the vocals. The recurring line ‘I think I’m gonna die in this house,’ which Charli belts out in one of her most vulnerable and raw vocal performances – creating these perfectly imperfect vocals that reminds me of some of the most chilling moments in the Ethel Cain discography. Wuthering Heights gives Charli XCX a chance to reinvent herself, and to prove that her artistry moves beyond pop music. ‘House’, whilst being a short track clocking in at 3 minutes, gives us great insight into where her innovative sound may take fans next”.
IN THIS PHOTO: John Cale and Charli xcx/COMPOSITE: Kayla Oaddams/FilmMagic, Madeline McManus
It would be intriguing to think that Charli xcx’s next album away from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack would be more influenced by The Dreaming. There is no denying the fact that House brings in at least a couple of songs from The Dreaming. I feel another song, Chains of Love, has some The Dreaming DNA. I have bemoaned how Get Out of My House has never had a video made. I do think that Charli xcx could so naturally nail that song. I would love to hear her cover it. Maybe quite a faithful trace. House is one of this year’s best tracks. Again, this is an artist reinventing and pushing from something lighter and perhaps more accessible to embracing denser, darker, more gothic sounds. Kate Bush did that on The Dreaming, so I feel artists who do this too – and are Kate Bush fans – have this 1982 masterpiece in their minds. It would not be wholly unexpected to hear a Charli xcx album soon that is very similar to The Dreaminmg. There are albums I have not yet mentioned, or do not know about, where The Dreaming is at its core – or has some impact. I am going to move on to the year’s best album and how I feel it is influenced by The Dreaming. However, let’s go back to an album which is in the top three of 2025. West End Girl. Lily Allen is a big Kate Bush fan, and she was there for her 2014 residency in Hammersmith.
Even if West End Girl is deeply personal and you cannot compare that to anything on The Dreaming so much in terms of lyrics, the rich production and raw emotion, together with unconventional songwriting and storytelling can be applied to The Dreaming. in recent music reviews and discussions. The comparison often highlights a shared touchstone for ‘strangeness’ or unique, unconventional artistic approaches in their respective works. Think about the sonics and effects on West End Girl and the technology and effects on The Dreaming. The songwriting is mature, brave, bold, sharp but also revealing and raw. Words I can very much associate with The Dreaming. Boundary-pushing, unconventional and exposing, Lily Allen has also stepped away from the sound of her previous album. So many artists have this year. Again, think of Kate Bush in the early-1980s. Less conventional and taking greater risks and exerting more control, I feel The Dreaming is this touchstone for so many artists today. For Lily Allen and West End Girl, there are unconventional instruments, varied vocal techniques (including demented, double-tracked vocals), and intricate vocal phrasing. These components are present in The Dreaminmg. CLASH reviewed West End Girl. There are some words that stood out: “There’s also a sense of an artist both reclaiming and out-pacing her past” and “making imposing shapes out of the rubble”. That idea of out-pacing her past and changing the narrative or stepping into a bold new territory, you can match Kate Bush and Lily Allen. The intensity in The Dreaming comes more from its production and non-fiction, whereas it is more present with the real-life experiences for Lily Allen. Even so, there are more than a few comparable notes for West End Girl and The Dreaming. It is also great that Lily Allen is considering turning West End Girl into a play.
This is me focusing on the very best albums and songs of the year. I can appreciate there are other possibilities and connections. Chappell Roan has not released an album this year, though the use wide vocal ranges, explore unique themes, and have theatrical styles of Roan can be connected to Bush and specifically The Dreaming. If fans debate the influence of The Dreaming on Chappell Roan, I feel that album will make an impact on Roan next year. The experimental percussion, diverse inspirations in terms of themes, together with that theatricality and her diverse vocal stylings and delivery seems to be inspired by The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. This review mentions a Chappell Roan Manchester gig from last year and mention how “she embraces unashamed Kate Bush cosplay during the guttural bridge of Good Luck, Babe, throwing herself to the floor for extra dramatics”. If we are also going back to last year, Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT put me in mind of The Dreaming. That was one of the best albums of 2024. Eilish is a big fan of Kate Bush and has been compared to her. I think her later work has more in common with The Dreaming than any other Kate Bush album. Another masterpiece of this year that is in the top three is CMAT’s EURO-COUNTRY. CMAT is a huge Kate Bush fan and pleasingly adores The Kick Inside.
When I celebrate fifty years of The Kick Inside in 2028, I will see if CMAT is free. She has covered Wuthering Heights and mentioned how the album was a favourite in her childhood – and now. CMAT has said how she saw Kate Bush as someone who paved the way for "cuntrifying" music. There are elements of camp, kitsch culture clash on EURO-COUNTRY one can link to The Dreaming. Actually, seeing Drowned in Sound’s list of the best albums of 2025 made me ask think about some albums on there that I did not naturally think of when considering Kate Bush’s The Dreaming. Heartworms and Glutton for Punishment? Anna Von Hauswollff’s ICONOCLASTS? Ethel Cian’s Perverts? Their words about the later seems to resonate with The Dreaming: “Across Perverts' 90 minutes, you're gently caressed, in the dark, by warm hands and pressed against cold surfaces. At times you will feel as if you've wandered into a dustbowl village where you're not meant to be”. MARINA’s Princess of Power has aspects of The Dreaming in it. MARINA's 2010 single, Mowgli's Road, borrows heavily from The Dreaming. However, I also think that she retains that fascination with the 1982 album. Princess of Power is one of this year’s best albums.
The genre-bending and experimental nature of Kate Bush that ROSALÍA admire, I feel, is personified by LUX and its brilliance. An album that is a complete shift from came before, again, here is an artist pushing boundaries and doing this incredible left (or right?) turn. Operatic and dramatic but also light, I have previous written about how I feel LUX is influenced by The Dreaming. Again, there is madness, eccentricity, experimentation and real groundbreaking stuff that seems so alien to the modern landscape. LUX has shades of The Dreaming and what Kate Bush was doing, even if the two artists plough their own furrow and have different lyrical perspectives and characteristics. That said, there are some takeaways from reviews where these words could apply to 1982’s The Dreaming. This from Pitchfork: “It’s not a dopamine machine like MOTOMAMI, but it rewards listeners who ache for more from pop artists: more feeling, more risk…Rosalía’s voice remains at its centre. With her as its lodestar, LUX advances like a crusade to conquer the mysteries of human existence”. The Guardian discusses the fact LUX is not like the algorithmic-driven Pop of today. More conventional and commercial, ROSALÍA, they say, is asking a lot from her fans. How she has radically changed between albums. Her past three albums are all different and this is her biggest to date. That is also true when we think of The Dreaming and look back on Never for Ever and Lionheart (1978). These words make me think of The Dreaming: “So Lux demands the listener abandon preconceptions and submit themselves to its author’s way of doing things. There’s no question that this is quite a big ask”. Granted, LUX is a much longer album than The Dreaming and it celebrates female saints and has a specific dynamic. The Dreaming is tighter and broader in terms of its lyrics. These words from NME seem ready-made for The Dreaming and what was being said about Kate Bush at that time: “But give it what it demands, and it will reward you many times over. It is an astonishing record – one that continuously stops you dead in your tracks, encourages curiosity, and builds a new world for you to dive into, while connecting to the sounds of all of Rosalía’s previous releases. “The more we are in the era of dopamine, the more I want the opposite,” she recently told the New York Times’ Popcast podcast. This album reinforces that – there are no easy hits or quick highs, no addictive loops to get trapped in, and it’s all the more divine for it”.
Rolling Stone UK talk about the “lyrically opaque” nature of LUX. How “Lux isn’t a record that’s bogged down in its own seriousness despite its grandeur and scale”. These The Dreaming-esque sentiments: “Though the release of Lux is undoubtedly an anti-commercial move on Rosalía’s part…”; “Considering the hours she must have put in on Duolingo, lending a close, curious ear to the most unique album of the year – the anti-easy listening – is the least we could do”. Its also the work rate of ROSALÍA and how intensely she worked on the album. How grand and detailed it is compared to her extraordinary work previously. This seems like Kate Bush’s mindset and life producing The Dreaming. I think about the operatic and unorthodox on The Dreaming. How different it was to her female peers in 1982. ROSALÍA standing very much on her own when it comes to taking risks and the sounds she employs. If Bush’s The Dreaming was forward-thinking in terms of the production or it being very uncommercial compared to other female Pop artists, LUX is forward-looking because it is the antithesis to the streaming Pop: the quick and easy-to-understand and absorb songs. How so much modern Pop s unchallenging and geared to the lowest level of concentration. LUX demands attention and damns any commercial gain in favour of truth, depth and something truly important. Again, I think of The Dreaminmg. For this reason, and for everything I have written above, I feel The Dreaming is the most influential Kate Bush album of this year. One that I feel will shape and inform the best musical moments…
WE hear next year.