A detailed account of one of Kate Bush's best albums. It starts with Kate's career before said album and leads to track by track information. A good read for any Kate Bush fans. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for this review ARC

Fab generalisation of Kate Bush's album and bits of her music - technicalities, style, and so forth. I do only have conflicted feelings about it all due to a subjective view and reaction to the writing. It wasn't really what I look for - and it certainly differed from my better experiences of publications from the 33 1/3 series. Felt overly academic for my liking. Regardless, a worthy read for any Kate Bush fans.

📚 Book Review 📚

Hounds of Love is one of the most influential albums of all time and as a big Kate Bush fan, I was really interested to read this.

It gives a great deal of background information of Kate Bush initially and then examines each track on the record; discussing musicians, production and influences. It reads like an academic piece of writing and is full of information.

It’s interesting, captivating and makes the reader appreciate the genius of the musician as well as her fantastic influence on music that has followed. Great read 😃

I’d like to thank Bloomsbury Academic, NetGalley and the author for the arc and the fantastic opportunity, in exchange for my honest feedback 😊

Book released on 14th November 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An excellently researched and detailed addition to the series; this time for Kate Bush fans,
I appreciate the concept of this series plenty, and this is as comprehensive as a book about an album can get.
My only constructive criticism is about the design/layout (the structure of the information is good) and the lack of relevant photos and illustrations.
Hi Björk.

Hounds Of Love is far and away my favourite album to get a 33 1/3, so maybe I was always going to be tough to please, but I don't think it was unreasonable to let out an exasperated 'Ha!' when Kardos tells us "I won't waste the precious word count of this tiny book rehashing facts and details that are common knowledge." Not because there's any problem with the sentiment itself, but because it comes 10% of the way in, after she's already recapped Kate Bush's many achievements, with a particularly detailed section on her chart success in 2022 - and, just for good measure, a more general reminder about 2022 as a whole. Even if we take it as a promise and a pulling up of the authorial socks, it's promptly followed by a career timeline! And once that's out of the way, we're still not on to Hounds Of Love, instead tracing Bush's recording career through the preceding albums. Which, to be fair, is a viable lens through which to get there - her unhappiness at working in a rush on Lionheart, her increasing confidence in the studio, The Dreaming as Hounds' John the Baptist; it's just the preceding throat-clearing which lends an edge of frustration that we're still not at the masterpiece we came for by the quarter-way mark. And then, at the other end of the book, the final chapter on the album's legacy drowns a solid point (it made it much easier for musicians other than stereotypical male studio wizards to follow where their creativity was calling) is drowned in a list of acts who've referenced the album in interviews or covered songs from it - a list which, to add insult to injury, doesn't even include the best cover (Swimmer One's Cloudbusting).

But in between, when Kardos is genuinely focused on Hounds Of Love, it's a different story. There's a bunch of the sort of production details and formal musical stuff whose presence in a 33 1/3 I fully respect, but usually can't altogether follow - except unlike some of the writers, Kardos always ties it back to something I do find illuminating: I could more readily tell you what songs the sirens sang than tell a minor 7th from a minor 6th, but anchor that in the observation that musically Running Up That Hill is "Less of a flowing arc and more of a polygon shape" and it means something to me. There are similarly insightful details about the musical and lyrical motifs which run through each side of this most bicameral album, but also between them. There's a fact about the Running Up That Hill video which I'd never known, but makes perfect sense; there are quotes from Kate herself which I'd not seen and which not only make sense of the album but serve as valuable reminders that she's a wonderfully down to earth sort of genius: "It's not about wanting the Hounds of Love to catch you and tear you apart. That's what you think they're going to do. But they might want to catch you and lick you and play". Sure, I might quibble with the description of Wilhelm Reich as "one of the twentieth century's most controversial figures" - divisive among those aware of him, sure, but is he really up there with Lenin or Thatcher? Still, that's a rare misstep in a remarkably perceptive piece of writing about one of the all-time great albums.

There's also a chapter on the 2014 Before The Dawn shows in Hammersmith, which I suppose I could have taken as more mission creep, but which given how heavily they drew on Hounds Of Love - in particular with the full staging of The Ninth Wave, something Kate had been talking about since soon after the album came out - does feel like it belongs here. Although either Kardos is being very polite, or she's the only person I've seen express an opinion who genuinely engaged with Bertie's song, Tawny Moon, rather than regarding it as an interruption to be politely endured while his mum had a well-earned breather.

(Netgalley ARC)

I've read quite a few of the 33 1/3 series focusing on specific albums and Leah Kardos' study of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love is one of the best. Partly this is because of the strength of its subject matter (although part of me would have like her to have focused on The Dreaming where, as Kardos makes clear, so many of the ideas perfected in Hounds were first tried more messily) and partly because of the quality of Kardos' writing. She is particularly strong on technical musical analysis, albeit to the point of obscurity in some places - it's fine to tell us why 'The Big Sky' has a mixolydian flavour, for example, but it would be more interesting to hear her speculate more on what that adds to the song beyond increasing its intensification.. She's less strong on the lyrics or on the narrative holding what was originally the second side of the record together - the comment in relation to The Ninth Wave that its location in the ocean reflects "allegorical fiction such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick" doesn't really tell us anything about the music or the novel. The academic in me would also have liked her to have explained where the confident discussions of the things like the use of the Fairlight preset TRAMCHLO were derived from. (How does she know?) However, these are relatively minor points and on balance the book will add to, rather than take away from, your enjoyment of Hounds of Love and give the majority of us who couldn't be there a good sense of the Before the Dawn concerts An impressive achievement.

The Hounds of Love is undeniable classic album and now joins the illustrious list of the 33.1/3 collection.
Leah Kardos’ research and analytical exploration of this incredible album is meticulous ; highlighting key elements of Kate Bush’s incredible career but ultimately shining the light even further on her role as a pioneer -breaking down barriers to ensure women can take control of their decisions within the patriarchal music industry.

The key focus of this book is to explore the Hounds of Love; track by track exploring the composition and the layers of depth and creativity; unpicking the lyrics ; identifying the musicianship but ultimately providing further acknowledgement to one of the most influential and important albums of the 1980s if not ever ..

This is certainly a great book for long standing fans ( at times it reads like an academic dissertation- that’s not negative as it shows the depth of love for the album and artist ) but this is a great read for new fans who have discovered Kate Bush’ genius in recent times

Fascinating, informative and adding a new understanding and appreciation for an incredible album