Weekly Album: Week of 05/07 - 05/13 - Hounds of Love

I was supposed to listen to Hounds of Love by Kate Bush during the week of May 7th to May 13th, but I didn't. So this week I listened to it instead. If my memory serves me correctly, this album was recommended to me by a friend. I've said before in some previous reviews that I've always had a soft spot for 80s Synthpop and similar styles, so I was actually rather excited to listen to this album going in. For the first half of it, however, I was extremely confused. The first five tracks on the album, which are considered part of the "Hounds of Love" suite are these long pop songs in which nothing happens musically. All of those songs have nearly the same chords and the same instrumental (per song, they don't all have the same instrumental) going the entire time underneath them while Kate Bush sings. It makes for extremely uninteresting music and is not what I was hoping for at all. These songs are saved from being truly and utterly boring by the fact that Kate Bush has a nice voice and can write good melodies. It does not help that these songs are rather long for Pop songs, as none of those five tracks are under 3 minutes in length. I love repetitive and long songs, but they need to do that with a purpose.

This all changes once I reached the second suite on the album, entitled "The Ninth Wave". While there is still a lot of repetition in the songs the instrumentals are actually interesting and fit that style! Kate Bush also gets weird and progressive with it in this suite which I really love. All of the songs in this suite sound so much more unique and refreshing compared to the first one. Each songs stands apart from the others in sound and mood. The songs , "Under Ice" and, "Watching You Without Me" almost feel like pieces of Kosmische Musik from Germany in the 70s with the way they repeat. Kate Bush's vocals also don't falter at all during this suite, so all of this combined creates some really nice Progressive-Pop that I actually enjoyed. I'd make a deal with god for the first suite to be as good as the second. 7.5/10