HOUNDS OF LOVE

With a large amount of full rates, Hounds of Love should be near the top in Prog- Related top100. For the very first time I'm paying some attention to those rank lists as I rate an album. But as mitigating circumstances I point out that my review is only the 9th this far. I wish this site was more equal what comes to number of reviews...

I see some analogy between this album and Peter Gabriel's So: both are succesful works mixing hits and arty stuff - but there's no question which one is the winner in the depth and uniqueness. Also the hit singles here are better than the two funky stinkers on So. 'Running Up That Hill' was undoubtedly overplayed at the time, but boy, it really IS catchy and effective in a delicious way. Frankly, I don't like 'Big Sky' (nor the title track) very much. They aren't bad songs at all, but on the Kate Bush scale... let's say they are less interesting. 'Cloudbusting' is quite monotonous on the surface but a hell of an art-pop song. I think even without ever seeing the gorgeous story-like video, the song would give me goosebumps as it floods powerfully to its climax. One more track on the first side, 'Mother Stands for Comfort', seen by some as a lesser part of the album, but I'm quite fond of it. Sound effect of breaking vessels maybe gets repeated too much. BTW, this is the ultimate Fairlight track.

The second side is among the finest of all popular music. Beats 'Supper's Ready' anytime for me! 'The Ninth Wave' is a suite of six songs that can be listened as independent tracks too, but they form an entity which is more than the sum of its parts, to use that worn-out cliché. Ghost Rider interprets (or is acknowledged of KB's intentions?) it as a narrative of a dying ice-trapped woman and her memories. Could be, though I actually never have tried to interpret it that thoroughly. I just have been carried away by the mesmerizing beauty of this music and the inner images raised by it.

I also have a memory linked to 'Under Ice': I once skated on the lake of my ex- hometown on a moonlit winter evening, playing that track on my mind. And actually there's another strong memory of listening this suite: that was in our bygone summer cottage in a bleak autumn or winter night. Especially the man's manic monologue at the end of 'Jig of Life' and the starting of Hello Earth', which was one of my dearest pieces of music. (If it fails to touch me as I grow older I begin to worry losing some sensitivity.) How many of you have noticed that the male choir on 'Hello Earth' is taken from b/w classic film Nosferatu?

There's a bright ending to this album, 'Morning Fog', on which the guitar of John Williams is fresh like a morning dew. I don't dare say this is a 100% perfect album, but it surely touches high Heavens.