Kate Bush

What can I say about Kate Bush that hasn’t been said? She is one of a kind.

She first came to my ear with her Hounds of Love album in 1985. “Running Up That Hill” was a monster hit back then and I rushed out and bought the album.

Man, what an album. “Cloudbusting” was a great song and it had a great video, featuring Donald Sutherland. I also love the title song, “The Big Sky”, and “Under Ice”.

Over the next few months, I picked up her back catalog from used record stores around Fredericton. I loved.. most of them.

Her debut album, The Kick Inside (1978), is a wonderful album (“Wuthering Heights” was the standout hit). Lionheart was a worthy sophomoric sequel, with my favourite being the awkwardly named “Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake”.

Then there was what I call her “weird era”, with Never For Ever and The Dreaming. She had some very strange songs, like “Sat In Your Lap”. I didn’t care for most of the songs at the time, but I have grown to appreciate them more over the years. Most people of my age do know “Babooshka”.

I remember buying her EP, “Kate Bush”, from a record store on Queen Street in Fredericton. An EP, for those not from the vinyl era, stands for Extended Play and is a record with more songs than a single (2) but less than a full album.

Kate’s albums continued coming out every few years, with The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) yielding some great tunes.

Then… nothing.

I guess she retired from music. Wikipedia says she stepped away to focus on raising her son Bertie. Good for her.

Finally she returned in 2005 with Aerial, a complex and beautiful album. 2011’s 50 Words for Snow was a lovely and comfortable album. Both were unmistakably Kate albums and to date those are her most recent studio albums.

“Running Up That Hill” reached a whole new audience in 2022 when it was featured on the hit show “Stranger Things”. I love it when older music is rediscovered.

For me, Kate Bush was the gateway to a bevy of female artists like Sarah McLachlan, Melissa Etheridge and many more. She will always be first in my heart.