Premier Rock Forum

Last summer, we spent two weeks in Scotland, and because of Stranger Things, we (not surprisingly) heard “Running Up That Hill” at least once a day.

I never cared for Kate Bush the first time around, but something clicked with that song this time. I guess I’d never noticed how strange it is. It’s amazing that it became a hit once, let alone twice. But it’s so beguiling and private, or maybe beguiling because it’s private, that it just draws you in.

Most of her stuff doesn’t do much for me, and a not-small amount of it is irritating. But, shit, “Big Sky”? “Experiment IV”? Is there more of her stuff like that? Because now I want to hear it.

Easy NC. Her dad was my first doctor, a very good and kind one according to my parents.

I don’t know her work that well, aside from the obvious, and her appearances on Peter Gabriel songs. I feel it’s enough to give her a NC.

Hounds of Love is pretty strong all the way through, and there are good (if eccentric) songs from all eras. NC music, Crap that she seems to be a tory (edit: er, maybe not).

Hounds of Love is awesome.

NC

I remember Lydon saying that The Dreaming LP was a bit of an influence on PIL's Flowers OF Romance. It's definitely the one where she started getting full-time weird with a Fairlight. I like a good portion of her stuff quite a lot. The Breathing single was always a favorite...a nuclear apocalypse song from the POV of an unborn baby in its mother's womb. Pretty out there.

NC

I liked Hounds and then Sensual World when they came out. Nothing else clicked.

In the last eight or ten years, I've bought everything. Like, I have box sets.

She is terrific. Unique.

Never tries to accommodate her audience. Purely female energy, no sops to masculine tropes.

The absurdity and floridity of much of her work is an important part of what makes it great.

I love the Hounds of Love album, especially the title track. None of the other albums have grabbed me yet, but I come back now and then because I suspect one will click at some point.

Something about her music just hits the emotions. She's clearly a super-intuitive person. Like that Cloudbusting song, I have no idea what it's about but it creates such an engaging, emotional atmosphere. The whole Hounds of Love album is like that. It should sound dated with all the synths and reverb, but it's not an 80s type new wave thing. It sounds just as fresh today.

consistently has that quality of 'this is the truest version of itself it could be'. daring musical choices from one end of her catalogue to the other: where the fuck does 'sat in your lap' or 'pi' come from?

impeccable at landing her own lyrics. the specific way she places "you never understood me" and then "never really tried" in an aside in 'The Big Sky' makes me resolve to be a better partner every time i hear it.

everyone had something to say about the laundry song on Aerial when it came out. i think in part because it's a couple tracks away from the song about scattering her mother's ashes, of which nothing can be said.

took big risks to be true to her vision. most of them paid off.