Thanks to that Netflix show Stranger Things, Kate Bush is enjoying a renaissance with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) storming up the charts. Her 1986 album, Hounds of Love, from which the song is taken, remains a masterpiece. It is, in my opinion, her best work.

You don’t wanna hurt me, but see how deep the bullet lies, unaware, I’m tearing you asunder. Oh, there is thunder in our hearts.

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

The Conversation says:

In Hounds of Love, Bush’s extraordinary vocal performances are the musical equivalent of speaking in tongues. It might not be a perfect album, but there are few more thrilling, literate, and ambitious works of popular music. It is hard not to be spellbound by it.

Pitchfork says:

Hounds of Love proved there were no compositional mountains Bush couldn’t climb. While the second side asserted her vanguard bent, the first side yielded four UK Top 40 hits. Neither synth-pop nor prog-rock, Hounds of Love nevertheless drew from both with double-platinum rewards on her home turf, and yielded her first U.S. hits, even without a tour. And its idiosyncrasies have only fueled Hounds’ lingering influence: Florence and the Machine cribs its Gothic angst. Anohni mirrors its animal divinity. St. Vincent draws from its sexual politics and sonic precision. Utah Saints sampled it and the Futureheads covered it, both with UK Top 10 results. Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound” goes so far as to paraphrase “Running”’s rhythm, chords, climax, and highland imagery. It’s the Sgt. Pepper of the digital age’s dawn; a milestone in penetratingly fanciful pop.

Take my shoes off and throw them in the lake; and I’ll be two steps on the water.

Hounds of Love

Rolling Stone says:

Following the disappointing performance of her 4th album, ‘The Dreaming,’ Bush built a 24-track studio in barn behind her family home, where she proceeded to record demos for the follow up, ‘Hounds Of Love.’ Deciding that she liked the demos so much, Bush chose not to re-record them, but rather enhanced them by adding performances by live musicians in amongst her synth music. ‘Hounds Of Love’ is a concept record of sorts, an LP of two suites; Side 1 ‘Hounds Of Love,’ Side 2 ‘The Ninth Wave,’ about a woman drifting alone in the sea at night.

You’re like my yo-yo that glowed in the dark, what made it special made it dangerous,
So I bury it and forget

Cloudbusting

Stranger Things is not the first TV show to use Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God). It was used as the theme song for the 1986 kids’ TV drama Running Scared. I was twelve years old then and I remember watching this! In fact, this is what I associate this song with; a gripping children’s thriller.

Later on, in 1992, Utah Saints sampled Cloudbusting on their single Something Good.

I’m excited for all those people out there who have yet to hear the Hounds of Love album; they’re in for a treat. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is just the beginning…