What's your favorite Kate Bush record?

[Equipoise]

Represent!

[Equipoise]

Ooops, forgot to put a year in for the Kate Bush EP. It was released in 1983.

The Kick Inside (1978)
Lionheart (1978)
Never for Ever (1980)
The Dreaming (1982)
Hounds of Love (1985)
The Whole Story (compilation) (1986)
The Sensual World (1989)
The Red Shoes (1993)
Aerial (2005)


On Stage (1979)
Kate Bush EP (1983) (US and Canada only)
Live at Hammersmith Odeon (1978/1994)

I put those 3 in because they were official releases.

My favorite album by her is The Dreaming. It's my favorite album by anybody. Ever. It's my Desert Island album, if I could only pick one.

[multimediac17]

Oh FINALLY! A non-Beatles poll I can take a proper interest in!

Kate Bush is among my four all-time favourite artists (alongside Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince), and Hounds Of Love is my favourite of her albums and my number one favourite album of all time.

I recently completed a blog project in which I listed and wrote mini-essays on my 1001 favourite songs of all time, and Hounds Of Love was the only album to have every single song from it in the list (the link is on my profile if anybody is interested - be warned, ramblings). It is, basically, the most perfect record I have ever heard.

The Dreaming is a close second among Kate's studio albums (it is also a 100% perfect record), followed by Aerial, The Sensual World, The Kick Inside, The Red Shoes, Lionheart and Never For Ever in that order. Even the least amazing Kate Bush album is a classic.

In conclusion, I fucking love Kate Bush.

[jjimm]

Bugger, didn't realise you could have more than one choice. I voted for The Kick Inside but wanted to add Hounds of Love too.

[Lust4Life]

My favourite is the obvious Wuthering Heights , never listened to her albums.

[don't ask]

Very tricky choice.

The Kick Inside was a fantastic debut by a 19 year old. Her next three albums are far lesser works. Hounds of Love was a return to form and then she disappeared for a few years. Then she released The Sensual World which probably has more good tracks than any other album. But I have a real soft spot for Aerial. I had all but forgotten her in terms of producing new music but in lots of ways it surpasses her earlier stuff.

[mack]

My favorite is Hounds of Love. I bought the cassette just before leaving to deliver a friend's pickup truck from NJ to a dock in Oakland, CA. I took 3 weeks to make the trip and listened to Hounds several times a day. My favorites off it are Watching you without Me and The Morning Fog - one of the great album-enders IMO.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Originally Posted by jjimm

Bugger, didn't realise you could have more than one choice.

Can you? I missed that too. I gave it to Hounds of Love because the "Ninth Wave" suite is so mind-blowingly brilliant, even if The Dreaming is a more consistently great album. The Kick Inside would be third.

[gaffa]

I don't have any children, so I can't compare choosing a favorite Kate Bush album is like asking me to choose a favorite child.

But I do have nieces. And I can choose a favorite niece. And I definitely like Shelby better than Ashlee, if only because Shelby's boyfriend is not a racist idiot.

The Dreaming is Kate's greatest album, while The Ninth Wave side of The Hounds of Love is Kate's greatest creation. But I find myself listening to A Sky of Honey, the second disc of Aerial more often than anything else. And it is a nearly unique musical creation - a "concept album" about peace, contentment and joy. From what I understand, it is harder to write about, or at least write compellingly about, being happy. People tend to view it as less worthy than misery. A Sky of Honey is Kate's answer to The Ninth Wave, a song cycle of joy and middle-aged contentment answering the fear and confusion (though ultimate redemption) expressed in the earlier work.

[Toxylon]

I voted for The Dreaming (didn't realize the multi-choice app). It is not a perfect record (an outside producer might've made it so), but it is amazingly full of truly genious moments. Easily enough creative, original hooks to make two great Prog albums. It just doesn't get old.

Being a sucker for dramatic, '70's Art Rock With Intricate Arrangements for All Instruments, I've never gotten into Hounds of Love. The synth bass lines are so boring!

The Sensual World is an amazing album, arguably the best bunch of songs Kate ever did. I'd rate Never for Ever third, despite it's not-so-great cuts among the super-classics. A Kick Inside is as good, I think; Wuthering Heights made me go temporarily insane at age 15, upon first exposure. Red Shoes is not very good (although Moments of Pleasure is awesome), and Lionheart is easily the weakest album by her. (I'm reading Under the Ivy right now and it seems she agrees).

[Lobsang]

I voted for the only one I am really aware of. And I had to search it on my ipod to put a name to it - Hounds of Love.

It's quite possible there's another one I like better, but this one is the most obvious to me and I do like it.

[Equipoise]

Originally Posted by jjimm

Bugger, didn't realise you could have more than one choice..

I originally made it multiple choice, but then regretted it after posting because it goes against the intent to choose your ONE favorite album, so I didn't call attention to it in the OP.

[DaveRaver]

When's the Happy Rhodes survey?

[Equipoise]

A poll isn't much of a poll when there are only 2 people voting.

[Fried Dough Ho]

Another who didn't realize you could vote for more than one so I started with Hounds of Love (duh) but my close second would be Sensual World.

Been a fan for years and lamented she hasn't produced more since she got married and had a child...

[gaffa]

Originally Posted by Fried Dough Ho

Been a fan for years and lamented she hasn't produced more since she got married and had a child...

Technically speaking, we don't know that she got married. She is that private. She did appear to be wearing a ring on her left "ring" finger when she arrived to Buckingham Palace for a royal to-do, but she has never confirmed marrying Bertie's father.

[Equipoise]

Originally Posted by gaffa

Technically speaking, we don't know that she got married. She is that private. She did appear to be wearing a ring on her left "ring" finger when she arrived to Buckingham Palace for a royal to-do, but she has never confirmed marrying Bertie's father.

Hell, ardent, wired-in fans didn't even know she had a kid until he was, what, 2 years old or so?

Originally Posted by Toxylon

Wuthering Heights made me go temporarily insane at age 15, upon first exposure.

Same here. "Wuthering Heights" turned my world upside down, and completely changed it. I'd probably be living in some trailer park in Boondocks, Kansas, with no net access, and without any of the things that make my life better (my husband, Happy) if not for that song.

[Equipoise]

*High-fives Le Ministre de l'au-delà, Taomist, and Toxylon!*

[weezimp]

Did you deliberately omit from the poll the 2 rarities discs from This Woman's Work? Not sure I'd have voted them faves, but there's some good stuff on there.

[Equipoise]

Not deliberately, but I should have put them on. I think of them as part of the Box Set, which we own on both LP and CD, and not on their own. Blame Wikipedia. As truly great as the Kate Bush page is, they weren't listed separately on the discography page, which is where I was copying and pasting from. I didn't scroll down past the Singles, or else I might have put the Box Set(s) in the poll. That would be cheating though. I certainly would have voted for the This Woman's Work Box Set!

[One Swell FlooP]

There's no way I can pick only one favorite! But I guess I can say there's a tie between Hounds of Love and Aerial, so since the OP preferred a single pick, I picked Aerial to give it a bump. I'd say Lionheart is her weakest album, and of course, even that one is great! After that, everything else, even all her b-sides and rarities, are just awesome!

[cantara]

Couldn't choose just one...just couldn't.

A Sky of Honey is beautiful
The Ninth Wave is wonderful
The Dreaming is fantastic

Of course the others are as well, but those simply stand out for me.

I've been indoctrinating my 9 year olds with Kates music. They are partial to Aerial, but are familiar with other songs.




(We even drove by her house near Reading this summer)