Album dossier / 1985

Hounds of Love

Kate Bush · Art Pop

Written and recorded largely in the 48-track home studio Kate Bush built in a converted barn at her family's East Wickham Farm -- a deliberate escape from the £90-an-hour pressure of Abbey Road and her prior labels' oversight. Longtime engineer and partner Del Palmer led the sessions alongside engineer Brian Tench and James Guthrie (of Pink Floyd's The Wall), with Bush composing much of the record on her Fairlight CMI sampler and using demos as the actual masters rather than re-recording them, since she felt re-tracking always lost the original spontaneity. Bush has described building the studio as 'the best decision I ever made,' giving her full creative and production control for the first time.