Kate Bush: Hounds of Love

FEW WOMEN HAVE expanded the vocabulary of rock as bewitchingly as Kate Bush; among male stars, only Prince may have taken as many risks. Hounds saw Bush reining in the kookier aspects of The Dreaming, channelling them into epic electro-pop that tackled big issues of life and death and God with gripping drama and intensity. ‘Running Up That Hill’ was one of the great singles of the '80s; ‘Cloudbusting’ was string-driven, magically pretty; ‘Jig of Life’ showed that Bush is one of the few pop artists who can flirt with Celtic mysticism without sounding twee or trite. Forget the riot grrrls: Bush was the real thing.