Every Kate Bush album definitively ranked – from the superfluous to the extraordinary

There are few artists who evoke as much curiosity as Kate Bush.

Since she burst onto the scene in 1978, she’s released just 10 studio albums – and half of those were released in the first seven years of her career.

A notorious perfectionist, Kate Bush’s releases have become more and more sporadic as the years have rolled by. Since she released Hounds of Love in 1985, the gaps between albums have become bigger and bigger. 

With Bush, it’s quality over quantity. She’s never been one to chase trends or chart success – instead, she’s carefully crafted her own songs and albums, each one revealing less about the artist behind them than the last. 

Now that she’s got a whole new legion of fans thanks to Stranger Things, PinkNews has taken on the impossible task of ranking all of her albums, from her debut The Kick Inside to her latest wintery album 50 Words for Snow. 

10. Director’s Cut (2011)

It won’t come as a surprise to many Bush fans that Director’s Cut, her 2011 re-recording of songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, is bottom of the list.

Bush was apparently unhappy with how some of the songs that ended up on those two albums turned out, so she decided to revisit them. The tracks that come out the best are those from The Red Shoes, but stripped-back versions of songs like “This Woman’s Work” and “Moments of Pleasure” were never going to replace the originals. 

The obvious standout is “Flower of the Mountain”, where Bush finally gets to sing the song originally known as “The Sensual World” as she always intended – using James Joyce’s words from Ulysses.

9. Lionheart (1978)

It’s a testament to Bush’s talent that even her worst album of original songs still has a lot of merit.

Lionheart was rushed out just nine months after her debut The Kick Inside in a desperate bid to capitalise on Bush’s early success. It’s largely made up of songs that didn’t make the cut for her debut.

Some of those songs are pop perfection, and they point to Bush’s more transgressive leanings. On “Symphony in Blue”, she sings about finding purpose in life through sex. On “Wow”, she throws in a sly nod to gay sex, and on “Kashka from Baghdad” she sings about a gay couple “living in sin”.

The album also features some of her worst songs: “In Search of Peter Pan” and “Oh England My Lionheart” are low points in her back catalogue. Good songs are aplenty, but there’s no denying Lionheart is Bush’s least interesting album. Everything she did well here, she did better elsewhere. 

8. 50 Words for Snow (2011)

It hurts a little to put 50 Words for Snow this far down our ranking, but its placing says more about the strength of Bush’s other work than anything else.

50 Words for Snow remains Bush’s last album of original material. Released 11 years ago, it’s a concept album rooted in wintery stories of love, heartbreak, and transcendental sex with snowmen.

If you thought Lana Del Rey invented the sprawling, sparse song, then think again, this seven-track album’s running time is one hour and five minutes, with the longest track, “Misty”, running more than 13 minutes in length.

50 Words for Snow is an album that celebrates Bush as a storyteller. Here, her unusual tales are given a chance to shine with sparse production. It’s helped along by a decidedly beautiful duet with Elton John.

It’s a gorgeous affair, but the title track – which features Stephen Fry chanting made-up words for snow – is a low point, and the visuals accompanying the album were something of a letdown (the album artwork left a lot to be desired).

7. The Red Shoes (1993)

Kate Bush released The Red Shoes at the tail end of her imperial phase, and the reaction was not kind. Fans and critics alike were disappointed, for the first time, it felt like Bush was following trends rather than setting them.

Despite that, there’s a lot of love for The Red Shoes. It’s always a treat to hear Bush having so much fun on “Rubberband Girl”, while songs like “Top of the City” gave her the chance to show off her vocal prowess in a new way. 

One of the standouts is “Moments of Pleasure”, a song that is sure to make you sob. It’s a soaring ballad that touches on love and loss and was written after Bush endured a number of bereavements. 

While The Red Shoes was a little dated on arrival and suffered from some clunky production choices, it’s also got a special place in the hearts of many Kate Bush fans.

6. Never for Ever (1980)

Never for Ever was the album that saw Bush co-produce her own work for the first time and the result is something to behold. 

“Babooshka” remains one of Bush’s best pop songs, and tracks like “The Wedding List” and “The Infant Kiss” prove that Bush is one of the great musical storytellers of her generation.

Perhaps the standout from Never for Ever is “Breathing”, the album’s closing track. It’s a five-minute-long song written from the perspective of a foetus in the womb in the midst of a nuclear fallout. It’s a powerful and undeniably political song that showed how adept Bush was at seeing the world from any and all perspectives. 

Never for Ever is far from perfect. “Egypt” is a low point – but more than anything, it showed the world what Bush was capable of, and it paved the way for her to create some of her most provocative work in the years ahead.

5. The Sensual World (1989)

On The Sensual World, Bush no longer needed to prove she deserved a seat at the table.

That album, released in 1989, was her sixth studio album, and it was her first released in her thirties. The sounds are more mature, and the whole affair is more understated than the drama of her earlier works.

The Sensual World might have less drama, but it’s still one of Bush’s most accomplished albums. 

On “Heads We’re Dancing”, Bush’s character sings about dancing with a charming man only to later discover that he was Adolf Hitler, while on “Deeper Understanding”, her character develops an unhealthy relationship with a computer.

The Sensual World showed the world an artist who was less and less concerned with what the music industry, and what the public, wanted from her. 

4. Aerial (2005)

If Kate Bush ever had a comeback album, Aerial was it.

Released in 2005 after a 12-year break from the music industry, the anticipation surrounding Aerial was next level, and some feared Bush was setting herself up for a fall.

Thankfully, Bush didn’t disappoint. Aerial is a double album with two very different sides: one is made up of tracks about numbers, “Elvis” and “Joan of Arc”. The other is a concept album that charts the trajectory of a summer’s day from beginning to end.

Aerial represented something of a reinvention for Bush, it showed just how far removed she had become from contemporary trends, and it proved her instincts were just as sharp as ever.

The standout is the second half of the double album, but there are also some powerful moments in the first half. “A Coral Room” is a crushingly sad song about the death of Bush’s mother, and if it doesn’t tear at your heartstrings you must be made of stone. 

3. The Kick Inside (1978)

Coming in at number three is Kate Bush’s debut album The Kick Inside.

There’s much to marvel at on The Kick Inside. Bush was just 19 when it was released, and the depth and complexity of her songwriting at such a young age still provokes wonder.

It’s the album that gave the world “Wuthering Heights”, a weird, wacky song that’s unlike anything that came before it or after it.

That’s not all The Kick Inside had to offer. The album introduced the world to a young woman whose vision was utterly unique. The title track riffs on an old folk tale and tells a story of a young woman who dies by suicide after becoming pregnant by her brother. On “L’Amour Looks Something Like You”, Bush sings about sex in a way that’s so graphic (“that feeling of sticky love inside”) that it wouldn’t be out of place on gay Twitter.

For a 19-year-old woman to release an album like The Kick Inside on a major label in the 1970s was an extraordinary feat. This album, and everything that came after it, helped pave the way for a whole generation of idiosyncratic singer-songwriters to forge their own paths.

2. The Dreaming (1982)

Years after its release, Bush described The Dreaming as her “I’ve gone mad” album, and it’s hard to argue with that.

The Dreaming marked Bush’s first time producing an album entirely by herself, and the result is an experience, to say the least. The record has so many layers that you’ll still hear new things years after that first listen. 

That’s both a good and a bad thing, of course. The Dreaming didn’t get the best reception from critics at the time, who were largely baffled. The album also yielded no hit singles, which put Bush in her label’s bad books.

Despite those challenges, The Dreaming has always had a cult following among Bush fans. Today, it continues to capture the attention of old and new fans alike for its complexity and imagination.

Highlights from The Dreaming include “Pull Out the Pin”, which touches on the Vietnam war, and “Get Out of My House”, a song sung from the perspective of The Overlook Hotel in The Shining (there’s also braying donkeys, in case you were wondering). 

1. Hounds of Love (1985)

What else could be number one? Hounds of Love is not only Bush’s best album, but it’s also one of the best albums ever recorded.

Hounds of Love was in some ways borne out of necessity. After The Dreaming in 1982 proved a commercial disappointment, Bush knew she had to come up with some hits. She retreated to a farmhouse in the countryside, built a state-of-the-art studio at her family home and got to work.

The result is an album of two halves. The first part is full of hits that also happen to be some of Bush’s all-time best songs. It’s home to “Running Up That Hill”, “Hounds of Love”, “The Big Sky” and “Cloudbusting”.

The second side – titled The Ninth Wave – is its own concept album about a woman lost at sea. Starting with “And Dream of Sheep”, the collection of seven songs charts the character’s desperation as she slips into fretful dreams in the water.

With Hounds of Love, Bush showed how technology, most of all the Fairlight CMI, enabled her to create soundscapes that she previously could never have dreamed of. It’s a masterful feat from an artist who has spent her entire career defying labels and expectations. 

A testament to its success is that Hounds of Love could just as easily have been released yesterday. It’s a timeless record, and it’s one that’s destined to delight and thrill all those who hear it for years to come.