Kate Bush Albums Ranked

Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single “Wuthering Heights”, becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”, “Babooshka”, “Running Up That Hill”, “Don’t Give Up” (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and “King of the Mountain”. All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, including the UK number one albums Never for Ever (1980), Hounds of Love (1985) and the compilation The Whole Story (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist to enter the album chart at number one. Here are all of Kate Bush albums ranked.

Don’t miss out on the memorable music of Kate Bush below! Click to enjoy the songs from her solo career!

10. The Whole Story 

“It’s as good a single disc compilation of Kate’s huts through 1986 could be. Experiment IV is a great new song and the re recorded Wuthering Heights may lack the pure magic of the original buy its honestly really nice on its own (especially the vocals near the very end).”

9. The Red Shoes 

“The Red Shoes took me ages to appreciate. The production sounds quite thin every now and then but there is much to be found in the vocals and especially the lyrics. They’ve never been this direct, writing more from her own state of mind instead of choosing a character. The remaster from Director’s Cut is something you should check out because the sound is so much better compared to the original album.”

8. Lionheart 

“Lionheart is not quite as great as her debut album The Kick Inside, but there’s no weak track on the album either. It’s incredibly well-written, the lyrics are often very great, and it’s at the same time quirky and natural. Nothing on Lionheart is as good as Wuthering Heights, but tracks like Wow or Fullhouse are still outstanding, and the whole album is even more impressive considering she was only 20 years old when it came out, and she had written some of the tracks much earlier.”

7. 50 Words For Snow 

“Out of all of Kate Bush’s albums, this is her at her most distant and airy. She definitely lets the tracks breathe and allow them to build space, which is why, despite only 7 tracks, this thing still runs over an hour. That might be a turn off for some, but it really works for me.”

6. Never For Ever 

“This album is very pleasing to listen to, sonically it’s like you are in a fairy tale. Songwriting is amazing too, especially on Army Dreaming. However some songs were questionable – that being infant kiss as the lyrical content is quite uncomfortable and Darius, I did not understand the need to add the male voice to the song.”

5. The Sensual World 

“The Sensual World is Hounds of Love’s mature, slightly less imaginative sister that you could have very well dated had you not met Hounds first. Every time H falls asleep you always find yourself engaged in late-night conversations with S that are nothing short of profound and thought-provoking. As time escapes you, you develop a tiny, guilty crush on her.”

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4. Aerial 

“Aerial is the aural equivalent of a Virginia Woolf novel. Read Mrs. Dalloway or The Waves or To the Lighthouse and then listen to this. It has the same clean, airy feel. The same stream of consciousness domesticity. The same feminine strength. The same slow passage of time. The same daring masked behind stillness. It’s an album I’ve always liked but it honestly just gets better and better as the years pass.”

3. The Kick Inside 

“At just 19 years old, Kate Bush managed to release a debut album that contains more intelligence and maturity than works by some artists twice her age. Her elegant melodies and poetic lyricism transcend the standard late 70s pop-rock production, helped by complex compositions that stand out amongst the other pop songs of the time.”

2. The Dreaming 

“This album is very varied in its style and very theatrical in places. It is not an album for a laid back, comfortable listen – it’s very challenging. Perhaps therein lies the appeal, it doesn’t matter how many times you listen to this set, different sounds and ideas seem to fade in and out. And the lyrics, well they are extremely interesting and eccentric.”

1. Hounds Of Love 

“Hounds of Love is pretty much the perfect Pop album, it’s everything I want from my Pop. Accessible and catchy, without being one dimensional or uninteresting. Kate Bush’s artistry and songwriting ability reaches its peak here, it’s of course her most famous album, and it’s the first album I’d heard form her and I’ve not heard anything from her to change my mind that this is her best.”