Kate Bush – Hounds Of Love

This HMV version is a re-press of the 2018 Bernie Grundman cut https://www.discogs.com/release/12795892-Kate-Bush-Hounds-Of-Love . Other than the coloured vinyl and the Obi strip, they are identical.

I only rated four (4) stars because Im not into all songs. But my copy sounds immaculate and almost as if Kate Bush is singing in my living room. Very trace static or a pop here there but sounds great amazing.

So, I've compared this somewhat "Irrelevant" pressing to the 2018 fish people Remaster, I have no idea how it may sound when compared to a UK pressing, but it's what it is.

Let's start by saying that the bass in the 2018 remaster is cranked up, when putting the OG I had to cranked the bass of my amplifier to 2/5 for it to match the one on the Fish People one. So, when reading, have that in mind

I've compared Running up That Hill, specially the intro over and over again. And, to my opinion, in the og one everything is way more spread that in the Remaster, where everything seems to come from and specific place depending from where you hear it. This makes it so that some things sound great (like the drum machine and the background synthesizer) and others, well, not so much (like the iconic "Trumpet" (?) Of the song), in comparison, the OG has a way more "Homogenic" (not Bjork :v) sound. Which one sounds better will totally depend on your ears and liking.

Then, I compared Cloudbusting and there's no doubt that the Drum machine on the Remaster is the better sounding one, as it sound clearer than on the OG one, but, I found every other aspect of the song to be pretty much the same if not a bit better on the '85 one.

And Finally, The Ninth Wave. There's absolutely no doubt in here, this one totally demolishes the Remaster. Then again, the reissue has the Bass cranked up by default on the mastering, that sadly makes it so the details present In the whole suite get lost, specially in Waking The Witch, which is really astonishing to listen to with how much you can find after having listening to it hundreds of times. Even though, the Remaster does not sound bad at all, it actually is a Great experience and it does really sound great.

So, my veredict is that the og remaster/pressing sounds better, but no by a long mile. If you are able to find a good sounding one for a price that's not a rip off, yeah I'd tell you to go for it. But if not the Remaster is totally fine

PD; aren't the track titles in Spanish delightful? Cute little detail actually, te amo argentina ♥️

So on initial listening, I don't think this sounds compressed as some have noted below as James Guthrie is not a believer in the heavy handed maximized sound (the DR database confirms this: https://dr.loudness-war.info/?artist=Kate+bush&album=hounds+of+love ). I am actually hearing some details that I haven't heard before, but it does seem like the volume fluctuates from track to track on side 1. Running Off The Hill starts off fine and then in the last verse, there's a very noticeable drop in volume that lasts for maybe 20-30 seconds before returning back to the previous level. Hounds of Love sounds fine. The Big Sky started off quieter and as it builds towards the middle of the track, it seems to get louder. Mastering issues like this don't seem very Bernie Grundman like but you can't chalk them up to a pressing issue. My pressing was slightly off center on both sides, but enlarging the hole fixed that. There are some muffled distortions at various points on side1 and side 2 has quite a bit of noise as the start of the side, but seems to improve as it plays on. So this certainly isn't one of Optimal's finer pressings to say the least. Perhaps a deeper clean will address that.

Listening on an ATLP120XUSB with a VM95ML cartridge.

You can easily find this for $30 online, stop paying these bottom-feeding, redheaded bullies from A Christmas Story, who probably watch reruns of The View while they pack your record up poorly prices. Ridiculous, and flippers, have fun paying federal taxes.

My copy sounds clean on side one but has a weird crackle on wake up the witch on side two and doesn’t sound as clear. I have cleaned both sides 2 times each and can’t get it to go away. Other than that sounds pretty good but definitely would rather have an OG pressing

I just picked up a copy of this, and I'm not sure if I just got lucky, but after a good cleaning, it sounds great.. not dead quiet but every bit as good as most new pressings.. plays with only a little noticeable noise between tracks, but really happy with it.. and vinyl looks really great.. most important, one of favorite records from Kate Bush, just fantastic!!

This pressing sounds solid. It’s damn near silent. It has no EQ, which is usual for a James Guthrie remaster. You need to turn it up to hear it open up. It’s not going to be hot like the original 80s pressings. And as others said, don’t pay more than 20-30$ for this.

excellent pressing. sounds wonderful. i prefer this one over the hmv limited edition pressing

I need this and every other sharpie edited cover from the region. Nevermind is classic😂