Of Ninth Waves And Glass Hotels

In 1985, Kate Bush released her fifth studio album, Hounds of Love. Widely regarded as her best album, side A includes such chart toppers as Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Both tracks enjoyed multi-generational popularity; Utah Saints sampled Cloudbusting on their 1992 electronic dance hit, Something Good, while Stranger Things' excessive use of Running Up That Hill in 2022 introduced sexagenarian Kate Bush to eleven year olds the world over. Side B of Hounds of Love, a conceptual suite subtitled The Ninth Wave, remains one of her greatest achievements in a career that has spanned six decades.

 

The Ninth Wave's seven tracks tell the story of a woman lost at sea, drifting in and out of hypothermia induced sleep. She experiences dreamlike scenarios from her past and future, as well as events witnessed through the eyes of a woman on trial for witchcraft and an astronaut circling the Earth in a satellite.

Each track conjures imagery that almost begs for it to be made into a film; however, doing so would require fleshing out the protagonist's background, her relationships, the events that led to her being lost at sea, and clarification of its resolution. Simply put, it would need to answer two questions - how did she end up floating alone in the middle of the ocean, and at its conclusion, did she survive her ordeal? Emily St John Mandel's 2020 novel, The Glass Hotel, answers both questions in great detail (whether this was her intention or not).