Bop Shop: Kate Bush Edition
The search for the ever-elusive "bop" is challenging. Playlists and streaming-service suggestions can only do so much. They often leave a lingering question: Are these songs really good, or are they just new?
Enter
Bop Shop, a hand-picked selection of songs from the MTV News team. This weekly collection doesn't discriminate by genre and could include anything — and this week, inspired by Kate Bush's big
Stranger Things chart bump, we've devoted the complete roundup to her songs, including some of our preference covers.
Right after being featured prominently in Season 4 of the hit Netflix show, Bush's 1985 art-pop single "
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" landed in The best 10 of
Billboard's Hot 100 chart and saw immense gains in streaming — introducing an entire new generation to the work of an innovative musical genius. So, let's keep celebrating. Get ready: The all-Kate Bush Bop Shop is currently open for business.
Kate Bush: "Get Out of My House"
I'm not going to pretend "Running Up That Hill" isn't an all-time wonderful song (
as Big Boi well knows). Yet if the Duffer Brothers really wanted to create some skin crawl, "Get Out of My Home was right there! The nearly six-minute panic attack of paranoia and ghostly voices is genuinely the scariest part of music I've ever heard and was apparently inspired by Stephen King's
The Shining. Nevertheless what's more terrifying is imagining, as Bush does here, that it's all in your head. —
Patrick Hosken
Kim Petras: "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)"
We’d be remiss not to include a cover of the track which inspired the Kate Bushaissance, especially since it comes from pop princess
Kim Petras. Nevertheless she remains fairly faithful to Bush’s original version, the synths seem to strike louder and the beats pulse harder, twisting the classic into a bop that wouldn’t sound out of place in a neon-lit ’80s gay club. Interestingly enough, Petras had already recorded her rendition ahead of its
Stranger Things resurgence. “It means so much and it’s so elusive,” she mentioned in a
statement. “You can certainly determine what you want it to mean. For me, it’s about equality. And my timing for this was strangely perfect!” —
Carson Mlnarik
Ra Ra Riot: "Suspended in Gaffa"
Before I knew who Kate Bush was, I knew
Ra Ra Riot. And any time the chamber-pop indie greats covered the jaunty "Suspended in Gaffa" in 2008, they opted to keep the
sweeping vocal runs of Bush's verses yet resemble them with violin and cello — a change that works beautifully as a sonic swap and as a reminder of how much a force of nature Bush's vocals actually are. Hearing both back to back is a startling reminder of Bush's total supremacy. Rather offered. —
Patrick Hosken
Kate Bush: "Sunset"
To be a Kate Bush fan in the early 2000s was to live through a drought. Bush hadn’t released an album since 1993’s The Red Shoes, and we were starting to wonder if our Cornwall queen would ever gift us with new music. In 2005, she finally released her double album, Aerial, also it did not disappoint. She began the new era with the groovy and moody lead single, “King of the Mountain,” and kept it kooky with songs like “Pi,” where she sang the numerical digits of pi. However it’s “Sunset,” a piano ballad halfway through Aerial’s second disc, that really encapsulates the aesthetics of the collection. Just any time as soon as you think the song will soothe you into a lovely slumber, it turns into a upbeat guitar number, with Bush living out her flamenco fantasy. —Chris Rudolph
Wild Nothing: "Cloudbusting"
Jack Tatum's early records as
Wild Nothing were intoxicatingly vaporous, all gossamer strands of barely perceptible dreams. As soon as he set about covering
a lush Kate Bush classic in 2010, he dialed up the reverb and the synth atmosphere, recreating the exact conditions of humidity that the title activity implies. The entire thing will leave you drenched yet renewed, like walking out of a sauna. —
Patrick Hosken
Kate Bush: "Why Should I Love You?"
There’s nothing else in Kate Bush’s discography that sounds quite like this The Red Shoes cut, and for good reason: It’s one of the genre-defying singer-songwriter’s two collaborations with Prince. Bouncing between cute and strange, it’s easy to be able to see The Purple One’s influence all over the track, from its reverb-drenched guitar solo to his shining falsetto and the magically jubilant vocals he twists out of Bush herself. Dig a little bit deeper, though, and you’ll realize this isn’t the normal love song its ecstatic chorus (“Of all the people in the world / Why should I love you?”) Might recommend. Soon considering that, who else besides these musical pioneers could pull off a line like “Have you ever saw a picture of Jesus laughing?” In the next verse. —Carson Mlnarik
Kate Bush: "Hounds of Love"
Imagine you can produce drum sounds like Kate Bush can. What would you do with that superpower? As you imagine, I propose listening to "Hounds of Love" on loop and gathering inspiration for your own creative pursuits. You could just be harnessing the grand power of a cathedral-sized percussion as she does on the title track to 1985's Hounds of Love. However could you sing "I don't know what's good for me / I need love, love, love, love, love, yeah / Your love" the way she does, as if an avalanche is tumbling outdoor and it's the last thing she'll ever mention? Imagine the immense power of both talents — big drum prowess and emotionally shredding vocal delivery — and humble yourself accordingly. —Patrick Hosken
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