Did you like HoL first time through?

[allegra!ihnp4!utzoo!dciem!jeff]

There seems to be a general concensus among Kate Bush fans that:

1) We didn't like "The Dreaming" the first time we heard it; in fact, it took
   several plays before we even liked it at all.  But now, we think it's (one
   of) the best album(s) ever made.  The delayed appeal is one of the things,
   or a side effect of the things that make it so great.

2) We thought the "Hounds Of Love" album was great the first time we heard it.
   Overall, it's probably not as good as "The Dreaming", but "The Ninth Wave"
   is at least in the same class as "The Dreaming", and we realized that the
   first time we heard it.

My question is, "does this mean anything?"  "Hounds Of Love" is the first
Kate Bush album that I liked all the way through the first time I heard it.
Is that because it's shallower and simpler than her previous work, and
therefore is easier to like at first but will probably be less rewarding in the
long run?  Or is it just because I've finally become accustomed to her
weirdness, so when I hear something like "The Ninth Wave" for the first time,
it doesn't shock me into thinking it's noise now but it probably would have
3 1/2 years ago?  I think it's the latter because, although I may get tired
of the "Hounds Of Love" side, "The Ninth Wave" sounds like something I'll love
forever.  However, I have another theory.  Maybe she has taken the interesting,
rewarding, layered complexity of "The Dreaming", and improved it by adding
another ingredient, an ingredient that makes it more likeable on the first
listen.

What do the rest of you think?  Are there any KB fans who didn't like "The Ninth
Wave" the first time?  What do people that haven't heard her other work think
of the new album?
--
Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto  (416) 635-2073
{linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsri!dciem!jeff
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff