SDEtv

Kate Bush / Hounds of Love Baskerville Edition – unboxed

SDEtv shines a light (geddit?) on the new ‘Baskerville Edition’ of Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds of Love. At £138 it’s extremely expensive, but does the package justify the price? Watch the unboxing video to find out.

The ‘Baskerville Edition’ of Hounds of Love is only to be available via Kate’s site. Don’t forget you can order the standard coloured vinyl indie editions from the SDE shop as an alternative to the above (ships in early January).

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46 Comments

46 thoughts on “Kate Bush / Hounds of Love Baskerville Edition – unboxed”

  1. I bought the thing. It’s beautiful. I swear I would buy Hounds of Love socks if they were available. I shouldn’t give Fish People any ideas…

  2. It amazes me that this specific 2018 remaster hasn’t been corrected yet, the audio on Running Up That Hill has a massive drop out in volume at 3:22mins in where Kate enters the final stages of the song, the volume drops 2dcb for the rest of the song where Kate sings “And if only Could”, its on the vinyl and on the CD of the 2018 editions and the newly released “Fish People” editions. why buy an expensive edition with a faulty master?

  3. This looks like a very high quality release. I personally think the artwork is excellent, the songs, as we all know are also excellent. I could easily live without the pointless solar panel, but assuming that the pressing/sound quality is also first class, this is a very desirable artefact. Yes, I want one of these, however at the current price tag that is a definite non starter for me.

  6. The artwork is fine enough, but without some articulation about how these two specific dogs are meaningful, it’s just like looking at a stranger’s pet photos. There’s no context.
    And, honestly, without added content… even if it was simply a written intro from Kate about these dogs OR AT LEAST THE ARTISTS and why she chose them… I feel confused by this release.

    In terms of the artwork, if we are now to take the hounds in HoL as literal hounds, doesn’t that take away from the cleverness of the song a bit?

    As for the light, it is wasteful and I’m afraid Kate will regret it. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

    Just something not right or mis-realized about this release.
    And I’m sad about it.

  8. I’m sorry but this has to be the worst ever re issue. . £130 for what. A LED light which is absolutely pointless and awful new cover art
    No new material, in fact no nothing really.
    Who on on earth would want to buy this?

    1. £9999.99 – suspended in gaffa and locked. Hand-delivered by Kate, who sits on your lap and kisses you to pass the key. After you open it, you then have to pull out a pin, which releases a flock of swallows that fly out and scare the bejezus out of you. You drop the box in fright, leaving it open. Vinyl falls out onto the ground and smashes.

      Furious at wasting all that money on a record that now can’t be played, you turn to Kate and scream, “Get out of my house!”

  10. How times change.Being a long time Kate bush fan I was gobsmacked with the content and the price of the latest reincarnation of HOL. As other readers have said I was expecting at least the inclusion of b sides and 12” mixes. I would love to know how they arrived at the price of £138 . I’m sure spinning a bottle was part of the process.
    When HOL was first issued in the UK back in ‘85 the vinyl came with an insert offering the first 1,000 applicants to purchase an autographed picture frame of Kate Bush. It was roughly 12” x 7” and came in 2 picture variations. The price? The sum of £19.99 … plus postage and packing.
    I’d hate to think if a similar offer was made now and what the price would be in the Kate Bush world of 2023!

  11. Thank you for the video. Interesting, indeed. It’s a landmark album and I’m not sure what’s the point of this re-imagining. After watching the video, I’m still not sure. Oh well.

    On principle, I’m really against changing artwork, it’s not as dreadful as Morrissey’s typography changes but it’s wide of the mark and adds nothing. I can understand they worked hard on this but, why?

    I’ll be holding on to my EMI Centenary CD Edition. If there’s ever a Blu-ray with high quality stereo, a 5.1 or instrumental mixes I’d be in. Why not a have a Hounds of Love Diary edition with demos from 1983 to 1984 with work in progress, rough mixes, off cuts, sessions and help others see and understand the incredible work over time that delivered this outstanding album. I loved the Eric Woolfson tapes. In a very real sense, I realized how amazing he was because despite his great takes on his own songs, he let others sing them in the pursuit of real perfection. I’d love to be able to see a little under the hood of Hounds of Love.

    Maybe they could put out a Hounds of Love (The Whole Story) with annotations, diaries, disappointments and try to connect the creative process with the album’s development and delivery with the single releases, remixes and reception. I get that it’s a finished product, why not share the whole story or what she most remembers. I’m not a big fan but I’d be all over it.

    1. The 1997 CD release? Seriously, take a look at the waveforms from a losslessly ripped version of it and you’ll see some horrible clipping where the volume has been cranked up. When it was released, I wondered why it didn’t sound so nice. Compared the waveforms of the CD I got in the early 90s, that version and the more restrained 2018 remaster.

  12. I just wonder where this leads to if our favourite artists start to re-release our favourite albums with alternate artwork for high prices? Also I wonder what the artist(s) thinks? They (fans) are going to be happy about that one. They will love it! They will buy it anway. Let’s produce a nice limited edition for couple of hundred quids. There will be a limited fan base out there who will buy it and be happy about it. And as long as some fans (who can afford it) are buying stuff like that it will go on and on. But of course if you are a fan you want to have it. I can understand that. I also can fully understand the art behind it but with tons of outtakes and live concerts in the vaults this way of selling the same thing over and over again is getting annoying. That also goes for McCartney III and 50 variations of Hackney Diamonds and who else is going to come up with some “special variations” in the next years to come. Also not to forget I’d like to wish a happy christmas to everyone here….!

  13. A decent enough profit could be made from this special edition by pricing it at around £50.I am perplexed by why they have chosen to fleece her dedicated fans with this ridiculous and obvious over-pricing/ profiteering. The fact it appears some fans are still buying this product is rather depressing as only a failure to sell copies would discourage further rip-off releases like this!Still not sure why the usually moderate unfinancially motivated Kate has suddenly morphed into an uber money-grabbing exploitative capitalist rip-off merchant.Won’t tour,no matter how much promoters offer her,yet will still sell us this over- priced tat for a quick few extra bucks.A new illogical low for Kate!

  14. The only good thing about the latest KT releases is the amount of money saved! Love the coloured ones, but the price makes it easy to pass. With this HOL thing, everything is wrong (for me anyway).

  15. That’s an obscene price for such a meagre product. The artwork is fine but why not create a true super deluxe edition? If you bought this you need to sit down and think carefully about what you could have bought for 138 pounds (+ postage?).

  16. Totally perplexed by this release. I’m only a passive fan of KB, though Hounds of Love is my fave album from her. Kate Bush fans must be so frustrated to say the least. Your unboxings are always very interesting Paulie.

  17. I bought Wuthering Heights when it was number 1 as an 11 year old and have been a Kate fan ever since.
    I was interested in a new deluxe Hounds when I heard the rumours but your video has just confirmed to me everything that is wrong with today’s record market and just how detached Kate has become from her fans and reality.
    The artwork is terrible (I know this is subjective), the so called technology is something from 10 years ago which can be manufactured for a couple of pounds and there are no extra tracks or remixes, just the 2018 mix again.
    I would guess this is no more than £10 to manufacture and Kate asks £138 for it…..its a joke.
    Until she gets someone independent and objective in to sort her archive, we will never get anything decent, or what the fans who have made her famous actuslly want.
    I didn’t buy the recent coloured reissues due to price and content, and I won’t be buying this or anything else until we get something the fans deserve.

  18. You got it do we don’t have to.

    Thanks Paul. Absolutely outrageous price for a gimmick. It’s almost like it’s the 80’s again – although the gimmicky releases then didn’t cost you any more.

  20. Thank you for the unboxing- it’s the closest I’ll ever get to this monstrosity.

    I’m staggeringly underwhelmed by its nothingness for £138!

    And to think for a fraction of the price I can have the No Parlez SDE that has way more to offer.

    Happy Christmas Paul and everyone reading.

  21. I received my copy the other day. I was surprised that it arrived in Mint condition (well, I still have to open to see if the inner sleeve is damaged) but it looks pretty good. I may have forgot to cancel my pre-order, or had decided NOT to order the silly wall-mount objects. Anyway, it’s here, whatever. But yes, absolutely not worth the money.

  22. I like the artwork but would have preferred it on a special edition CD with all the different versions/remixes of RUTH featured during Stranger Things and other extras. And obviously at a fraction of the price of the above frivolity…

  23. I love the art work but have a look at the new 45rpm editions of PG-era Genesis and see what kind of quality you get there for the money. With these editions EVERYTHING apparently oozes quality. It even tempts / tempted me to buy a turntable ….

  24. She won’t allow us a complete greatest hits and remastered video collection, which every one of her fans would snap up in a heartbeat, but she’ll sign off on this pointless tat, which very few of her fans have any interest in? Okey Dokey.

  26. A few random thoughts…the image of the dogs is quite ugly…the inner sleeve is somewhat reminiscent of Stand Up by Jethro Tull…presumably the use of the word Baskerville does not infringe any copyright…can we now expect a flashing light on the next sde release, with a price increase to £123?

  27. Thanks for the video, Paul, I’m so not into this for so many reasons, but very interesting to see the final product. I find the artwork, particularly the inner one of Kate, pretty hideous, but that’s just my personal opinion.
    More pertinent, the lack of anything else for the price is shocking. Perhaps they should have bumped it up to 150 quid and gone for the luxury of a poly-lined inner sleeve…..

  29. I see it wasn’t packaged with string and brown paper like in the promo video.

    You didn’t tear off the band or throw it on the floor like the lad did either…

  31. Nothing about this release is new other than the packaging.

    If it was new material, even then, it would be overpriced.

    Looking forward to the unboxing of the ‘art boxes’. Bet they don’t send those out for promotional purposes!!

    Peter Gabriel: 2CD+BD at under £20! Yes the box set is around £140 but you get 4xvinyl,2CD,BD and the luxury packaging (to be seen).

    Just as well Kate chose fish people because most of the releases stink to high heaven.

    Shame.

  32. Sorry not for me and I am a massive Kate Bush fan – the original artwork for the album is beautiful but this new release it just ugly and overpriced. I’m genuinely surprised Kate Bush signed this off.

  33. With gas and electric going up from the 1st January, there’s no hope of Kate getting a sale from this house. We have to live in the real world!!!

  34. Thanks for the video. As dismal as I expected. I actually prefer the original artwork and packaging by a long way. And Pink Floyd did the flashing LED thing 30 years ago for no extra cost, albeit battery powered.

  35. I read that Kate earned £6 million from the Running Up That Hill success from Stranger Things. I don’t know how true that it is, but it would explain how removed she is from the monetary reality most of us are living in, that she thinks this crazy release is okay. She could give away her next album, if one ever happens, and likely not miss anything in her bank balance.

  36. I can buy a large solar-powered light that lights up half my garden for £6. So that can’t have put up the price that much. A bunch of people – presumably Kate Bush, the artists and designers and let’s say even the vinyl pressing company – are getting an inordinate amount of profit from this product. It’s an insult.

  40. Ok thanks for the video… now I know not to buy this…does it look good?? Sure!! Is it worth the high price?? Not to me no, all that for art & a solar-powered little light in the gatefold?? Nice to look at…once…the vinyl itself is not even coloured…I’d much rather get the “raspberry beret” version along with the others… however, if I win the lottery or have close to $200 spare dollars, I’d spring for it…the 2 artboxes are even more ridiculous, unless you have lots of wall space to display them…

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