Kate Bush Albums in Order: Ten Studio Records, 1978 to 2011

Kate Bush Albums in Order: 10 Albums, 102 Credited Musicians, 1978 to 2011

Kate Bush albums in order run to ten studio albums, from The Kick Inside in 1978 to 50 Words for Snow in 2011, a span of 33 years. I have plotted those ten as stations on a tube map, with each of the 102 credited musicians drawn as a named line running through the records they played on.

The 10 Kate Bush Albums in Order, 1978 to 2011

1. The Kick Inside (1978)
2. Lionheart (1978)
3. Never for Ever (1980)
4. The Dreaming (1982)
5. Hounds of Love (1985)
6. The Sensual World (1989)
7. The Red Shoes (1993)
8. Aerial (2005)
9. Director's Cut (2011)
10. 50 Words for Snow (2011)

One thing worth saying about that list before you buy anything off the back of it: Director's Cut is a studio album of re-recordings, reworkings of songs that first appeared on The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, rather than ten new songs. It has a station because it has its own credit list. Live albums, compilations and soundtracks have no station at all, which is an editorial rule I apply across every map I draw.

How Many Musicians Are Credited on Each Kate Bush Album

Two albums arrived in 1978, two in 2011, and long silences in between. When I lay a discography out as a transit map the release rhythm is the first thing you notice, because the gaps between stations have to be drawn to scale in your head even when they are not drawn to scale on the paper. The credit density does something more interesting, and this is counted off my research sheet station by station rather than taken off anybody's summary.

Station	Album	Year	Credited musicians
1	The Kick Inside	1978	14
2	Lionheart	1978	13
3	Never for Ever	1980	21
4	The Dreaming	1982	15
5	Hounds of Love	1985	23
6	The Sensual World	1989	24
7	The Red Shoes	1993	25
8	Aerial	2005	23
9	Director's Cut	2011	16
10	50 Words for Snow	2011	12

The shape of that is the opposite of what I usually find. Most careers I map start crowded and thin out. This one builds from 14 names on the debut to 25 on The Red Shoes, which is the busiest station on the sheet, and only then comes down. Of the 102 names on the map, 70 appear on exactly one album.

Stuart Elliott Has the Longest Unbroken Line on the Map

Stuart Elliott is on eight consecutive stations, The Kick Inside in 1978 straight through to Aerial in 2005, mostly on drums and percussion. Twenty seven years without a single missed record, including across the twelve year silence, and he is the only line other than Kate Bush herself that runs that far without a gap.

Nobody writes him down, which is exactly why I draw these. A list of ten album titles cannot tell you that one drummer sat behind all but the last two of them. A map cannot hide it.

Paddy Bush and the Instruments Nobody Else Was Playing

Her brother Paddy Bush is on nine of the ten albums, The Kick Inside in 1978 through to Director's Cut in 2011, dropping off only at the final station.

He is also the line that taught me the most while I was researching this map, because the instruments credited against his name are the reason the sleeve notes take so long to transcribe. Across those nine records the sheet gives him mandolin, mandola, mandocello, balalaika, sitar, koto, pan flute, slide guitar, harmonica, musical saw, musical bow, bullroarer, didgeridoo, fujara, valiha, tupan, singing bowls, a psaltery the credits call a strumento de porco, and a whip described as a swished fishing rod.

When I am researching a new map I usually find that a band's instrumentation narrows over time as the production gets slicker. Here it widens. That is unusual enough that I checked it twice against the sleeve notes before I committed it to the artwork.

Del Palmer's Line Has Exactly One Hole in It

Del Palmer appears on eight of the ten albums. He plays bass on Lionheart in 1978, the second record, and he is still credited on 50 Words for Snow in 2011. The one album he misses is Director's Cut, which puts a single gap near the end of an otherwise unbroken 33 year line, and that shape is immediately readable on paper in a way it is not in a list.

What the map also makes visible is how his role shifts. Early on he is a bass player among other bass players. By the mid eighties he is handling LinnDrum and Fairlight programming as well. I only draw musicians as lines, never producers, unless they are credited for musical input, so Palmer earns his line on playing alone.

The Twelve Year Gap Between The Red Shoes and Aerial

The Red Shoes arrives in 1993 and Aerial does not arrive until 2005. Twelve years is the longest gap on the map and it is the single most informative thing on it, because of what happens to the lines either side of it.

Most of them stop. Sixteen lines terminate at The Red Shoes and never resume, more than at any other station. Eight cross the gap and carry on into Aerial: Kate Bush, Paddy Bush, Del Palmer, Stuart Elliott, John Giblin, Danny McIntosh, Michael Kamen and Gary Brooker. Fourteen names appear for the first time on Aerial, so the station is almost half new.

One of those fourteen is a family arrival. Bertie, credited on the sheet as Albert McIntosh, her son, first appears on Aerial and then stays for both 2011 records, taking a lead vocal on the last of them. That is a branch line that could not have existed on any earlier album.

A small research note on the same section: the guitarist Danny McIntosh is spelled Danny on The Red Shoes and Dan from Aerial onwards. Two spellings, one line, four consecutive stations. That is the kind of thing that makes a one-off credit easy to lose and a repeat credit easy to double count, and it is why I work from one sheet per artist rather than from several sources at once.

The Red Shoes Is Both the Busiest Station and the Biggest Clear-Out

The Red Shoes carries 25 credited musicians, more than any other album on the map, and it is also where the most lines end. It is worth looking at closely because the famous guests on it behave in two different ways.

Prince plays keyboards, guitar, bass guitar and vocals and takes a co-arranger credit on one track, and that is the whole of it: one album, one branch line, no continuation. Jeff Beck plays guitar on one track and never returns. Lenny Henry sings on one track and never returns.

The other two do come back, which is the part a list of album titles would never show you. Eric Clapton plays guitar on The Red Shoes and then reappears on Director's Cut eighteen years later, so his line is a dot, a long nothing, and a second dot. Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is credited on Hammond organ on The Red Shoes and then carries on through Aerial and Director's Cut, three consecutive stations, which makes him a short line rather than a guest appearance.

Nigel Kennedy sits between the two patterns. He plays violin and viola on The Sensual World and again on The Red Shoes, which reads on the map as a two station hop rather than a single point.

Elton John and Stephen Fry Arrive at the Final Station

50 Words for Snow in 2011 is the last station on the map, and four of its twelve credits appear nowhere else in the 33 years before it. Elton John takes a featured vocal on track five. Stephen Fry, credited as Professor Joseph Yupik, recites the fifty words of the title track, which is a spoken credit rather than a played one and sits on the map accordingly.

A final album that introduces new lines rather than only closing existing ones is rare. From the patterns I have mapped across seventy discographies, most late albums narrow: fewer names, tighter core, the last record made by whoever is left. This one is the quietest station on the sheet at twelve credits and still finds room for four arrivals.

Sizes and Prices for the Kate Bush Map

• A3, 420 x 297 mm, £35, unframed only
• A2, 594 x 420 mm, £45 unframed or £125 in a black wood frame
• A1, 841 x 594 mm, £65 unframed or £175 in a black wood frame

Three inch formats, 16 x 12 in, 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in, are sold alongside the A sizes as separate formats rather than as conversions of them, and are priced the same way. Black is the only frame colour. Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm acid-free matte fine art paper.

With 102 names on it and 70 of them one-album branch lines, A1 is the size I would point most people at if the wall allows it, because the branch lines carry the smallest type on the sheet.

Related Music Maps

If the appeal here is a solo career with a long credit list and a literary streak, the Leonard Cohen discography art print works on the same principle across a longer span. And if the Prince and Jeff Beck credits are the part that interests you, I have written up the famous musicians who played on one album across the whole range of maps.

Questions About the Kate Bush Discography Map

How many studio albums did Kate Bush make?

Ten, released between 1978 and 2011. Two arrived in 1978 and two in 2011, with the remaining six spread across the years between. Director's Cut, one of the two 2011 records, is an album of re-recordings rather than new songs.

Who has played on the most Kate Bush albums?

Her brother Paddy Bush, credited on nine of the ten, every one except the last. Del Palmer is next on eight, and Stuart Elliott also has eight, his run being the longest unbroken one on the map at eight consecutive albums from 1978 to 2005.

What is not on the map?

Live albums, compilations and soundtracks are not on it. The map is studio records only, an editorial rule I apply across every discography I draw. That means Before the Dawn, the 2016 live album, has no station, and neither do the various best of collections. If you want a map that includes live releases, this is not it.

Does the map show who played on each track?

No. On the discography maps the lines connect musicians to the albums they appear on, not to individual tracks. Only the Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup album map goes down to track level and shows each musician's role per track.

Are producers included as lines?

Only where they are credited for musical input. A producer who played on the record gets a line. A producer who only produced does not, because the map is a record of who played, not of who was in the building.

How is the print made?

Each one is a Giclée on 230gsm acid-free matte fine art paper, in A3, A2 or A1, unframed, or in a black wood frame in A2 and A1. The research behind it is mine, worked through from sleeve notes and session archives, and the artwork is plotted by hand rather than generated.