"Experiment IV" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Kate Bush | ||||
from the album The Whole Story | ||||
B-side |
| |||
Released | 27 October 1986 [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:19 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) | Kate Bush | |||
Producer(s) | Kate Bush | |||
Kate Bush singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music video | ||||
"Experiment IV" on YouTube |
"Experiment IV" is a song by the English singer Kate Bush. It was released as a single on 27 October 1986, in order to promote Bush's greatest hits album The Whole Story . The single peaked at 23 in the UK Singles Chart, [2] charting simultaneously with "Don't Give Up", Bush's duet with Peter Gabriel, which reached number 9. [2]
The song tells a story about a secret military plan to create a sound that is horrific enough to kill people. The ending of the story is unclear, but in the music video nearly every person working on the project is killed by the horrific sound, which is personified by Bush herself as she changed from an angelic apparition into a horrific flying monster.
The song features Nigel Kennedy on violin, who at one point replicates the screeching violins from Bernard Herrmann's famous scoring of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho .
The B-sides of both the 7" and 12" singles included a re-working of Bush's 1978 hit "Wuthering Heights". On the 12" single, the 1980 song "December Will Be Magic Again" was included as an additional B-side track.
An extended version of "Experiment IV" appeared on the 12" vinyl release of the single. Both versions of the song were included on the second volume of rarities in the box set This Woman's Work , released in 1990. A slightly longer version, known as the 'Video Mix' appears on 2019's The Other Sides .
The music video adapts the song's "storyline" by chronicling the destruction of a secret military installation by a creature made of sound. The science fiction film-in-miniature was directed by Bush and features appearances from Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Richard Vernon, Peter Vaughan, Paddy Bush and Del Palmer. Bush appears on screen as an orderly officer serving tea, as the sound creature and at the end entering a van. British costume designer Charles Knode made the masks of the sound creature and most of the video was shot in a disused military hospital in south east London. [3]
In a 1987 interview for The Kate Bush Club, Bush recounted her experience of directing the video, "I had such strong visual ideas while I was writing the song that I wanted to give directing another go. It's the first time the video and song have come together. Although this was the most complicated of my directions, it was so much easier for me because I appeared in it only briefly, so I could concentrate on being behind the camera which I really enjoy. It was wonderful to work with people who I admire so much and was a very exciting experience." [3]
Before the editing of the full video could be completed, a minute-long segment was created for Top of the Pops , but the show refused to play it as they considered it to be "too violent". Channel 4's The Tube aired the video in its entirety and it was also shown in cinemas as an accompaniment to a feature film. [3]
Upon its release, William Leith of NME described "Experiment IV" as a "slow, creeping song" and a "mood piece" which is "more reserved and wintry" than "Hounds of Love". [4] Mark Putterford of Kerrang! wrote, "Chilling, moody, beautiful... you know the kind of magical musical spell our Kate can weave, and even if you haven't been mesmerised by her yet there's every chance that this one will do the trick." [5] Jerry Smith of Music Week called it "dramatic" and "excellently produced". [6] Roger Morton of Record Mirror noted that Bush "sets [her] vision of a future where music is used as a weapon of destruction to another one of those nudging, understated melodies". He added, "This one's all gliding guitars and whispered warbling, fading into throbbing Apocalypse Now chopper blades." [7]
All songs were written by Kate Bush.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Experiment IV" | 4:21 |
2. | "Wuthering Heights" (new vocal) | 4:56 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Experiment IV" (12" mix) | 6:38 |
2. | "Wuthering Heights" (new vocal) | 4:56 |
3. | "December Will Be Magic Again" | 4:50 |
Chart (1986) | Peak position |
---|---|
Europe (European Top 100 Singles) [8] | 66 |
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) [9] | 21 |
German Singles Chart [10] | 50 |
Irish Singles Chart [11] | 12 |
UK Singles Chart [2] | 23 |
In Australia, "Experiment IV" narrowly missed the Kent Music Report top 100 singles chart in December 1986. [12]
An article about the video for Experiment IV and its horror influences
Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by English musician Kate Bush, released on 16 September 1985 by EMI Records. It was a commercial success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous album, 1982's The Dreaming. The album's lead single, "Running Up That Hill ", became one of Bush's biggest hits, giving Bush her second UK number-one single in June 2022. The album's first side produced three further singles, "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love", and "The Big Sky". The second side, subtitled The Ninth Wave, forms a conceptual suite about a woman drifting alone in the sea at night.
The Whole Story is the second compilation album by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush and her first greatest hits album worldwide. Released on 10 November 1986, it earned Bush her third UK number-one album and went on to become her best-selling release to date, being certified four-times platinum in the United Kingdom.
"American Idiot" is a protest song by the American rock band Green Day. The first single released from the album American Idiot, the song received positive reviews by critics and was nominated for four 2005 Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, Best Rock Song, and Best Music Video. It is considered one of the band's signature songs.
"Walk Like an Egyptian" is a song by the American band the Bangles. It was released in September 1986 as the third single from the band's second studio album, Different Light (1986). It was the band's first number-one single, being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and was ranked Billboard's number-one song of 1987.
"Running Up That Hill", on some releases titled "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", is a song by the English singer and songwriter Kate Bush. It was released in the United Kingdom as the lead single from Bush's fifth studio album Hounds of Love on 5 August 1985 by EMI Records.
"Wuthering Heights" is a song by English singer Kate Bush, released as her debut single on 20 January 1978 through EMI Records. Inspired by the 1847 Emily Brontë novel of the same name, the song was released as the lead single from Bush's debut studio album, The Kick Inside (1978). It peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks, making Bush the first female artist to achieve a number-one single with an entirely self-penned song. It also reached the top of the charts in Australia, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, and Portugal.
"Babooshka" is a song by English singer, songwriter Kate Bush, taken from her third studio album Never for Ever (1980). Released as a single in June 1980, it spent 10 weeks in the UK chart, peaking at number five. It was an even bigger hit in Australia, where it peaked at number two and was the 20th best-selling single of the year. It also peaked at number 2 in France on 28th Dec. 1980.
"King of the Mountain" is a song by British singer-songwriter Kate Bush. Taken from her eighth album, Aerial (2005), it was released on 24 October 2005 as the album's only single. It became her biggest hit in over a decade, peaking at number four in the United Kingdom and reaching the top 20 in several other European countries and Canada.
"Hounds of Love" is a song written, produced and performed by English singer Kate Bush. It is the title track and the third single released from her No. 1 studio album Hounds of Love. The single was released in the UK on 1 March 1986 and reached No. 18 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Addicted to Love" is a song by English rock singer Robert Palmer released in 1986. It is the third song on Palmer's eighth studio album Riptide (1985) and was released as its second single. The single version is a shorter edit of the full-length album version.
"Don't Give Up" is a song written by English rock musician Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with English singer Kate Bush for Gabriel's fifth solo studio album So (1986). The single version was released as the second single from the album in the UK on 20 October 1986 and as the fourth single in the US in March 1987. It spent eleven weeks in the UK Top 75 chart in 1986, peaking at number nine.
"A Trick of the Night" is a mid-tempo ballad recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It was written and produced by Steve Jolley and Tony Swain and released as the final single from Bananarama's album True Confessions.
The discography of English singer-songwriter Kate Bush consists of 10 studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, six video albums, four box sets, five extended plays, 36 singles, seven promotional singles, and 39 music videos.
"Cloudbusting" is a song written, produced and performed by English singer Kate Bush. It was released as a single in October 1985, and was the second single released from her fifth studio album Hounds of Love (1985). "Cloudbusting" peaked at No. 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
"The Sensual World" is a song by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. It was the title track and first single from her album of the same name, released in September 1989. The single entered and peaked at No. 12 on the UK Single Chart.
"Run Runaway" is a song by British rock band Slade, released in 1984 as the third single from the band's 11th studio album, The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, and as the lead single from the album's US counterpart, Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea and produced by John Punter. It reached No. 7 in the United Kingdom and was the band's first, and only, top 20 hit in the United States, where it reached No. 20.
"Can't Stay Away from You" is a song by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. The song was released in November 1987 by Epic as the third single from their multi-platinum album, Let It Loose (1987). It became the group's fifth top 10 hit in the United States, peaking at #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; it was their second #1 hit on the adult contemporary chart, following 1986's "Words Get in the Way". The song originally peaked at #88 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1988, however the song was re-released after the success of its follow-up, "Anything for You", peaking at #7 in March 1989.
"All Join Hands" is a song by English rock band Slade, released in 1984 as the lead single from the band's twelfth studio album, Rogues Gallery. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and was produced by John Punter. It reached number 15 in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for ten weeks.
"7 Year Bitch" is a song by English rock band Slade, released in 1985 as the second single from their twelfth studio album, Rogues Gallery. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and was produced by John Punter. It reached number 60 in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for three weeks.
"Candybar Express" is a song by Scottish band Love and Money, which was released in 1986 as the debut single from their debut studio album All You Need Is.... The song was written by James Grant and produced by Andy Taylor. "Candybar Express" reached number 56 in the UK Singles Chart and number 10 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart.