The Sensual World

The title song was the first single from the album, in September 1989, and reached number 12 in the UK. Its B-side was Walk Straight Down the Middle, and the 12-inch had a double-grooved A-side with an instrumental. It imagines Molly Bloom stepping out of the pages of Joyce's Ulysses into the real world. The Joyce estate refused permission for the text, so Bush wrote new words, one line of which alludes to Blake's Jerusalem. The chorus hook was inspired by the Macedonian tune Antice, dzanam, dusice, played on the uilleann pipes by Davy Spillane. John Sheahan played fiddle, Donal Lunny bouzouki, Paddy Bush whip, Del Palmer bass and Charlie Morgan drums.

In the video, co-directed by Peter Richardson and Bush, she dances through an enchanted forest. Music Week's David Giles called it easily her best song since Army Dreamers, and Robert Smith of the Cure named it his favorite single of 1989. After the estate licensed the original text, she re-recorded it as Flower of the Mountain for Director's Cut in 2011.