So, was it worth the wait? With 'Aerial', the hotly anticipated new double-CD album of the British maverick and publicity-shy musician, Kate Bush once again surprises her listeners, for ill or good.
A dozen years sans any new Bush album since 'The Red Shoes' would be the longest dry spell ... Read review
It's often said that a musician's debut represents the culmination of a lifetime's worth ... more
of experiences, but their sophomore effort is usually derived from just the intervening year. By waiting 12 years between The Red Shoes and her new double CD, Aeri...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: More settled, mature but still with the interesting quirks in music and words. Disadvantages: 'Mrs Bartolozzi'; 'Nocturn'. Nothing like 'Hounds' or 'Dreaming'; light jazz elements, for some.
So, was it worth the wait? With 'Aerial', the hotly anticipated new double-CD album of the British maverick and publicity-shy musician, Kate Bush once again surprises her listeners, for ill or good.
A dozen years sans any new Bush album since 'The Red Shoes' would be the longest dry spell for fans, and the occasion of 'Aerial''s release has been warmly celebrated, especially on the other side of the Atlantic. I shan't dwell on Ms Bush's ... ...finally went on sale on 7 November 2005. Suffice it to say that Ms Bush's son, Bertie, was born in the interim, a fact you can't miss since he's featured prominently on her latest CD production through his drawings, photographs and a song.
'Aerial' consists of 16 tracks on two CDs that sonically share a close kinship with 'The Sensual World' and 'The Red Shoes', and less with the superb 'Hounds of Love' and 'The Dreaming'. It boasts ... more
So, was it worth the wait? With 'Aerial', the hotly anticipated new double-CD album of the British maverick and publicity-shy musician, Kate Bush once again surprises her listeners, for ill or good.
A dozen years sans any new Bush album since 'The Red Shoes' would be the longest dry spell for fans, and the occasion of 'Aerial''s release has been warmly celebrated, especially on the other side of the Atlantic. I shan't dwell on Ms Bush's personal events between 1993's 'The Red Shoes' and 'Aerial', which finally went on sale on 7 November 2005. Suffice it to say that Ms Bush's son, Bertie, was born in the interim, a fact you can't miss since he's featured prominently on her latest CD production through his drawings, photographs and a song.
'Aerial' consists of 16 tracks on two CDs that sonically share a close kinship with 'The Sensual World' and 'The Red Shoes', and less with the superb 'Hounds of Love' and 'The Dreaming'. It boasts a more laid-back air, dispensing with that nervous edginess, that sense of urgency that underpinned a lot of her previous works. The percussion is more muted and instrumentation streamlined. A few songs feature just Kate and her crystalline, metallic piano. She still tends to paint musical soundscapes rather than write mere songs, especially on the second disc. That obsessiveness with details can be felt here, too. Possibly a dubious first for Ms Bush, but Kate mines her own back catalogue for ideas, and can occasionally sound derivative even of other musicians. While 'Aerial' might eschew the radical innovation of her two seminal albums, it still bears Kate's musical fingerprints, especially in the unpredictable key shifts scattered about, and in that distinctive vocal. Regrettably, Kate now sings with reduced elasticity and power, whether from disuse or the effect of the passing years (and smoking, perhaps?). On the other hand, her voice hasn't lost its capacity to charm or excite.
The first CD, called 'A Sea of Honey', is a set of unrelated songs. The disc opens with 'King of the Mountain', the e-single that was made available for web download a month before the album's official release. Set against a spookily moody tune, the lyrics make enigmatic references to Elvis Presley and Rosebud (the equally mysterious sled allusion in Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane'). Especially pleasing is the second track, 'Pi', a sweet and sweeping ballad about a person enamoured of the number, pi. (A brief refresher for the forgetful: pi is that fascinating irrational number, a constant that describes the ratio of a circle's diameter to its circumference, whose post-decimal point digits go on literally forever - to infinity.) Kate actually sings the first hundred some digits - numbers - of pi, and it's with a seductive, joyful and expansive sensuality that's a Bush trademark.
Kate's poetic humour resurfaces with the throbbing 'How to Be Invisible'. Its recipe, calling for a 'pinch of keyhole', 'fold[ing] yourself up' and 'think[ing] inside out,', and 'Eye of Braille/Hem of anorak/Stem of wallflower/Hair of doormat' exemplifies Kate Bush's playful and eccentric imagination. Kate then pays tribute to two women: 'Joanni' is an immediately appealing rock-pop nod to the Maid of Orléans, while the balladesque 'The Coral Room', written for her late mother, takes a few listens to reveal its cryptic poignancy.
'Bertie' is a doting tune about Kate's son bringing her 'so much joy'. With its lyrical straightforwardness offering no new twist, the song's novelty and attraction lie solely in its use of the Elizabethan mode and Renaissance instruments (guitar,percussion, accordion and viols). I'd expected a less blatantly gushing reference to her son, but this song conjures up images of Ms Bush dancing gaily with Bertie while singing this tune. 'Mrs Bartolozzi' is not the first musical outing inspired by a washing machine (yes, the very one in your kitchen or basement that you use to 'clean that dirty shirty', as Kate sings). The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde wrote 'Watching the Clothes' two decades earlier, but Kate does Chrissie slightly better by adding a humourous sense of erotica in her piece, to wit: 'I watched them going 'round and 'round/My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers', etc. It doesn't quite progress musically, or could that simply reflect the repetitive nature of the wash cycles? A little discomfort may be felt, too, when Kate's apparently unexercised vocal also shows its limits in the bridge. Since neither Ms Hynde's nor Ms Bush's clothes-washing songs provoke much excitement, perhaps future songwriters should altogether scrap 'washing machine' from their list of possible sources of inspiration?
Prosaically known as Disc Two and called 'A Sky of Honey', is a musical suite that describes an afternoon melting into dusk and thence to the following dawn. The brief 'Prelude' has a child's voice saying a few lines against a piano and a cooing and chirping backdrop. I wondered if that was Bertie himself on the track, although it's more likely to be Kate making the childlike noises.
'A Sky of Honey' will offend some fans for its frequent dipping into light jazz material, especially that of Eighties (!) vintage, although the 'Prologue' recalls the great Bush ballads from yesteryear, with just Kate and her excellent piano, hushed percussion and electronica creating a beautifully cool and spare ambience. The steady and light tempo to 'An Architect's Dream' and 'The Painter's Link' continues with little change on 'Sunset' and 'Somewhere in Between'. A nice break to this rhythmic steadiness comes with the blood-pumping, flamenco rock guitar riffs and choruses à la Gypsy Kings slipped in just before 'Sunset' closes. With its sense of calm suggesting the onset of twilight, 'Somewhere in Between' evokes a quiet thrill with its soothing layered vocal.
However! …hearing 'Nocturn' and nothing else at first might really make you think you've put the wrong disc on, certainly not a Kate Bush one! The percussion sets up a numbingly regular rhythm, and the sleepy vocal sounds nothing like the Kate known to fans. Only when the 'Big Sky'-like choruses come in does that welcome Kate Bush sound reveal itself. The disc closes with the pulsating, eponymous track that has touches of Laurie Anderson and Phillip Glass, decorated latterly with birdcalls and chirps, giggles and laughter, presumably of Kate and son chasing the blackbirds in the fields. Although 'A Sky of Honey''s lyrics pale next to 'A Sea of Honey', I find these lines from 'Sunset' to be an enchanting delight: 'Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust/Then climb into bed and turn to dust.'
Although 'A Sky of Honey' admittedly strays into the dreaded realm of elevator music, its hypnotic quality nonetheless left me mesmerized when I first heard it, thanks to the rhythmic continuity of the songs; monotony is mostly banished by Kate's singular vocal styling (excepting 'Nocturn', perhaps!) and those little twists and turns that can only come from a Kate Bush palette. 'A Sky of Honey' demands to be heard in toto, uninterrupted, for the suite's full effect to be felt by the listener.
Alas for Kate Bush, she will always be haunted by her two greatest artistic successes, 'Hounds of Love' and 'The Dreaming', in which she raised the bar for herself so high that almost anything afterwards would never satisfy to the same degree. That huge shadow aside, Kate's newest album offers something worthwhile, despite a few weak links, and still stands apart from the pack. There's less originality than one expects for a Kate Bush project, but its more mature and relaxed disposition likely reflects the singer's own personal evolution, and might just grow upon disappointed listeners with time. It is worth the wait, dearies. 'Aerial' soars, but ever so gently…and that's not such a bad thing.
Notes: The double CD can be purchased for GBP 10.99 at various shops online and off, like amazon.co.uk. Please see Ciao's specs for additional album info, which is quite complete.
Advantages: Recaptures some of the magic of earlier albums Disadvantages: Perhaps a little quiet for some, after the extremity of earlier work
...through untainted, youthful eyes.
Aerial Tal, with its childlike bird impressions - again, casts off conformity and stifling inhibitions. Bjork-esque silliness, touched with the dusk-light of another world. Somewhere In Between captures the atmosphere of approaching night, in a way that makes me wonder if she's actually seen what's in my own head. Again, much of the spirit of early albums finds new expression here. For those familiar with her work, ... ...The sun rises on Aerial the title track, an urgent, pulsating celebration of the new day. There are shades of Pink Floyd and Kate's disquieting laughter adds something unique. The listener is enjoined to become part of the day - "Come on, let's join in..."
So many earlier influences grace the album too: the oriental mystery of her first two albums, the refreshing kookiness of Never for Ever, wobbly baselines of The Dreaming; plus, the conceptual ...
PDS1 14.12.2005 (17.12.2006)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush
Advantages: Deeply poetic, rich musical excellence. It's Kate Bush. Disadvantages: Not instant music for parties. It wouldn't work. Don't do it.
Let me begin with a highly relevant link because if you go to it you get the first track and a video to watch as well:
http://www.katebush.com/video/king_of_the_mountain/
So, I'm in France with a gorgeous girlfriend with Kate warbling, 'Ai ai! Babooshka, Babooshka, yi, yi!' on the jukebox and I'm just having a great 1982. Something of Kate Bush is imprinted and stays with me, and though singles like, 'Cloudbusting,' and albums like 'Red Shoes,' ... ...mad-eyed girl who sang of 'Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights!' never entirely goes away.
She seems to though. For twelve years she's gone. On http://www.white-man-killer.com/kate/ the Webmistress, Sylvia, can be seen opining that Kate Bush is unlikely to tour or make an album again. She's back now with a new album called, 'Aerial,' and every bit as delightfully mad as ever. It's had two Brit award nominations so rejoice. The years of aggressive ...
FlameDruid 20.01.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush
Advantages: unique, eccentric, life affirming Disadvantages: it takes a bit of time to get into
...this and the artwork on Aerial paves the way for the music, with a row of washing on a clothes line in the inner sleeve gradually metamorphosing into seagulls. There are two discs with seven and nine songs respectively.
~A Sea of Honey~ begins with the single King of the Mountain which has a slow, rythmic beat and is about the myths that surround Elvis. It's one of the more immediate songs on the first disc and is probably familiar to a lot of people, ... ...back catalogue I would say Aerial is closest to The Hounds of Love, particularly on disc two. It also has elements of The Sensual World and touches of The Dreaming. It's not likely to become my favourite Kate Bush album but there's some really good stuff here and it stands well apart from anything else out there today. ...
noodlebutty 12.04.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush
Advantages: Some of her best material to date Disadvantages: Some of her worst material to date
...of Kate's career. Aerial Tal, as cute as it is with Kate singing along with a blackbird does break the flow of this disc (and it is where the vinyl version splits "A Sky Of Honey" in two). I do think that this short piece could have been developed further, or used just before the final piece Aerial which starts with a similar flow. It is around now that things take a downward turn, with Somewhere In Between coming across as not really a Bush track ... ...rather bland, and the whole affair just plods by. It is a shame as the lyrics are great and there is a decent tune in there, but the end result is boring, especially coming after all that good stuff. Nocturn starts off sounding as if it is trying to get things back on track, with an eerie keyboard sound and Kate giving some good vocal. Then, it is back to a bloody boring backing beat. Nothing much happens for the next few minutes but gradually more ...
Boolbar 04.07.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush
Advantages: Pure Kate Bush- worth the money. Disadvantages: Some will find it too quirky.
This is my first ever review, so I chose a subject close to my heart - Kate Bush's music. Having spent my melancholy teen years accompanied by a Kate Bush soundtrack, I had been disappointed with "The Red Shoes", and longed for the glory days of "Never Forever", "Lionheart" and "The Kick Inside" - those are listed in my order of preference ! From the haunting first track on "Aerial", the upbeat "King of the Mountain", the "King" being Elvis, the ... ...works, and my favourite track on CD1, "Mrs. Bartolozzi", is the quirky Kate which people find amazingly innovative or totally bonkers! It is a song seemingly about housework, yet magically soulful when you hear the lilting voice, the music and the underlying sadness in relationships.
Her multi-octave range is evident throughout the album, but it is CD2 which uses this to capture the passing of a Summer's day as a wistful echo of nature.The first ...
casterbridge 22.02.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush
Product Information for "Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush" »
Product details
Title
Aerial [Digipak]
Performer
Kate Bush
Genre
Rock & Pop
Release Date
07/11/2005
Recomended Retail Price
17.99 GBP
Label / Distributor
EMI / EMI Operations/CEVA Logistics
Engineer
Del Palmer
Producer
Kate Bush
Pieces in Set
2
Studio / Live
Studio
Format
Performer
EAN
94634396028
Catalogue Number
3439602
Additional notes
Album Notes
'Aerial' is the eighth album from the enigmatic English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. Her beguiling mix of progressive rock and pop sound as fresh and imaginative as ever on this release. The single, 'King Of The Mountain', is included.
Titles on disc 1
1.
King Of The Mountain
2.
Pi
3.
Bertie
4.
Mrs. Bartolozzi
5.
How To Be Invisible
6.
Joanni
7.
Coral Room
Titles on disc 2
1.
Prelude
2.
Prologue
3.
An Architect's Dream
4.
Painter's Link
5.
Sunset
6.
Aerial Tal
7.
Somewhere In Between
8.
Nocturn
9.
Aerial
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since
25/11/2005
Compare Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush to other similar Rock & Pop »
![Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/normal/304/product-6375304.jpg)
![Overall user rating: Aerial [Digipak] - Kate Bush](http://images.ciao.com/ide/images/stars/2003/stars45.gif)
![River Is Wide, The [Remastered] - Forum (The)](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/251/prod_small-6006251.jpg)
![Don't Look Back [Remastered] [Digipak] - Boston](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/544/Don_t_Look_Back_Remastered_Digipak_Boston__6568544.jpg)
![Magic [Digipak] - Bruce Springsteen](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/638/Magic_Bruce_Springsteen__6755638.jpg)
![Black Coffee [Digipak] - Al Kooper](http://imagesa.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/512/Black_Coffee_Digipak_Al_Kooper__6258512.jpg)
