Kate Bush – Aerial

Any CD by Kate Bush is a special treat. Her latest, Aerial, is doubly so. Not only because it is a two-CD set, but because both discs, while bearing Kate’s unmistakable footprints, still have very different personalities.

The first CD, entitled A Sea Of Honey, opens with the hypnotic King Of The Mountain and quickly demonstrates that she hasn’t lost her touch in the twelve years since her last album, The Red Shoes. Exotic rhythms and sparse instrumentation weave in and out, creating delightful musical tapestries. You get dreamy pieces, like Pi and Mrs. Bartolozzi (sounding like something Joni Mitchell might have written for her Blue album) and pulsing songs like the marvelous How To Be Invisible and Joanni. Bertie, a love song to her son (who also makes a guest appearance later in the second CD), evokes music of the Renaissance.

Disc Two, A Sky Of Honey, could be considered a concept album or even a pop/rock opera, if that term is even used anymore. The nine songs here are all connected by themes both of a musical and lyrical nature and it’s easy to connect the reflections of the moments of the day passing into night with the various stages of life. It’s a celebration and a meditation and it works well on both levels.

Kate surrounded herself with great musicians. Dan McIntosh’s guitar work is exemplary throughout. Del Palmer, Eberhard Weber and John Giblin provide sublime bass parts.

She matches her music with lyrics of arresting imagery, full of simple, yet quirky touches. Few people can deftly make lyrics come across as a bit of conversation between the singer and the listener as she does in a piece like An Architect’s Dream:

And he keeps painting
That bit there, it was an accident
But he’s so pleased
It’s the best mistake he could make
And it’s my favorite piece
It’s just great

And that would be an apt description of Aerial, too! It’s just great.

Peace