Kate Bush: Aerial...

[RedRobin]

I find Kate's music either utterly beautiful and creative and leaving me wanting more, or up its own arse by trying too hard. Simply because she's a friend of a friend and I've known about her from her teenage years before she was famous, I've always checked out her music. When this latest double album "Aerial" landed in my lap I had only heard the released single "King Of The Mountain" - A strong rythmic melody very typical of her work and which builds very nicely and also the most suitable track on the album for release as a single. The next track I like is "Pi" (whatever that means! Mathematics - duh!) on which she successfully manages to mix her soothing ballad voice on top of a shorter upbeat riff and she uses her keyboard talents to good effect. Then "How To Be Invisible" - More of a rock number with great bass line and percussion. I'd love to see this track performed live and therefore extended into the wild. Sometimes her voice is almost classical yet it works so well with rock rythms. Outstanding backing vocals on this track - Kate deffo has a thing about the wind and her lyrics are as fascinating as ever.

"Joanni" is an utterly beautiful track which showcases all Kate's talents and also the extremely high standard of production this whole album has. Mind you, I'm listening to it on near-field professional recording studio monitors which hide absolutely nothing from your ears. These tracks mentioned so far are my favourites on the first CD disc.

The second disc is hugely disappointing for me but only because the tracks, except for one, don't appeal to me personally. I quickly get bored by 1 minute preludes/prologues or talking between tracks and most of these second disc tracks are just trying too hard in my opinion. The only 'prologues' I like are the totally musical ones such as by Lost Prophets. However the last track on this disc, the album title track "Aerial", is a stunner and worth the whole album. It's very exciting and builds from a recording of a blackbird in full song to a wild electric lead guitar which I was convinced was Dave Gilmour until I read the sleeve notes saying Dan McIntosh. The track is very Pink Floyd and there ain't nothing wrong with that! The thumping dance rythm gets you reaching for your air-guitar. Again, this track could be awesome live.

So, I love 5 out of the 12 tracks and those tracks enrichen from more listening. But I don't like the other 7 tracks. The whole album is superbly engineered and produced and includes notable musicians as you would expect with any musical offering from Kate Bush.

It's a great album for a Sunday morning.

Has anyone else heard this album and has anything else to say about it ?

[Hudson]

I too am a long time Kate fan, i have not long purchased the album and will be finding a quiet moment (away from the kids) to sit down and listen. There are so few people who full understand what a talent she is. I have been a ''fan'' since the age of 16 (i am 42 now), and although i like lots of different styles of music nothing even comes close to Kate Bush. I will post more when i have heard the album a few times.