Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Aerial
Last Friday I bought Aerial by Kate Bush. It is the first album she has released in over a decade. The advanced reviews were fabulous and “King of the Mountain” has been at the top of the UK charts. It’s a double album lasting well over an hour with 16 tracks all together.
First off, I am thrilled to have a new Kate Bush album. She is far too talented to not be producing. Her voice is maturing. There isn’t a whiff of the vocal acrobatics she has sported before. My first listen of the album left me a little cold. The work doesn’t seem to have grown much since her last album and from all the reports of her attention to detail, driving the recording studio nuts by doing cut after cut after cut—well it leaves me a tiny bit disappointed.
That said, as always, Kate has produced an album which has a rich audio tapestry. There is depth to the sounds. She has introduced subtle humour into the music, especially in “How to be Invisible” in which the chorus has an incantation evocotive of “eye of newt” but has lines like “Hem of Anorak”.
She has clung a bit too much to strings that remind me of the 1970’s.
All in all, I’m very pleased to have this album even though I don’t think it deserves the hype that the media have tossed her way. I hope that it won’t be another decade before the next album is released!
Thanks Kate! I’ve missed you.
First off, I am thrilled to have a new Kate Bush album. She is far too talented to not be producing. Her voice is maturing. There isn’t a whiff of the vocal acrobatics she has sported before. My first listen of the album left me a little cold. The work doesn’t seem to have grown much since her last album and from all the reports of her attention to detail, driving the recording studio nuts by doing cut after cut after cut—well it leaves me a tiny bit disappointed.
That said, as always, Kate has produced an album which has a rich audio tapestry. There is depth to the sounds. She has introduced subtle humour into the music, especially in “How to be Invisible” in which the chorus has an incantation evocotive of “eye of newt” but has lines like “Hem of Anorak”.
She has clung a bit too much to strings that remind me of the 1970’s.
All in all, I’m very pleased to have this album even though I don’t think it deserves the hype that the media have tossed her way. I hope that it won’t be another decade before the next album is released!
Thanks Kate! I’ve missed you.
