FEATURE:
Ranking Tracks from Kate Bush’s Albums…
Aerial (A Sea of Honey)
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THIS is the last Kate Bush album…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton/National Portrait Gallery, London
I will include and rank the tracks from. Aerial is a bit more difficult than others because, as it is a double album, the second album is a conceptual suite. Consisting of nine tracks, there are different versions on Spotify. The original and 2018 remaster is A Sky of Honey. There was a version, An Endless Sky of Honey, that had all of the songs as a suite. The 2018 remaster includes spoken parts by Bush’s song, Bertie (Albert), as the original album featured Rolf Harris. Because I prefer to think of the second disc more of a single suite, I am going to look at A Sky of Honey/An Endless Sky of Honey next time around, as it is really interesting. In this ranking, I am taking Aerial’s first disc, A Sea of Honey – ranking the seven tracks in order of greatness. Before that, it is worth bringing in some album information from Wikipedia:
“Aerial is Bush's first double album, and was released after a twelve-year absence from the music industry during which Bush devoted her time to family and the raising of her son, Bertie. The anticipation leading up to the album's release was immense, with press articles devoted to Bush being printed months, even years before. Like Bush's previous album, The Red Shoes, Aerial does not feature a cover photograph of Bush, but rather one that is emblematic of the album's celebration of sky, sea, and birdsong. The cover image, which seems to show a mountain range at sunset reflected on the sea is in fact a waveform of a blackbird song superimposed over a glowing photograph.
Aerial is one of Bush's most critically acclaimed albums. Musically, the album is a multi-layered work, incorporating elements of folk, Renaissance, classical, reggae, flamenco, and rock. As with 1985's Hounds of Love, the album is divided into two thematically distinct collections. The first disc, subtitled A Sea of Honey, features a set of unrelated songs including the hit single "King of the Mountain", a Renaissance-style ode to her son "Bertie", performed with period instruments, and "Joanni", based on the story of Joan of Arc. In the song "{\displaystyle \pi }\pi ", Bush sings the number to its 78th decimal place, then from its 101st to its 137th decimal place. The piano and vocal piece "A Coral Room", dealing with the loss of Bush's mother and the passage of time, was hailed by critics as "stunning" in its simplicity, "profoundly moving"[6] and as "one of the most beautiful" pieces Bush has ever recorded.
The second disc, subtitled A Sky of Honey, consists of a single piece of music revelling in the experience of outdoor adventures on a single summer day, beginning in the morning and ending twenty-four hours later with the next sunrise. The songs are saturated with the presence of birdsong, and all refer to the sky and sunlight, with the sea also featuring as an important element. Beginning with blackbirds singing in the dawn chorus, a woodpigeon cooing, solo piano, and Bush's son saying, "Mummy, Daddy, the day is full of birds," the piece begins with an early morning awakening to a beautiful day of sun shining "like the light in Italy"; it proceeds through a visit with a painter who is working on a new piece of pavement art ("An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link") and then passes on to a crimson "Sunset". The interlude "Aerial Tal", consists of Bush imitating various samples of birdsong, while "Somewhere in Between" celebrates the ambiguous nature of dusk. "Nocturn", features a pair of lovers bathing in the sea after dark under a star-studded "diamond sky". The song cycle ends with "Aerial" and its euphoric welcome of the following morning's sunrise with the refrain "I need to get up on the roof...in the sun.”
A Sky of Honey features Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo and providing vocals on "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link". Other guest artists include Peter Erskine, Eberhard Weber, Lol Creme and Procol Harum's Gary Brooker. In one of his final projects before his death in 2003, long-time Bush collaborator Michael Kamen arranged the string sections, performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
In the 2014 series of concerts in London, Before the Dawn, Bush performed "King of the Mountain," "Joanni" and the whole Sky of Honey song cycle live for the first time”.
I shall move on now. I think that it is interesting listening to the individual songs that make up An Endless Sky of Honey. They are superb on their own, though I feel one should listen to the album as a whole and consider it a long, multi-part track – even Kate Bush herself has been keen for people to hear the suite in one and not skip/overlook tracks. A personal favourite of Bush’s, Aerial is a remarkable album. Here are my opinions regarding which tracks from the second disc, A Sea of Honey, are the very best.
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7. Pi
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her eighth studio album Aerial in 2005. The song described a man who has "a complete infatuation with the calculation of π". She actually sings the number to its 78th decimal place, then from its 101st to its 137th decimal place. The difference between the two works out like this:
Real Pi: 3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128
Kate Bush Pi: 3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 06286208
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223
I really like the challenge of singing numbers, as opposed to words because numbers are so unemotional as a lyric to sing and it was really fascinating singing that. Trying to sort of, put an emotional element into singing about...a seven...you know and you really care about that nine. I find numbers fascinating, the idea that nearly everything can be broken down into numbers, it is a fascinating thing; and i think also that we are completely surrounded by numbers now, in a way that we weren't you know even 20, 30 years ago we're all walking around with mobile phones and numbers on our foreheads almost; and it's like you know computers...
I suppose, um, I find it fascinating that there are people who actually spend their lives trying to formulate pi; so the idea of this number, that, in a way is possibly something that will go on to infinity and yet people are trying to pin it down and put their mark on and make it theirs in a way I guess also i think you know you get a bit a lot of connection with mathematism and music because of patterns and shapes... (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 31 October 2005)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
6. Bertie
“He's such a big part of my life so, you know, he's a very big part of my work. It's such a great thing, being able to spend as much time with him as I can. And, you know, he won't be young for very long. And already he's starting to grow up and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on that, that I spent as much time with his as I could.
So, the idea was that he would come first, and then the record would come next, which is also one reasons why it's taken a long time (laughs). It always takes me a long time anyway, but trying to fit that in around the edges that were left over from the time that I wanted to spend with him.
It's a wonderful thing, having such a lovely son. Really, you know with a song like that, you could never be special enough from my point of view, and I wanted to try and give it an arrangement that wasn't terribly obvious, so I went for the sort of early music... (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 3 November 2005)
Credits
Viols: Richard Campbell, Susan Pell
Renaissance Guitar: Eligio Quinteiro
Percussion: Robin Jeffrey
Keyboards: Kate
String Arrangement: Bill Dunne” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
5. Joanni
“All the banners stop waving
And the flags stop flying
And the silence comes over
Thousands of soldiers
Thousands of soldiers
Who is that girl? Do I know her face?
Who is that girl?
Joanni, Joanni wears a golden cross
And she looks so beautiful in her armour
Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God
And she never wears a ring on her finger
All the cannon are firing
And the swords are clashing
And the horses are charging
And the flags are flying
And the battle is raging
And the bells, the bells are ringing
Who is that girl? Do I know her face?
Who is that girl?
Joanni, Joanni wears a golden cross
And she looks so beautiful in her armour
Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God
And she never wears a ring on her finger
Joanni, Joanni, Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God
And she just looks beautiful in her armour
Beautiful in her armour
Elle parle à Dieu et aux anges
Dans ses prières
Venez Sainte Catherine
Venez Sainte Marguerite
Elle a besoin de vous deux
Les voix, les voix du feu
Chantent avec ma petite soeur
Les voix, les voix, les voix” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
4. King of the Mountain
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on 24 October 2005 as the first and only single from her eighth studio album Aerial. The song was first played on 21 September 2005 on BBC Radio 2. The song was written ten years prior to most songs on the album.
Music video
The music video was first aired on UK's Channel 4 on 15 October 2005. It was directed by Jimmy Murakami, produced by Michael Algar, edited at The Farm (Dublin) by Hugh Chaloner with flame and 3D effects by Niall O hOisin, Arron Inglis, Brian O'Durnin and Mark from Australia
Credits
Drums: Steve Sanger
Bass: Del Palmer
Guitar: Dan McIntosh
Keyboards: Kate
Additional Vocals: Paddy Bush” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
3. How to Be Invisible
“Drums: Stuart Elliott
Bass: Del Palmer
Guitar: Dan McIntosh
Keyboards: Kate
Accordion: Chris Hall
Sample Lyrics
“I found a book on how to be invisible
Take a pinch of keyhole
And fold yourself up
You cut along the dotted line
You think inside out
And you're invisible
Eye of Braille
Hem of anorak
Stem of wallflower
Hair of doormat” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
2. A Coral Room
“There was a little brown jug actually, yeah. The song is really about the passing of time. I like the idea of coming from this big expansive, outside world of sea and cities into, again, this very small space where, er, it's talking about a memory of my mother and this little brown jug. I always remember hearing years ago this thing about a sort of Zen approach to life, where, you would hold something in your hand, knowing that, at some point, it would break, it would no longer be there. (Front Row, BBC4, 4 November 2005)
Credits
Piano and Vocals: Kate
Solo Vocal: Michael Wood” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
1. Mrs. Bartolozzi
“Is it about a washing machine? I think it's a song about Mrs. Bartolozzi. She's this lady in the song who...does a lot of washing (laughs). It's not me, but I wouldn't have written the song if I didn't spend a lot of time doing washing. But, um, it's fictitious. I suppose, as soon as you have a child, the washing suddenly increases. And uh, what I like too is that a lot of people think it's funny. I think that's great, because I think that actually, it's one of the heaviest songs I've ever written! (laughs)
Clothes are...very interesting things, aren't they? Because they say such an enormous amount about the person that wears them. They have a little bit of that person all over them, little bits of skin cells and...what you wear says a lot about who you are, and who you think you are...
So I think clothes, in themselves are very interesting. And then it was the idea of this woman, who's kind of sitting there looking at all the washing going around, and she's got this new washing machine, and the idea of these clothes, sort of tumbling around in the water, and then the water becomes the sea and the clothes...and the sea...and the washing machine and the kitchen... I just thought it was an interesting idea to play with.
What I wanted to get was the sense of this journey, where you're sitting in front of this washing machine, and then almost as if in a daydream, you're suddenly standing in the sea. (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 1 November 2005)
Well, I do do a lot of washing [chuckles]. I'm sure I would never have written the song if I didn't... You know, just this woman, in her house, with her washing. And then the idea of taking the water in the washing machine with all the clothes, and the water then becoming the sea... and I also think there's something very interesting about clothes. They're kind of people without the people in them, if you know what I mean? [Kate laughs] They all have our scent, and pieces of us on them, somehow. (Front Row, BBC4, 4 November 2005)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia