FEATURE:
A Beautiful Sunrise
Kate Bush’s Aerial at Seventeen
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I am going to publish…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
one more feature about Kate Bush’s double album, Aerial, ahead of its anniversary. Released on 7th November, 2005, it reached number three in the U.K. Similar to her 1985 masterpiece, Hounds of Love, Aerial is split into two sections. The first disc is subtitled A Sea of Honey. The second disc is called A Sky of Honey. I like the titles of each disc and the sort of warmth and sweetness they project. It was brilliant that Bush gained so much success with her double album. Aerial sold more than 90,000 copies in its first week of release and has now been certified as platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Dissimilar to The Ninth Wave, A Sky of Honey is about the richness, sweetness, beauty, redemption and restorative beauty and natural wonder of a summer’s day. Rather than a heroine being struck at sea and struggling for life and hope (though she is rescued in the end), there is this endless purity and sense of uplift and wonder through the song cycle on Aerial. If the first half of Aerial is not as striking and hit-filled that on Hounds of Love, I do think there is a greater variation and depth in terms of the material. Bush’s late mother Hannah is referenced in A Coral Room. Her then-new son (who was seven in 2005) Bertie has a song named after him. Mrs Bartolozzi is about the mundanity of laundry, yet it turns into this stirring and almost fantastical piece where the clothes seem to be dancing and twirling. Sexual, suggestive, longing, and powerful, it is one of Bush’s best songs!
Although I am not featuring A Sky of Honey entirely and making it my focal point, it is one big reason why Aerial is so successful and loved. Bush herself has cited this as her favourite album. I really like the first disc. If songs such as Pi, Bertie and Joanni are harder to get on board with an embrace – the first song is literally Bush reciting a series of numbers- it shows that she was as explorative, ambitious, and original as ever. Bush was not going to come back after twelve years – her album before Aerial was The Red Shoes (1993) – and make an album that was a little watered-down and safe. There is plenty of eccentricity and unique moments through A Sea of Honey. I am going to end with a couple of reviews for Aerial. The reason behind this feature is to bring Aerial to people’s attention. Although the vinyl is expensive, I would advise people to buy it if they can afford, as it is such a tremendous album. An album designed to be listened to the entire way through, you immerse yourself in Bush’s 2005 masterpiece. A Sea of Honey features a couple of Bush’s all-time great song. The single from the album, King of the Mountain, is a phenomenal track that was an obvious single. Mrs. Bartolozzi is hugely memorable and strangely moving. I also think A Coral Room and How to Be Invisible rank alongside her greatest moments. Perhaps there are one or two tracks I am not keen on, but A Sky of Honey is flawless!
One of the only problems with it was that the original 2005 release did feature spoken vocals from the disgraced Rolf Harris. They have since been removed on subsequent releases, but it is an issue if you have an original vinyl copy. If you get the 2018 remaster, you do not have his voice. Not a huge part of Aerial – The Painter’s Link finds Harris replaced by Bush’s son Bertie McIntosh (the surname comes from Bush’s partner, Danny McIntosh) -, you are not too offput. Aerial was Bush’s return after twelve years. It has almost been that long since she released her latest studio album, 50 Words for Snow (2011). I recently spoke with journalist Tom Doyle about interviewing Bush in 2005. Although she did not give too many interviews, the ones that she did are excellent. Excited to come back and put new music into the world, it must also have been strange to do promotion and answer questions. Perhaps cautious that people would want to know what she has been doing and why she’s been away for so long, there was plenty of respect and affection for her! The hugely positive reviews for Aerial show that Bush was dearly missed and, as you would expect, had lost none of her genius. Inspired and more refreshed after the somewhat tired The Red Shoes, Aerial sits up there with Hounds of Love as Bush’s best album. I think that A Sky of Honey is one big reason why Aerial is so accomplished and nuanced. The nine short tracks are flow and weave together. They bring the listener into the cycle of a summer’s day. Prologue, Aerial Tal and Nocturn are so gorgeous and spellbinding. Influenced by motherhood, a new life, the simplicity and importance of nature and the natural world, there is this feeling of compassion and warmth throughout A Sky of Honey. The compositions are so rich and fascinating. I am going to finish with two sample reviews for the remarkable Aerial. It is seventeen on 7th November.
The BBC were unequivocal in their assertion that Aerial is a masterpiece. It is hard to argue against that, as the more you hear the double album, the more layers you find. It is a sensational piece of work that started life back in the 1990s:
“After 12 years of waiting Kate Bush fans finally get their hands on an album of new material. A double album-sized helping of new songs should keep most fans happy with 16 tracks to delve into.
Disc one is a varied set of numbers which mainly centre around her private life, with odes to her son and a moving song about the loss of her mother. But at times these songs feel too personal and are hard to decipher with dense and difficult melodies. They encompasse a range of musical styles - from folk ("Bertie") to new age ("Pi") and classic Kate Bush ("How to be Invisible"). However, some of these tracks never really achieve lift-off and could have been left on the recording studio floor.
The Kate Bush of "Cloudbusting" and "Wuthering Heights"-fame is in there but struggles to get out. After the flatness of disc one, the second disc is full of surprises. It's an old-fashioned concept album that takes the listener on a journey. And what a journey! Bush has written a lyric poem set to music, which has an epic quality, transporting the listener to a deeply lush and fertile landscape. Lyrically cryptic, but strangely seductive, side two is the album Pink Floyd might have made in 1979 if Bush had been their lead singer.
Concept albums are not everyone's cup of tea - but this is a masterpiece”.
This is what AllMusic noted in their review. Although they observe how not a lot happens during the majestic A Sky of Honey, they do recognise how powerful and wonderful it is:
“A Sky of Honey is 42 minutes in length. It's lushly romantic as it meditates on the passing of 24 hours. Its prelude is a short deeply atmospheric piece with the sounds of birds singing, and her son (who is "the Sun" according to the credits) intones, "Mummy...Daddy/The day is full of birds/Sounds like they're saying words." And "Prologue" begins with her piano, a chanted viol, and Bush crooning to romantic love, the joy of marriage and nature communing, and the deep romance of everyday life. There's drama, stillness, joy, and quiet as its goes on, but it's all held within, as in "An Architect's Dream," where the protagonist encounters a working street painter going about his work in changing light: "The flick of a wrist/Twisting down to the hips/So the lovers begin with a kiss...." Loops, Eberhard Weber's fretless bass, drifting keyboards, and a relaxed delivery create an erotic tension, in beauty and in casual voyeurism.
"Sunset" has Bush approaching jazz, but it doesn't swing so much as it engages the form. Her voice digging into her piano alternates between lower-register enunciation and a near falsetto in the choruses. There is a sense of utter fascination with the world as it moves toward darkness, and the singer is enthralled as the sun climbs into bed, before it streams into "Sunset," a gorgeous flamenco guitar and percussion-driven call-and-response choral piece -- it's literally enthralling. It is followed by a piece of evening called "Somewhere Between," in which lovers take in the beginning of night.
As "Nocturne" commences, shadows, stars, the beach, and the ocean accompany two lovers who dive down deep into one another and the surf. Rhythms assert themselves as the divers go deeper and the band kicks up: funky electric guitars pulse along with the layers of keyboards, journeying until just before sunup. But it is on the title track that Bush gives listeners her greatest surprise. Dawn is breaking and she greets the day with a vengeance. Manic, crunchy guitars play power chords as sequencers and synths make the dynamics shift and swirl. In her higher register, Bush shouts, croons, and trills against and above the band's force.
Nothing much happens on Aerial except the passing of a day, as noted by the one who engages it in the process of being witnessed, yet it reveals much about the interior and natural worlds and expresses spiritual gratitude for everyday life. Musically, this is what listeners have come to expect from Bush at her best -- a finely constructed set of songs that engage without regard for anything else happening in the world of pop music. There's no pushing of the envelope because there doesn't need to be. Aerial is rooted in Kate Bush's oeuvre, with grace, flair, elegance, and an obsessive, stubborn attention to detail. What gets created for the listener is an ordinary world, full of magic; it lies inside one's dwelling in overlooked and inhabited spaces, and outside, from the backyard and out through the gate into wonder”.
One of Kate Bush’s best works and most important albums, Aerial’s seventeenth anniversary next week should be celebrated and noted fondly. Let us hope that, if we do get to a point when there has been twelve years since Bush’s latest album (2023), that we get something from her. She did need that gap between albums, and she returned to music sounding a lot more positive and fulfilled. Aerial demonstrates that the musical pioneer and icon was…
AS wonderful as ever.