Well Aerial has been out a week now. What do you guys think of Kate’s new double album?
I’ve only seen the video for “King Of The Mountain.” Which I thought was great - reminded me of Sensual World. How does that single compare to the rest of Aerial?
I haven’t listened enough times to give a full comment, but it feels to me a bit like this could have been a truely fantastic single album, but as a double it has too many “silly” bits that would be better as B-sides to singles. Mrs Badcrumble (ok Mrs Bartolozzi) just felt silly and overlong on first listening. I don’t think even godess Kate can get away with rhyming “shirty” and “dirty” in a song about washing machines (ok romance within a very domestic marriage).
I listened to both discs back-to-back on Sunday. Except for bits and pieces of “King Of The Mountain” I can’t remember how any other single piece of music on it goes. None of the melodies stuck, if in fact there were any. I asked my wife, the rabid Kate fan, what she thought, and her reply was, “about 3/4 of the way through, I was hoping it would be over soon.” Then my friend from Canada called, and was raving about the new Kate, and how he was going to use about 5 tracks from it in the clubs (he’s a DJ). I couldn’t think of a danceable tune I heard on it, at least that was driven by rhythm that didn’t shift moods or tempos or didn’t drop out entirely to feature a musical twist. Maybe I’m just old.
I thought it was dry as melba toast. As fishbicycle pointed out, the melodies weren’t strong enough. There was a lack of hookiness throughout and the birds were really twee. It could be a grower and not a shower, but I’m not sure I want to invest the time to dive that deep into it.
Wow, I just saw this thread.
If you’re open to it in the first place (meaning if you’ve liked Kate before and/or if you like other intelligent female artists) it really does reward patience and perseverance. It’s a very subtle album. There are wonderful melodies, and it’s packed with details, but they don’t reveal themselves right away. This is Kate Bush we’re talking about, not Britney Spears. Kate takes a little more work to appreciate, but it’s worth the effort to try.
It’s the kind of album that will last, in that you’ll notice new things on every listen, unlike most albums where you know everything there is to know on the first listen.
It’s a very relaxed and, for the most part, happy album. It’s not dark and brooding like The Dreaming (still my favorite Kate album to date), but it’s as layered and textured as TD. The fact that it’s slower and lazily makes its way through the song cycle on A Sky of Honey is going to seem “boring” if the listener isn’t in the right mood.
To illustrate how there are deeper layers on the album, Bippy called “Mrs. Bartolozzi,” silly and overlong, but it’s one of the most beautiful and saddest songs I’ve ever heard. Kate said in an interview that it was one of the heaviest songs she’d ever written and I can see why.
The character in the song has just become a widow (he died at home, and the people who came to get the body tracked in mud), and she has to gather up the clothes her dead husband left and wash them. One of the hardest tasks after a loved one dies is gathering up their belongings and figuring out what to do with them. When someone you live with dies, there are going to be dirty clothes to wash before they’re put or given away. I’ve never heard this subject tackled in a song before.
Sometimes when you’re sitting in front of the washing machine or doing some other mindless housework, your mind starts wandering and that’s what happens in this song. Mrs. B is staring at the washing machine and having a reverie, with various thoughts about her and her husband’s life and love. Some thoughts are random and unrelated (like saying “washing machine”-- taking a word or phrase and saying it over and over until it becomes meaningless or like some alien words), some of the thoughts are very erotic and powerful, some are breathtakingly sad, such as when she looks out the window and sees one of his shirts on the clothesline, its arms whipped up in the air by the wind.
I think I see you standing outside
But it’s just your shirt
Hanging on the washing line
Waving it’s arm as the wind blows by
And it looks so alive
It’s such a beautiful song. When the faint chorus singing the detergent ad jingle plays in the background as if on a TV in the next room (“get that dirty shirty clean”) it’s a reminder that no matter how sad you are, no matter what tragedies have affected your own sphere, life outside goes on and doesn’t generally care about your woes and sorrows. Even the silly-seeming jingle is meaningful and interesting and very very sad.
“King of the Mountain” is probably the catchiest song if I twist my brain to try and be objective, but I think there are several catchy songs on the album, such as “How To Be Invisible,” “Somewhere In Between,” “Sunset,” “Aerial” and, ok, I’m weird, “Pi” and “Bertie” are catchy to me.
Thing is, why does an album have to have catchy songs on it? Why does an album have to have songs you can dance to? Why does an album have to have songs that will make great singles? “Sunset” would make a lousy single, but it’s a great, great song. Why does an album have to have hookiness?
I don’t know what twee means, but A Sky of Honey is a song cycle that goes through the course of one day, from afternoon to the next morning. She lives in the country. There are birds. Some of the bird bits are amazing, such as “Aerial Tal” where Kate does Indian drum talk to the bird’s song. Has it ever been done before on a pop album?
I’m a fan, and so of course I’m biased, but I’ve been amazed at all the detail I’ve found, little things like an instrument I heard the 4th time I listened, a turn of phrase I didn’t catch right away, a lilt in how she sings certain words, so many many things. I’ve heard it probably 10 times, and I’m still hearing new things each time.
It’s definitely a grower. Aerial is an intelligent, interesting, subtle and beautiful album.
If anyone wants to read various reviews, my husband has been adding them to Gaffaweb, in the Reaching Out section (both the Interviews and the Reviews sections have Aerial content).
I’ve only listened to the first five tracks, and I am underwhelmed.
There wasn’t any music or singing that reached me. Music can be subtle, bright, florid, romantic, or restrained. But it has to reach me. None of what I’ve heard so far on this album has any resonance with me at all.
I have a lot more to listen to, but so far, nothing.