Is "Aerial" good?

[David]

Consider the subtext, here: Data flows in streams. Streams of bits across a network, streams of consciousness, & even more rarely, streams of conciseness. But I digress.

Is "Aerial" good? I think that Kate Bush's new CD is quite good. This time around, domesticity is everywhere. The man who is usually present in her previous works is now no longer present, replaced by abstraction -- beautifully wrought abstraction. There's no "there" there, as Gertrude Stein said in "Everybody's Autobiography." Still, there's certainly something going on -- something that's personal, immediate & yet clearly processed through memory.

She's doing, in many ways, a 21st-century version of "Ulysses" on the second CD. This CD is a cross between Joyce, Wordsworth & Pink Floyd, amply demonstrating Kate's gift for moving between the sublime and the ridiculous. In one moment, she's as magnificent as pop music can be. At other times, she's daft as only she can be. Who else would think to foment tension between the microcosmic world of the domestic bower & the expansive, unbounded universe of a flight fantasy?

Plus, just like Stevie, she's clearly borrowing from some other English poets: namely George Meredith & his allegory "The Lark Ascending" -- although I think the album is suffused with the English ruralism of Vaughan Williams, whose c.1910 tone poem "The Lark Ascending" plots the aimless flight of birds in the swooping solo violin of a string orchestra.

See www.bartleby.com/246/680.html to read Meredith's poem. The last couplet is interesting, too, considering the title of Kate's album.

[BombaySapphire3]

I'd say Aerial is more than good it's great and IMO one of Kate's 3 best albums .Like so much of her work it takes some time to seep into the conciousness but once there it doesn't really leave.I also think it's one of the most Anglocentric albums I've ever heard but Kate is very much a creature of her homeland so that is not terribly surprising.She would have fit in well with the English Romantic era poets of the 19th century.There have not been many artists in rock that can realisticly pull off the type of concept album that is a Sea of Honey but Kate thankfully is one of them .Like a reviewer wrote .'This is what Pink Floyd would have sounded like in 1979 if Kate Bush were their lead vocalist.' But really Kate has copied no one. She follows her own muse and records what she wants to and on her own terms .It is others who copy her.One of the things about Aerial is it doesn't really sound like a 2005 album or a 1985 album .It is out of time and timeless it will still sound as beautiful and inspiring 20 years from now as it does today.

[HejiraNYC]

David, whatever you took before writing that post, I want some too!!

"Aerial" is probably one of the most frustrating Kate Bush albums either- all at once it contains some of her best recorded moments (the triptych of "Sunset," "Somewhere in Between" and "Nocturne") and some of her most disposable, lazy pieces of crap that would not have even qualified as B-sides 20 years ago ("Joanni," "King of the Mountain"). Lyrically she also goes from the sublime ("Mrs. Bartolozzi") to the inane ("Pi"). And although the entire Sky of Honey suite is gorgeously, shamelessly romantic, the subject matter is rather one-dimensional- the arc of afternoon to night to dawn as compared to a great painting in the sky. It is very much in the moment, a real-time narrative, full of present-tenses. But even though the lyrics are a bit precious at times, CD2 "Sky of Honey" is probably one of my all-time favorite recordings ever from anybody.

[eclipse]

I gotta get this to add to my Kate collection
Then I will post a review...

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

David, whatever you took before writing that post, I want some too!!

"Aerial" is probably one of the most frustrating Kate Bush albums either- all at once it contains some of her best recorded moments (the triptych of "Sunset," "Somewhere in Between" and "Nocturne") and some of her most disposable, lazy pieces of crap that would not have even qualified as B-sides 20 years ago ("Joanni," "King of the Mountain"). Lyrically she also goes from the sublime ("Mrs. Bartolozzi") to the inane ("Pi"). And although the entire Sky of Honey suite is gorgeously, shamelessly romantic, the subject matter is rather one-dimensional- the arc of afternoon to night to dawn as compared to a great painting in the sky. It is very much in the moment, a real-time narrative, full of present-tenses. But even though the lyrics are a bit precious at times, CD2 "Sky of Honey" is probably one of my all-time favorite recordings ever from anybody.

I don't think I could categorize Joanni and King of The Mountain as disposable pieces of crap .They are very intricately produced and atmospheric with understated vocals .Sure they don't have the same energy as some of the songs on HOL or The Dreaming but Kate is older and in a different place and the energy of the album is not the same as when she was in her mid 20s.Aerial is one of the 5 or 6 most critcially lauded albums of the year and in this case I think it is merited .I'm not generally one to call a peice of sh*T a birthday cake and the album is not without it flaws but as one critic noted even Kate's flaws are more interesting than other artists.I agree about Sea of Honey though .to me it's the most mesmerizing listen since Roxy Music's Avalon and has some similarities to that album.

[David]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

I don't think I could categorize Joanni and King of The Mountain as disposable pieces of crap .They are very intricately produced and atmospheric with understated vocals .Sure they don't have the same energy as some of the songs on HOL or The Dreaming but Kate is older and in a different place and the energy of the album is not the same as when she was in her mid 20s.Aerial is one of the 5 or 6 most critcially lauded albums of the year and in this case I think it is merited .I'm not generally one to call a peice of sh*T a birthday cake and the album is not without it flaws but as one critic noted even Kate's flaws are more interesting than other artists.I agree about Sea of Honey though .to me it's the most mesmerizing listen since Roxy Music's Avalon and has some similarities to that album.

But do you guys agree with me about the origin of the album title?

I think the Meredith work probably serves as an ur-text for "Aerial."