Kate Bush - new album

[blue]

This album is loathsome - I can't believe the great reviews it's been getting. I really think we've reached the point where Kate could literally put out a recording of herself reciting the phone book and it would be received as 'genius'. I can think of no other artist in the world who could put out work this poor and have people pat her on the back for it.

Aerial is pants, as far as I can hear. It's so painfully mediocre, so twee and glib and childish, it's just embarrassing to listen to. Especially for anyone who remembers what this artist was capable of as a young woman. What it most reminds me of is those end of year concerts at grammar school; there would always be a girl who could play the piano and loved poetry, who'd regale us with her amateurish attempts at songwriting. The lyrics would be laughable and the music poorly executed and obvious, but everyone would clap politely when it was over. That's just how this record sounds to me: like a 14 year old amateur attempting to do something 'profound' and 'poetic'.

The irony is that when she was actually 14 years old, Kate Bush was writing songs that pee on this drivel from a great height.

[~Michael]

She's not the aggressive innovator she was back in the '80s, that's for sure. She's seems to have accepted the common role of a middle aged person, where security and comfort are more of a factor than experimentation. That's ok by me, some people are comfortable easing into that role, some are stubbornly reluctant to do so.

About the great reviews: it's like a person has been living on food scraps for 12 years and then all of the sudden they are given a huge meal. It's hard to gauge the quality when you are dying for anything. It's a very knee-jerk reaction: people love Kate Bush, people wanted to her to make an album for years, people wanted it to be good, etc. Now I don't live in England, but it also seems to me that the British press will often takes a *great* deal of pride in any of their famous/notable musical artists from the UK, to the point where things get hyped in ridiculous ways.

[sound world]

I'm going to have to give this a listen.I've never thought much of KB,except around the 'Running up that hill' period which was mildly diverting musically;but one or two of my musician friends have been raving about 'Aerial' (interestingly they're longtime Bush fans).

Is it called 'Aerial' because there's a song about a washing machine?

[RobB]

Is it called 'Aerial' because there's a song about a washing machine?

Now that would be extremely amusing Dave had I not already read it about a hundred times on the Kate forums these past couple of months.

I mainly play "Aerial" in the car these days,especially "The Sky Of Honey" album which,Dave,I think you'll appreciate the most.
Very spacious,very relaxing,very melodic with nice low key jazzy arrangements bonding the tracks together.

After the depressing half baked The Red Shoes album, Aerial is a breath of fresh air.

[whatis]

Aerial is not loathsome, just a bit mediocre.

i keep listening to The Dreaming and of course the difference is there...Kate sounds like she's at her best in the 80's, her studio was built then and hasn't received an upgrade in 2 decades, she hasn't stepped outside her state and garden for years, she hasn't listened to trip-hop and rap and whatevers..she influenced others you know and ain't about to be influenced herself. almost all her predecessors are disbanded, minor royalty or dead.

i don't like a Sky of Honey, there's not a single track i can't find fault with, this disc is amateurish. now the sea of Honey is okay, just disconnected and incongruent. Pi has nothing to do with Elvis has nothing to do with Bertie has nothing to do with Birds, has it?

anyway i still think it's better than the Red Shoes, which was THE disappointment of my teenage years..

[Franck]

well well well, after a few listenings, obviously this album is not great. Nothing's innovative, lyrics are terribly weak (as far as I can judge...) like in Pi for instance...
I can't say I'm deceived, I been already for the Red shoes, but she could have done something else than letting herself go to such easy songs...

Nevertheless, I'm happy to have this album (thanx sweetheart) pleasant to listen to.

[blue]

Hmm. Five months on and Aerial is still pants, for me.

I've tried, really I have. But it's just so middle-aged-luvvie-new-age-hippy-dippy-school-fees-are-due stuff. Soccer mom on mogadon, if I had to put it in a genre.

Still, apparently there's an updated 'Whole Story' due at the end of this year, and maybe a DVD release of the videos. So we can relive the days before Kate jumped the shark. Some of those old promos are great, I dug out my 'Sensual World' video the other night. I love the way she protests in the interview segment about the 'very big misapprehension' people have of her as the Bronte and Tolkein loving pre-Raphaelite lady, then prances about through a forest in Renaissance costume in the SW promo.

[sound world]

'Soccer mom on mogadon'.RIGHT... Which other artists inhabit this musical category?
Now I know what my own genre must be,'table-tennis Dad on Nurofen'.

[blue]

Someone else remembers Mogadon. Cool.

Unfortunately I think Kate and Tori kind of constitute the 'soccer mom on mogadon' genre in its entirety right now. Aerial and The Beekeeper are its fearful twin pillars of zombieness.

[d.a.walker]

I do really like Aerial, though the beekeeper is not troubling me (asides from Sweet The Sting which is just super!).

One of my local CD haunts has just got in some rather fancy Japanese imports of Kate's albums, all double sided cds in replica vinyl sleeves, have been tempted to get the Sensual World, my favourite Kate album ever, but they are a bit pricey...

[aermancer]

Just throwing this out there...I'm sure Kate has listened to Tori Amos, Massive Attack, Radiohead, etc. and realized that the sound has completely changed since her last album and certainly since Sensual World.

But maybe she saw things with a much larger scope...with people looking back on her career say, 50 years, 100 years from now. She's spent her entire career developing a certain sound that runs through all her albums, so why change it to make a quick buck? I for one don't really care how bands of the '50's and '60's adapted their sound to the sound-of-the-times as their career progressed.

Maybe she's a genius. If my theory is right, I commend her a bit for giving a big "fuck you i pushed the limits, so have you, so why do i have to change" to the innovative music of today.

I think you have to reacess your music after every album otherwise your just going to write the same thing that you've written on the last one. And for me, each album should be going somewhere different, otherwise there's not really much point in making a new album.

[paul-pgss]

I guess that both Kate's as Tori's albums are different.
I didn't fell madly in love with Aerial or The Beekeeper. Both albums have their moments though. In Kate's case I think that she's just beginning to write songs again. I suspect that a new album will be better with more challenging songs. These tracks are just mediocre.

Tori's album has more good moments than Aerial. I like the things she does on some tracks: Sweet The Sting, Witness are examples of Tori developing. I think that Sony wanted a MOR-record from her with tracks that could be played on the radio. Tracks like Sleeps With Butterflies and Cars And Guitars are perfect background music.
I really hope that Tori will choose - like stina - to release her music herself. That would give her more freedom and hopefully a chance to record more adventurous songs.

[~Michael]

I've gotten more into Kate's 80s stuff recently. Seeing her music videos for the first time was a bit of a shock.

[Crystallina]

I actually like the album, although I agree with others that the second half is much better.

My favorite Kate Bush album is still The Dreaming though.