| Product: |
Aerial - Kate Bush |
| Date: |
21/06/08 (135 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Sumptuous production, lyrical
Disadvantages: Too self-indulgent, pretentious, corny
It all happened when I was painting my sister's kitchen. In search of some music to accompany my charitable labours I was leafing through her CD rack for a suitable spin. There wasn't much to choose from (our musical tastes have always been at odds) but I did notice some Bowie and was about to load him up when I saw it: a pleasantly packaged CD just sitting there, all shiny and new, recently purchased, no doubt. My heart stopped for a moment as the name leapt out at me: Kate Bush. I should have just hidden the thing, put the encounter out of my mind and let Bowie sooth the shock from my quaking bones, but I couldn't. The Imp of the Perverse was sitting on my shoulder and egging me on. I just had to listen to it. At least I was alone; no-one would ever know. So with teeth clenched in a fearful grimace I loaded the first disc and waited for the music to begin. That awful moment seemed to last forever.
***
The problem was that Kate and me had history. I had been there in 1978 when the precocious teen had first stepped forwards into the limelight. Her first album, 'The Kick Inside', had given birth to a single, 'Wuthering Heights', that had traumatised me. The combination of her shrieking voice and wild, oh-so-arty dance routines was quite shocking. Was the girl mad? Not according to some girls of my acquaintance. They loved her. Everyone, it seems, loved her. A second album, 'Lionheart', produced an even more horrible single, 'Wow', so I sloped off, grumbling under my breath and vowing never to let her squawking plague my ears ever again. Such was the intolerance of youth. Kate, meanwhile, developed ever onwards.
Throughout the 1980s she released a series of albums based on a number of ambitious themes. She was also very keen from the outset to take control of the production on her work. In 1980 she co-produced her third album, 'Never For Ever', an album that gave her another hit single, 'Babooshka', and two years later we saw the release of her first solo-produced work, 'Dreaming'. But it was with 'Hounds Of Love' in 1985, a chart-topper, and with the seminal single that came from it, 'Running Up That Hill', that Kate Bush really came into her own, gaining plaudits from every corner and also increased attention in the US. More success followed a year later with the single, 'Don't Give Up', a collaboration with Peter Gabriel, with whom she had worked some years previously. In 89 'The Sensual World' became her biggest US seller and in 93 a critically-acclaimed ensemble-piece, 'The Red Shoes', appeared. Then nothing... Kate Bush simply disappeared from sight.
Rumours abounded about her Garboesque existence but in reality she was just enjoying a few years of unhurried domesticity. Never a fan of the spotlight, she lived quietly with her partner and young son, at the same time, no doubt, slowly developing ideas for her next opus. That much-anticipated work, called 'Aerial', appeared in 2005.
(And this is where we return to that suburban kitchen, the smell of fear and wet paint in the air and a grimacing painter poised stupidly half-way up a step ladder... )
***
CD 1 - 'A Sea of Honey'
1) King of the Mountain - This track is a dreamy affair with an interesting electro rhythm that gives way to a more percussive and dramatic chorus. The mournful lyric seems to be a lament for the lonely isolation enjoyed by Elvis Presley. This was the only single released from the album. 8/10
2) TT - A sumptuous Hammond Organ melody accompanies a strange lyric about the number, Pi. It's an odd subject, but if the voices are simply enjoyed as background rhythm, with any 'meaning' set aside, then the song works well enough. 6/10
3) Bertie - A Renaissance-style tribute to her young son. Period guitar, viola and percussion are backed by a humdrum lyric. Pleasant. 5/10
4) Mrs. Bartolozzi - A simple song of piano and gentle voice that is, at the same time, quite atmospheric and deep. The whimsical lyric seems to describe a washer woman with disappointments. Or is it about childhood? Suicide perhaps? Who knows? It doesn't matter. It's a good song. 7/10
5) How to be Invisible - A forgettable melody that for some reason reminds me of early Velvet Underground: jangly guitar and chugging rhythm. The lyric is enjoyably poetic. 6/10
6) Joanni - A rather corny song about Joan of Arc that is brightened up near the end by a spot of musical whimsy. 5/10
7) A Coral Room - Another simple piano melody accompanying an indulgent lyric, this time about lost loved ones. I think we're supposed to find it moving but I just find it tedious. Too introspective. 5/10
***
CD 2 - 'A Sky of Honey'
Whereas the first disc was a collection of unrelated songs, Disc No 2 is, apparently, to be regarded as a 'suite'. What is it all about? I'm not altogether sure but it seems to revolve around a theme of day into night, dreams, colour, impermanence and, of course, birdsong.
1) Prelude - A short burst of piano and bird song. "The day is full of birds, Sounds like they're saying words..". Perhaps.
2) Prologue - A languid and, at times, beautiful piano conjures an image of summer afternoons. However, Bush's voice at times borders on the dreary. "What a scene," she is saying. "Shall we paint it?"
3) An Architect's Dream - A slightly more up-tempo affair with a sequenced beat and Rolf Harris' voice intruding at the beginning. The lyric is quite clever: the ever changing light and the fluid nature of the painter's medium. Or is that just me?
4) The Painter's Link - Rolf Harris is back for a short word. All his colours are running. The chorus agrees. See what the colours have become: a wonderful sunset. Cue sunset.
5) Sunset - An ode to sunsets, colours and blackbirds. More lazy piano, this time with some pleasant slappy double bass. The lyric is again quite clever. The song livens up towards the end with some busy Spanish guitar. The backing vocal sounded familiar, then it hit me: Gary Brooker, Procal Harum, 'Whiter Shade of Pale' and all that. He played organ on the earlier track, Pi.
6) Aerial Tal - A short burst of blackbird song, mimicked by a synthesised human voice. A pigeon takes over from the blackbird to end the track. Too much studio time for all involved methinks.
7) Somewhere in Between - A pleasant dreamy song about the half light, somewhere in between night and day, sleep and wakefulness. Sumptuous and quite enjoyable, with Mr Brooker's voice hovering again in the background.
8) Nocturn - More pleasantness that is now now beginning to border on the tedious. A snappy drum carries us along with some synthy backgrounds and another rambling lyric about something or other; midnight swims into dreamland, I think. "The light is a changing", sayeth the chorus at the end.
9) Aerial - The dawn has come. (At last!) The blackbird is back too. Let's all laugh joyously. Another up-tempo track, but yet again all too forgettable. It has also just dawned on me that Ms Bush's voice has never really changed tone throughout. But no matter. It's all over now.
***
Well, 'Aerial' was a long time coming and when it DID come it was very well received. A million sales in a matter of months and two 'Brit' nominations (whatever that means). The trouble with writing about an album like this is that if people are predisposed to like it then they will indeed like it whatever anyone else says, and that's fair enough. Bush fans loved it: Kate's a genius, don't you know? But if you come at it without any baggage or expectations then it just doesn't sound like a work of much note. It's very pleasant and clever and it is beautifully produced, but... It is just so desperately bland. As I said before, Kate Bush's voice is monotonous throughout, and that needn't have been the case; there is no doubt she has the range to make a show.
Disc 2, frankly, is a self-indulgent wallow. I have read critics who shower it with superlatives, but really. Profound? Not on your life. It is schoolgirl poetry: vague, vacuous and self-absorbed, just like 'Wuthering Heights' was way back when. Yet it IS perfectly good mood music, something to play in the background while you go about your business, but that is all it is. Sometimes a musician can have too much time to plan and to tinker. When prog rockers took themselves off to their Welsh cottages in the seventies to write their 'suites' dedicated to Ann Boleyn or the Great God Pan they didn't give us anything profound or enlightening; they gave us Punk Rock, and thank the Great God Pan for that.
There is no doubting that Kate Bush can write a song or two. I just wish she'd done more of that here. Despite my claims of Bush loathing I actually quite enjoyed some of her work back in the mid 80s. She is lyrical (but easy does it) and she is musical. With 'Aerial' though, she clearly got sidetracked by her muse. If you ask me, that muse needs a stern talking to.
Summary: One for the fans.
|
|
