Aerial (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Aerial
Type = studio
Artist = Kate Bush


Released = November 2005
Recorded = 1999–2005
Genre = Alternative rock, art rock, pop rock
Length = 80:19
Label = EMI
Producer = Kate Bush
Reviews =
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/8750532/katebush?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1 link]
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:80otk6axykrk link]
*PopMatters (7/10) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/b/bushkate-aerial.shtml link]
*"Billboard" (favorable) [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/reviews/album_review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001434283 link]
*"Q magazine" Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.q4music.com link]
*Mojo Rating|5|5 [http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/bushkate/aerial Link]
*"The Independent" Rating|5|5 [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article324459.ece link]
*"New York Daily News" (favorable) [http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/362458p-308680c.html link]
*"The Observer" Rating|5|5 [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/reviews/story/0,13875,1590547,00.html link]
*BBC (very favourable) [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/fprg/ link]
Last album = "Live at the Hammersmith Odeon"
(1994)
This album = "Aerial"
(2005)
Next album =

Kate Bush's eighth studio album, "Aerial", is a two-disc set released on November 7, 2005. It was her first album since 1993. Musicians contributing to the album include former Procol Harum keyboardist Gary Brooker, drummer Steve Sanger, long-time Kate Bush collaborator Michael Kamen, Brazilian percussionist Bosco D'Oliveira, and Rolf Harris.

Overview

Bush's eighth studio album, "Aerial", is a two-disc set released in November 2005, after a twelve year gap since her previous album, in which Bush devoted her time to raising a family. The anticipation leading up to the album's release was immense, with press articles devoted to Bush being printed months before the album's release.cite web | last = | first = | authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Kate Bush: The Sequel| work =| publisher = The Independent| date =| url = http://gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_UK1.html | format =| doi = 2005-09-02 | accessdate = 2007-04-03 ]

"Aerial" is one of Bush's most critically acclaimed albums.cite web | last =| first =| authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Aerial | work = | publisher = MetaCritic.com | date =| url = http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/bushkate/aerial#critics | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-04-03 ] Musically, the album is a multi-layered work, incorporating elements of Folk, Renaissance, classical, reggae, and samba into an adventurous pop style. As on 1985's "Hounds of Love", the double album is split into two sections. The first disc, subtitled "A Sea of Honey", features a set of seemingly unrelated (in theme) songs including the single "King of the Mountain", a Renaissance-style ode to her son "Bertie", and "Joanni", based on the story of Joan of Arc. In the song "$pi$", Bush sings the number to its 137th decimal place (though she omits, for an unknown reason, the 79th to 100th decimal places). The piano and vocal piece "A Coral Room", which deals with the loss of Bush's mother and the passage of time, was hailed by commercial media reviewers as "stunning" in its simplicity,cite web | last =Hilton| first =Boyd| authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Aerial review | work = | publisher = Heat | date =| url = http://gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_UK5.html | format = | doi = 2005-11-05 | accessdate = 2007-04-04 ] "profoundly moving"cite web | last =Thompson| first =Ben| authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Ben Thompson reviews an album of two halves | work = | publisher = Sunday Telegraph | date =| url = http://gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_UK5.html | format = | doi = 2006-11-05 | accessdate = 2007-04-03 ] and the "one of the most beautiful" pieces Bush has ever recorded.cite web | last =Thompson| first =Ben| authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Ben Thompson reviews an album of two halves | work = | publisher = Sunday Telegraph | date =| url = http://gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_UK5.html | format = | doi = 2006-11-05 | accessdate = 2007-04-03 ] The second disc, subtitled "A Sky of Honey", features thematically related songs linked by the presence of birdsong, (the album's cover art, which seems to show a mountain range at sunset over a sea is in fact a waveform of a blackbird song). All of the pieces in this suite refer or allude to air or sky in their lyrical content. The song "Nocturn", which starts with a soft rhythm not unlike the sound of waves at seaside, stands as a metaphorical reference to lovemaking, particularly in its climactic ending bars. "A Sky of Honey" features Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo on one track as he had done on her 1982 single "The Dreaming" (Harris also provides vocals as "The Painter" on 'An Architect's Dream' and 'The Painter's Link' on the disc) and seems to feature in the video for "King of the Mountain" dancing with a white jumpsuit. Other artists guesting on the album include Peter Erskine, Eberhard Weber, Lol Creme and Procol Harum's Gary Brooker. Two tracks feature string arrangements by Michael Kamen, performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.cite web | last =Thrills| first =Adrian| authorlink =| coauthors = | title = Is this great Kate - or just Pi in the sky? | work = | publisher = Daily Mail | date =| url = http://gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_UK5.html | format = | doi = 2006-11-04 | accessdate = 2007-04-03 ]

On November 13, 2005, "Aerial" entered the UK Albums Chart at number three, selling more than 90,000 copies in its first week on release. Within five months of its release, the album had sold more than 1.1 million copies worldwide, despite very little publicity by Bush herself (she conducted only a handful of magazine and radio interviews).

On January 10, 2006, Bush was nominated for two BRIT Awards for Best British Female Solo Artist and Best British Album for "Aerial." [cite web|url=http://brits.co.uk/search/?q=kate+bush|title=Search results for Kate Bush|publisher=The BRIT Awards|accessdate=2007-02-15|] On January 27, it went up against "Demon Days" by Gorillaz and "Coles Corner" by Richard Hawley in the pop category of the South Bank Show's annual arts awards, but was beaten by Hawley. UK music magazine "Mojo" named it their third best album of 2005, behind Antony and the Johnsons' "I Am a Bird Now" and "Funeral" by Arcade Fire.

Single

The only single from the album was "King of the Mountain". The song makes references to Elvis Presley and the film "Citizen Kane". The track was played for the first time on BBC Radio 2 on September 212005, and was made available for download as of September 27. The single peaked at number four on the UK singles chart, giving Bush her first top five hit for twenty years and her third highest ever chart placing. The song also made number six on the UK Downloads chart.

Track listing

All songs written by Kate Bush.

Disc one: "A Sea of Honey"

#"King of the Mountain" – 4:53
#"$pi$" – 6:09
#"Bertie" – 4:18
#"Mrs. Bartolozzi" – 5:58
#"How to Be Invisible" – 5:32
#"Joanni" – 4:56
#"A Coral Room" – 6:12

Disc two: "A Sky of Honey"

#"Prelude" – 1:26
#"Prologue" – 5:42
#"An Architect's Dream" – 4:50
#"The Painter's Link" – 1:35
#"Sunset" – 5:58
#"Aerial Tal" – 1:01
#"Somewhere in Between" – 5:00
#"Nocturn" – 8:34
#"Aerial" – 7:52

Chart Performance

Personnel

*Kate Bush – vocals, piano and keyboards
*Peter Erskine, Stuart Elliot, Steve Sanger – drums
*Eberhard Weber, John Giblin, Del Palmer – bass
*Bosco D'Oliveira – percussion
*Dan McIntosh – electric and acoustic guitar
*Gary Brooker – hammond organ
*Rolf Harris – didgeridoo, The Painter
*Lol Creme, Gary Brooker, Paddy Bush – backing vocals
*Michael Wood – male vocal on "A Coral Room"
*Chris Hall – accordion
*Richard Campbell, Susan Pell – viols
*Eligio Quinteira – renaissance guitar
*Robin Jeffrey – renaissance percussion
*Bertie – The Sun
*Del Palmer – recording and mixing engineer
*James Guthrie – mastering
*Bill Dunne – "Bertie" string arrangement
*Michael Kamen, London Metropolitan Orchestra – orchestral arrangements; conducted by Michael Kamen at Abbey Road Studios
*Simon Rhodes – engineer
*Chris Bolster – assistant engineer
*Josephine Bartolinni – Italian translation

Miscellanea

* "King of the Mountain" was the first track to be written on the album, back in 1996, nine years before it was eventually released.
* The painting credited to "James Southall" in the centre spread of the album booklet is actually a cropped and mirror-reversed (flopped) image of "Fishermen and Boat" by Joseph Edward Southall (1861-1944), painted in 1923. [http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/southall/paintings/11.html] The name AERIAL has also been added to the side of the boat.

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,16373,1601608,00.html 'I'm not some weirdo recluse'] ("The Guardian" 28 October 2005)
* [http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/artslife/story.html?id=dfad5a0f-0d32-4852-aab6-c6f3f7d74ac6&k=83898 This Bush's mission finally gets accomplished] ("National Post" 22 December 2005)

ee also

*Kate Bush discography
*Kate Bush's Awards and Nominations

References