Album Title: Aerial
Artist: Kate Bush
Nationality: British
Year: 2005
Subgenre: "Progressive pop"
Player(s): Kate Bush (Vocals, Piano, Keyboards), Dan McIntosh (Guitars), Gary Brooker (Hammond), Peter Erskine/Steve Elliot/Pete Sanger (Drums), Eberhard Weber/John Giblin/Del Palmer (Bass), Rolf Harris (Didgeridoo and male vocal on “The Painters Link”), Chris Hall (Accordion)
Familiarity: I've got a bunch of her albums. She doesn't get spun as much as others, but she's a close acquaintance for sure lol...
Favourite Track(s): 'Aerial' or maybe 'Pi'
Why? I love Kate when she really blasts off into the stratosphere with her voice and arrangements (which she does to great effect on the closer) and her occasional purely acoustic forays (like 'Pi'). There's really no weak track here, but these two songs in particular are on another level.
Least favorite Track(s): *shrug*
Why? A good album shouldn't have too many weak cuts...and there's nothing here that really qualifies as weak.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Hard to have preconceptions about Kate Bush when she's basically a living example of how someone can continually evolve their music over friggin' decades and remain fresh.
Factoids you'd like to share? She was the first woman in the U.K. to top the charts with a self-written song ('Wuthering Heights'). It's a well known fact, but still very interesting nevertheless.
End Impression: A great, great album. Maybe among her best?
Comments: I can't say much about Kate that others haven't already remarked upon, but she's definitely the definitive "progressive" female as far as music over the last couple decades is concerned. She was kicking ass and putting out complicated, curiously compelling records long before people like
Tori Amos or
Bjork or
Lady Gaga even learned to read music, and she's more tuneful than all of 'em put together to boot. 'Aerial' is neither her best album nor most conventional, but sits in territory that might qualify it as one of the better gateway albums for 21st century folk to leap headfirst into her unusual world. It's certainly less sinister than
The Dreaming,
Never For Ever or T
he Kick Inside, so that in itself scores points on the accessibility scale as far as I'm concerned.
Rating: 4.0 - Excellent!